The Queen of Hearts

Chapters

The Price of Failure
A Special Visitor
A Canterlot Couple
Dating Damsels in Distress for Dragon Dummies
Sweet Candy and Bitter Memories
The Greatest Discovery Ever
A Change in Opinion
Lessons in Love and Pain
Mare vs. Machine
Identity Crisis
Feeling Blue
Closer than Most
Role Reversal
Red Hearts, Blue Moon
Chrysalis’s Concoction of Catastrophe
Date of Deceit
This Day Will Be Perfect: Take Two
No More Secrets
Only the Beginning
Bonus: A Lesson of the Ages
A New Scheme
The Queen and Twi (and her Friends)
Bonus: Kill the Wabbit

The Price of Failure

Chrysalis had spent the first week settling into Ponyville before going forward with her operation. She had been busy with purchasing furniture and decorations for her house as well as getting props for her upcoming dating business. The main room downstairs now had a large desk for her, two couches that were both to the left and right of her against the walls with a table in between them, and a large, red carpet in the center of the room that was in the shape of a heart. She also now had a sign over her building which read, “Cupid’s Arrow.” It was a long and grueling task, but she needed it to be done as soon as possible if she wanted to go home. To keep on the safe side, she decided to actually pay for things with money since mind controlling so many ponies would just drain her too much and even be suspicious.

Had Chrysalis known that Twilight and her friends were in town, she would have never gone to Ponyville. It was too late to ditch now since she had just purchased the house and suddenly leaving town after just paying for it would not play well with the changeling paranoia gripping Equestria’s ponies. She convinced herself not to fear Twilight, understanding that the only reason she was caught at the wedding was because she took the place of a pony that Twilight knew for years and did not do a very good job imitating her. Now she had a completely original identity and she could act however she wanted without anypony giving her a second thought. However, she felt that living here would serve as a tactical advantage as she would learn all she could about her enemies, especially since they were known as the Elements of Harmony, whatever that meant. She also couldn’t resist seeing the look on Twilight’s face when she would discover that Chrysalis had outsmarted her.

She had “befriended” Twilight and her friends and received certain favors from them. Twilight gave her any book she asked for with a discount included, Pinkie and Applejack were more than willing to offer her free food, and Rarity had even taken her to the spa once as a show of good will. It was dangerous to make constant contact with them, but she just loved taking advantage of others. Although they were her greatest enemies, they had not a clue about her true identity. She had gained their trust.

Sadly, the good times came to an immediate end. She had finally gotten her dating business started and had been working for almost two weeks. Her idea was to have ponies come in and submit a profile, which would describe them and saying what kind of special somepony they were looking for. It seemed so simple to her at first. She would just find one profile that matched what another pony was looking for. But there were problems. Often when she got them to meet, one pony would consider the other to be ideal but the other wouldn’t. Another common problem was that ponies would make up stuff for their profile and when the other pony found out, they would barge in and scream for a refund. She never took off. Her batting average so far was a fat zero. Her business had taken an impact and she was now receiving fewer customers by the day due to her null success rate. Chrysalis’s scheme was failing and she was becoming very frustrated that the plan wasn’t working.

At the moment, she was talking with one of the customers, one who came in every day since she opened. For some reason Chrysalis couldn’t put her hoof on, he gave her the creeps. “For the last time, no jam making mare has submitted a profile here! I told you if one ever did so, I would inform you. Now please get out!”

The stallion stood up and left, unsatisfied. From the group of the three other ponies in the room, a dark blue earth pony stallion made his way over to the chair and sat right in front of her desk. Chrysalis rubbed her temples. She didn’t want to deal with anymore customers for today, but this was something she had to do. She would strike gold at any time now. “Hello, sir. Have you submitted a profile yet?”

“I don’t believe I have, beautiful.” The way he spoke and looked at her was making her temples throb. She didn’t like having any pony hitting on her, which was often. Even though this would be something she would obviously need to survive, she only did this sort of thing in other forms. She didn’t want to risk blowing her cover by hitting on many stallions as Cherub.

Chrysalis reached into a drawer and pulled out a piece of paper, which she placed in front of him. “Take this and fill in all the blanks and return to me when you have done so. Now please have a seat on one of the couches.” The earth pony made his way to the couch and quickly began filling out his form. “Next!” A pegasus mare stood from one of the seats and approached her. “Hello, ma’am, have you-”

The stallion suddenly rushed over and took the seat before she could sit. “Finished!”

“Oh! I’m sorry, but I need to deal with him first,” Chrysalis objected to the mare who had just come over. The mare became very agitated and sat back on the couch without saying a word. Chrysalis then turned her attention onto the very eager stallion, pulling the paper up to her face. “Alright, let’s see what you have written...Soul Mate?” She couldn’t believe that the name was real. “Your occupation says you’re a…lady killer…”

“What can I say?” he said with incredible smug. “It’s what I do for a living.”

“I see. Now for your preferences, you said you want a red unicorn that runs a dating ser…wait a minute.” Chrysalis had caught on to what he was trying to do and became annoyed. “Sir, I’m sorry, but I am not available.”

Soul Mate was still smiling at her. “Are you sure about that? Why don’t you look under hobbies?”

She reluctantly did so as she was curious of what he was up to. “For hobbies, you said you enjoy spending your time…what!?” Her face started burning and was now even redder than normal. “Sir, this is highly inappropriate!” The other ponies were now staring at them.

He chuckled amusingly. “What’s wrong with inappropriate? Can’t we just act like adults?” His voice began to play upon seduction and he was leaning across the desk. “You really need to loosen up, babe.”

“Babe!?” Enraged, she stood up and pointed a hoof outwards. “Sir, I demand that you leave right now before I call the authorities!”

Soul’s smug grin didn’t even shrink, which just ticked her off even more. “Well why don’t you leave first so I can admire your nice, big flank?”

“ALRIGHT, THAT’S IT!” Chrysalis’s patience had just run out. “WE’RE CLOSING EARLY! ALL OF YOU GET OUT!” With her magic, she grabbed every pony in the room and tossed them out the door. She closed her eyes and sighed, completely stressed that she had just driven out the little amount of costumers she was receiving. Her moment of silence was quickly over as there was a knock on the door. She stomped over and threw it open, only to find Soul Mate standing there. “What do you want now!?”

His expression hadn’t even changed in the slightest as he was not getting the hint. “Oh come on, don’t be like that. Don’t I at least get a goodbye kiss?”

Chrysalis was angry enough to huff smoke from her nostrils. She took a deep breath and suddenly gave him a modest grin. “Very well. Close your eyes and pucker up, pretty boy!” The pony then closed his eyes and leaned in, expecting his reward. She took a step back and with all over her magical might, she slammed the door right on his face. She heard him scream in pain and after a few moments it turned into a wailing cry that quickly faded away. Chrysalis would need to remember to clean the blood off the door later. She walked over back to her desk, sat down, and slammed her head on it.

“It’s official: I’m going to die as an outcast.”

Every following day became more and more stressful. These ponies were much more stubborn than she imagined. It seemed to her that she didn’t understand love as much as she assumed, despite constantly feeding off of it. She wanted to give up on what seemed like a pointless plan, but this was the only plan she had to return to her kingdom. She wished that she actually took her time and figured out how she was going to do things before actually starting.

She was glad that no changeling was around to see how big of a failure she had become. If Nymph were to ever find out, Chrysalis would never forgive herself. It was already sad enough that she took her throne and had her banished. Maybe she knew this would happen when she gave her this punishment. She must have known that Chrysalis would spend the rest of her life making futile efforts of trying to win back her people’s favor. It was certainly a fate worse than death.

If any of this was true, it wouldn’t be a big surprise considering how miserable Chrysalis made her. She guessed Nymph had some sympathy for her because of the earlier times in their lives. When they were younger, they were very close. She had considered herself to be Nymph’s mentor and they were best friends. They did almost everything together. They played in the courtyard, snuck out of the palace at night, raised parasprites, and even played pranks on some of the nobles. They even did these things as adults. These thoughts made her give a small smile of nostalgia.

Chrysalis immediately sat up and shook her head to shake out those thoughts. It was all in the past and right now only the present mattered. She would not give up as long as Nymph was queen. She would get her crown back or die trying. She thought hard about what she was going to do next. What she needed to do was to get a better idea of how to actually run a dating service. She knew where she could go to do research, but dreaded the idea of going because of who she would have to see. However, it was either that or fail and remain in exile. She grabbed a bag and went out, heading towards Ponyville’s library.

Chrysalis soon arrived outside of Golden Oaks Library, which was built into a tree. She always wondered how the place hadn’t burned down yet from a lightning storm, Twilight’s pet, or something similar. She then found herself chuckling at the thought of Twilight being trapped in a burning building. She went to the door and knocked loudly. After several seconds, the unicorn she hated more than any other opened the top half of the door. The way she smiled at her always made her feel bitter. “Hello, Cherub! Are you here to check out some books?”

“Indeed I am,” Chrysalis said in her friendliest tone while she attempted to avoid eye contact. She found Twilight to be hardest to act friendly around because of their history. “I need some books on love and dating. It’s a little embarrassing, but I’m afraid I’ve been getting a little rusty in the business.”

Twilight giggled. “There’s no need to feel embarrassed. Please come inside!” Chrysalis stepped inside the tree and started to look through the massive shelves, unsure of where to even start looking. “There’s no need to do that. Spike!”

Twilight’s pet dragon descended the stairs. “Yes, Twilight?”

“Cherub wants to check out any book we have about love. Could you get some for her?”

“Your number one assistant is on it!” Chrysalis watched as the little dragon pushed a ladder around and started scanning through the shelves. While she never gave much thought to him, she had always found it strange that he was a dragon who was living among ponies, let alone being an assistant to one.

She leaned towards Twilight and whispered into her ear, “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you ever find him? I’ve never seen a dragon in person.”

Twilight was still watching Spike as he worked. “He was a gift to me from Princess Celestia when I still lived in Canterlot. We’ve been together for so long that he’s kind of like a brother to me.”

The changeling gave Spike a perplexed look. “Aren’t dragons supposed to be dangerous? I’m surprised no pony has run him out of town yet.”

Twilight chuckled as she shook her head. “I don’t think that will ever happen. Spike is the sweetest, most polite dragon ever and he’s never done anything wrong. Well, except that time he turned into a giant dragon and started demolishing the town, but other than that, he's great.” Chrysalis really wished she was there when that occurred. Watching a bunch of ponies fleeing while being at the mercy of a giant monster would have been incredibly entertaining. Still, she thought it was a shame that Princess Celestia and Twilight could take a vicious creature like a dragon and make it lovable.

“Okay, I think I got them all.” Spike placed a stack of five books on the table and looked at Chrysalis. “Why do you even need these books anyway, Cherub? Aren’t you already good at this kind of thing?”

She laughed weakly. “Well yes, but these past few days I’ve been having some difficulties and need a refresher.”

“Like what?” Spiked asked, sounding obviously curious.

Biting her lip, Chrysalis spoke while avoiding eye contact. “Let’s just say I haven’t been in my prime lately and I’ve been making small errors.”

Spike snickered at her. “So in other words, you have no idea what you’re doing.”

“Be quiet, child.” she immediately replied, causing the small dragon to shrink. She let out a large sigh, feeling that she couldn’t be herself without freaking out somebody. “I’m sorry, but yes, it's true. I’ve been screwing up lately. I actually haven’t done anything like this in quite some time. I’m just having trouble finding the right match for each pony and while my dating advice could be a little better, I feel that it would be much easier if I was much more familiar with the ponies in this town or at least had more of them coming in so I could try making more matches.”

“Well we do have somepony who knows everypony well,” Twilight went up to her and placed a hoof her shoulder, “and you can find her right over at Sugarcube Corner,” she finished while pointing out the window.

“You mean that girl, Pinkie Pie.” Chrysalis remembered Pinkie’s eagerness to work with her, but she didn’t know if she was desperate enough to actually hire her.

“Yep! I know she seems like a hoofful, but I think she could be a really big help. She knows a lot about everypony is this town, so I’m sure she would know which ponies would be good for each other.”

She had told herself she would never consider having Pinkie work for her, but at this point she was willing enough to break her own promise. She just couldn’t find good matches for her clients as she was barely getting any. If Pinkie really had such an amazing memory, it could help her plan pull through. Pinkie could easily find anypony in the entire town who would satisfy the preferences of her customers and Chrysalis would be finished in no time. “I think you’re right, Twilight. I feel that I really could use her assistance.”

“That’s great! I’m sure Pinkie will be really excited when you tell her.”

Spike started to laugh again. “Hey Cherub, you sure you want to do that? I think being stuck in a room alone with Pinkie is considered to be a major health hazard.”

Chrysalis placed the bits on the table and stashed the books into her bag. “Thanks for your concern,” she said sarcastically. She looked at the library’s owner. “I appreciate your help, Twilight. You have been so good to me ever since I arrived.”

“I’m always happy to help. And you can keep those books for as long as you want. I just hope you find them helpful.”

“Me too. Now if you don’t mind, I must go to Sugarcube Corner.” After they said their goodbyes, she exited the tree.

Spike and Twilight stood in the doorway, watching her walk off into the distance. Spike looked at Twilight with a smile. “I give her a week before they send her into the mental hospital.”

The unicorn looked back at him, slightly angry. “Spike, that’s not a nice thing to say about somepony behind their back.” Her scowl suddenly became a smile. “She seems like the type of pony who could last two weeks.”

“Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! How may-“

“Pinkie Pie. Now,” Chrysalis demanded, interrupting Mrs. Cake.

The Cakes were surprised by her cold tone. “Uh…sure. Give me a moment.” Mr. Cake left the counter and stood at the bottom of the stairs. “Pinkie Pie,” he called, “you have a visitor!”

They could hear hoofsteps rapidly approaching as the party pony flew down the stairs and bounced right in front of him. “A visitor? For me? Who could it be? Is it one of my friends? Is it a customer? Is it the mail mare? Is it the police again?” She suddenly let out a gasp. “It’s not the ponies from last week, is it? Just because it’s somepony’s funeral doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate his birthday too!” She finally took notice of Chrysalis and let out a second gasp before sprinting in front of her. “Oh my gosh, it’s Cherub! It’s so great to see you! Did you want to see me about something?”

“Yes I do.” Every passing second she felt a knot in her stomach tighten. “You see, I wanted to talk to you about that job offer we discussed earlier.” Pinkie’s eyes became gigantic and she was grinning. “I have thought about it for some time…” Her eyes and grin grew more as she slowly leaned forward. Chrysalis was suddenly finding it difficult to speak as she looked back at her. “And I have decided that I would like to…” Pinkie’s face was now pressed against hers. She could feel her body shaking with excitement. “Hire…you…”

Pinkie suddenly let out a deafening scream and then started bouncing around her. “Yay! Now I can make ponies fall in love with sweets and each other! Can we start now? Please, please, please, please, please?” Chrysalis was worried that if she were to become any more excited, her head would explode.

Thankfully, Chrysalis had no intention of reopening for a few days. “Sorry, but there’s some things I need to take care of first.” The look on Pinkie’s face was as if she just had her heart broken. “Don’t worry, I promise that I’ll be ready by Monday. Is that okay?”

Pinkie started bouncing again. “Of course that’s okay!”

“Great! I’m going to go now. Just be sure to come by nine o’clock Monday morning.”

“Now just hold on a minute.” Mrs. Cake interrupted. Chrysalis huffed as she was just about to make her way out, not pleased that things weren’t going to be as simple as she planned. “Pinkie, what’s this about you taking another job?”

Pinkie started jumping in front of the couple. “I’m going to help ponies fall in love! Isn’t that great?”

“But what about you working here in Sugarcube Corner? We need you,” said Mr. Cake.

Chrysalis was ready to blow her lid since they were trying to take away the only one who could help her, but she managed to approach the situation professionally. “I’m sorry if this is so sudden, but this is something we have discussed a while ago. Pinkie has agreed to help me with my dating service.”

“But Pinkie works here as part of her agreement on living with us. She is a very valuable employee and babysitter and we don’t want to lose her.” Mr. Cake objected.

“She will only be working for me on the weekdays from nine to five. You can have her the rest of the week. Would that be okay?” Chrysalis bartered.

“I don’t know. We wouldn’t have her around as much and I’m sure she would want to spend the weekend with her friends,” said Mrs. Cake with worry in her voice.

“Please, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, I really want to do this,” pleaded Pinkie Pie. “I’ll work extra hard to make up for my absence.”

Chrysalis could see that they were still unsure about letting Pinkie go, so she decided to play the guilt card as her next trick. “Please, you two, I need her. If I don’t get any help, I will have no choice but to close.” she said in a depressing tone. “I spent my entire life savings coming here and I will be flat broke if I go out of business.” She looked at the Cakes with pleading eyes. “You wouldn’t want me to go homeless, would you?” She was happy to see that her acting was working on them as they exchanged uncomfortable looks.

“No, not at all. We will let you have her if she’s that important to you. It’s just that our business may be affected if she leaves. Pinkie is one of the best bakers around,” Mrs. Cake complemented.

Chrysalis thought for a moment. If money was their only concern, then the solution would be simple. “Perhaps we can make a compromise. I will gladly pay for some of these baked goods and provide them at my work area. I will give you a large split of the profits as well as advertise your store. Does that work for you two?”

The Cakes huddled together and began whispering to each other. Pinkie leaned in to try to hear what they were discussing, but Chrysalis pulled her away by her tail. After almost a minute, the Cakes turned back towards them. “Alright, you can have her. Just try not to cause too much trouble, Pinkie,” Mr. Cake ordered.

Chrysalis shook both their hooves. “You have my deepest thanks.” For once, she was actually sincere. She had just nearly considered mind controlling them into giving her up, which was risky.

Pinkie began to once again run around and cheer. “We are going to have so much fun together, Cherub!”

Chrysalis was already heading towards the exit. “We’ll see what happens. See you Monday, Pinkie.” She dreaded to think what would happen Monday morning.

Over the weekend, Chrysalis spent most of her time going through Twilight’s books. They couldn’t have possibly been any more boring, but she felt like she gained a fair amount of knowledge. She learned better questions to ask, more advice she could give ponies, and even reformed her profile sheets to carry a better mix of general and specific desires. She felt sure that things would now take a turn for the better for her.

Monday eventually rolled in and the changeling wasn’t sure if she was looking forward to this day. She needed Pinkie, but to be stuck with her felt like the negatives were outweighing the positives. The moment her clock struck nine, somepony knocked on her door. She didn’t even have to guess who it was. She knew this day was coming, but nothing she did could prepare her for it. Pinkie would be great help with her memory, but Chrysalis wasn’t sure if her sanity could withstand her constant presence. She stood up, went to the door, took a deep breath, and opened it. Pinkie was bouncing up and down with a lunchbox in her mouth and a tray of sweets on her back. “Hello, Pinkie. Are you ready for your first day?”

“I most certainly am!” She made her way inside and sat at a desk that Chrysalis had bought for her, which was to the right of her desk and was facing to the left.

“I’m glad to hear that.” Chrysalis took the tray off of her and placed in onto the table between the two couches. When she got back to her desk, she gave Pinkie a smile, trying to think positively about the situation. “Now your job will to be to greet the customers and once we’re ready, we will use your amazing knowledge to find them that special somepony. Got it?”

Pinkie nodded. “Got it!”

“Good.” Chrysalis resumed reading her book, which was a horror novel that she had purchased from Twilight. Before she even finished one page, she heard the bell on her door ring, meaning that a customer had entered. She looked up and saw a unicorn stallion entering. Before she could even open her mouth, Pinkie jumped right in front of him.

“Hi, mister! Are you looking for a marefriend!?” She was confused when he screamed and dashed out the door. “That was weird. Do you think he’s afraid of girls?” She went out the door and yelled, “Wait! Come back! Cooties don’t exist, I promise!”

“Pinkie!” Chrysalis called back. First pony and there was already a screw-up. Pinkie stepped back inside and saw that Chrysalis was not pleased at all. “That is not how you greet a customer! This is a place of romance. Understand?”

Pinkie was already back at her desk and nodding eagerly. “I think so, Cherub.”

“That’s Ms. Cherub to you. During work hours, you will only address me as Ms., boss, or ma’am, got it?” It wasn’t a kingdom, but at least she was going to have respect and authority somewhere.

“Yes, Ms. Bosserma’am!”

Chrysalis stared at her, dumbfounded. “Excuse me while I get a drink.” She went into the kitchen and got out a glass. It wasn’t even noon and she was craving hard apple cider. It certainly didn’t help as much as wine did, but she needed it now more than ever. Right as she started drinking, she heard the bell over the front door ring.

“Welcome to Cupid’s Arrow. How may I help you, handsome?”

Chrysalis spat her drink out when she heard Pinkie’s very seductive tone.

“W-what? How old are you, kid!?” the newcomer questioned.

“Old enough to stay up past my bedtime,” Pinkie cooed.

“PINKIE PIE!”

Chrysalis stormed out to the main room, only to find Pinkie sitting on the edge of her desk with her hind legs crossed and the client nowhere in sight. She stared at Pinkie, eyes filled with fury, and Pinkie laughed nervously. “From now on, I will greet the customers and you will not say a word unless I tell you to. Am I clear?” She didn’t even bother to wait for her to respond as she sat back at her desk. With her magic, she took one of her books and placed it on Pinkie’s desk. “I suggest you read this chapter right now so you can learn.”

Pinkie looked up at her. “Learn about what?”

“Sexual harassment.”

Rather than to continue reading herself, she just put her head down. It had only been five minutes and the insanely hyperactive pony had somehow made things much worse. At this point, she wondered if she returned to the changeling kingdom, they would be kind enough to reconsider execution.

The day became what she feared: a dry period. Chrysalis could tell the outcome of her workday based on the number of ponies coming inside within the first couple hours. Not a single pony had followed in. Chrysalis became bored of her books, taking upon the light comfort of her desk for a nap. Pinkie just sat in her chair, humming songs to herself while she read. Eventually, the former queen was awakened by the sound of the bell on her door. “Hello, welcome to…oh. It’s you.” Chrysalis trailed off, her hopes dashed again.

“Howdy, Cherub! How’s business?” Pinkie Pie’s friend, Applejack, had come in.

“It couldn’t be better.” She laid her head back down. “I’m guessing you’re here to see Pinkie, Applejack?”

The farmer hadn’t taken notice of the changeling’s anguish as she went to her friend. “Yep! Ah heard she got a job from ya and Ah just had to come by to see how she was doin’.”

Pinkie became really excited. “It’s been great, Applejack! We already had two customers!”

“One is who is going to have nightmares for a while and one who might sue us.” Chrysalis didn’t bother to raise her head and every time she spoke, her voice was filled with more dread.

Applejack seemed a little confused by her comments. “That’s…uh…great to hear.” Her eyes darted around the room. “So Cherub, you do matchmakin’, right?”

“What do you think?” Chrysalis groaned.

Applejack nervously laughed. “Sorry, bad question. So…are ya busy right now?”

Chrysalis lifted her head. “Does it look like I’m busy!?”

“Ah guess not.” She was now speaking nervously. “Ya see, Ah was kinda wonderin’, if it isn’t too much trouble, Ah could try your services. For fun, Ah mean.”

This got Chrysalis’s attention. She sat up, leaning towards Applejack with interest in her eyes. “Are you saying that you want me to find you a coltfriend?”

Applejack was now visibly nervous. “N-no! Not at all. Ah just wanted to try it and see what it’s like, that’s all.”

“There’s no need to be shy. Everypony needs a little help sometimes.” Chrysalis grinned, trying to nudge her with some assurance. Then a dirty plan hatched in her mind, wanting to take out some stress on Applejack to make up for the bad day. “But I find it strange that you now want my help after what you said about how relationships needed to be ‘natural.’ It didn’t seem like your mind would ever…change.”

The farmer stared back at her. “What are ya sayin’?”

Chrysalis looked at her intensely. “Are you a changeling?”

Applejack was surprised by her accusation. “Beg your pardon?”

Pinkie immediately became panicked. “Applejack’s a changeling!? Quick, call the guards! Call the princess! Call the other princess!”

Chrysalis chuckled as she was actually amused by her sudden freak out. “Calm down, Pinkie. It’s easy to see if anypony’s a changeling. All you need to do is ask them a question that only the real pony can answer.”

“That does sound easy!” Pinkie grabbed her chair and placed it in front of Applejack. She then took her desk lamp and started shining it in her friend’s eyes. “Okay, if you’re really Applejack, then tell me, what color am I?”

“You’re pink, Pinkie,” responded Applejack, unimpressed.

Pinkie looked at Chrysalis, smiling. “Don’t worry, Ms. Bosserma’am. I am one-hundred percent sure she’s the real Applejack!”

The red unicorn put a hoof on her own face in complete disbelief. “Let me try.” She focused her gaze at the confused cowgirl. “Every time I go to you in the market, I buy the same things. Name them.”

Applejack laughed. “That’s easy. Ya buy a small bag of apples and a bottle of hard cider.”

She leaned back in her seat, faking a satisfied expression. “Well there you have it, Pinkie. It’s really her.” One of the many things she did keep suspicion off of her was to pretend to be very paranoid of customers being changelings and sometimes questioned them. It brought a little life in the typically dull workplace and no pony would suspect a pony making accusations of somepony being a changeling to be one themself. “So Applejack, why the sudden change of heart?” Chrysalis asked.

Applejack let out a sigh. “Remember the welcoming party we threw for ya and how Rainbow mentioned she was datin’ somepony?”

“Yes, I do believe I recall something like that.”

“Rainbow Dash is so lucky to have a special somepony! Did you know he is a Wonderbolt?” Pinkie bounced in her seat as she spoke.

Applejack continued. “Well lately when the two of us get together, it’s all she talks about. We both like to compete and havin’ a coltfriend is something that she has me beat in. So Ah tried findin’ one myself, but it hasn’t been going so well. Some ponies think Ah’m dumb because Ah live on a farm, some are intimidated just cause Ah’m stronger than them, the list goes on.”

Chrysalis stared at her and she was not amused. “So you want me to just find you a colt just so you can get Rainbow to shut up?” She had grown to know about Dash’s ego and would have loved to do anything to damage it. However, she needed to focus on creating some actual love, not helping somepony getting even.

Applejack shook her head. “No, that’s not it. Well, maybe a little. Ah mean, yes Ah’m tired of her rubbin’ it in, but after a while the thought of havin’ a coltfriend just seemed quite nice. Ah want to be serious about this.” Chrysalis could see her slightly blushing.

Pinkie couldn’t contain herself. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! It’s my first day and I get to find a special somepony for my friend, Applejack!”

“How lucky for you,” Chrysalis said in an annoyed tone. She cleared her throat, trying to at least look appealing to Applejack by putting a little more cheer in her voice “Well then, would you like to start right now?”

“If it isn’t too much trouble.” Applejack’s voice was now lacking some confidence.

Chrysalis just grinned back at her. “Oh, it will be no trouble at all. Now I already know who you are so a profile will not be necessary. I just need you to tell me what you’re looking for in a special somepony and we will do the rest.”

Applejack sat in the chair on the other side of her desk. “Well my family is all about apples, so it has to be somepony who would be willin’ to live and work on a farm as apples are extremely important to us. He also needs to be kind and honest like me. That's Ah can think of, really.”

“That seems to be pretty simple.” She turned over to Pinkie. “Now it’s your turn. Can you think of anypony that fits this description?”

Pinkie put her hoof on her chin and started to think. After a moment, she began writing on a piece of paper, making a list of every name she could come up with. Chrysalis and Applejack sat in silence, watching in wonder as she did her thing. After several moments, she put the pencil down and picked up the list. “All done!”

“Excellent. Now please tell us what you wrote.” Chrysalis was actually curious about Pinkie’s memory and was about to experience it first hoof. She was sure at least one of the names would be suitable for the earth pony.

“Well, first there’s this family I know in Ponyville who love apples just as much as you do. They own this place called Sweet Apple Acres…”

“Pinkie, that’s my family.”

“Oh, oopsie!” All of Chrysalis’s hope had been drained. “Okay, next one! His name is Seedy Appletree, and he…”

“Pinkie, that’s the mythical apple farmer from several hundred years ago,” Applejack informed.

Pinkie gasped. “You’re right! How silly of me to forget!” Chrysalis left the two ponies and walked into the kitchen without saying a word. She then took out the cider and decided to drink straight from the bottle.

For the next five minutes, Pinkie kept reading names off her list and Applejack kept rejecting them. Some of them were mares, some she knew wouldn’t dare set foot on her farm, and some that she just had no interest in. Chrysalis decided to resume reading her books, figuring that investing any hope into the party mare’s memory was pointless. She needed to decide on how she was going to handle her brainless employee once Applejack left. Once they ran out of names, Pinkie had become very upset. “I’m sorry, Applejack, but that’s all the names I can come up with.”

“It’s okay, Pinkie. Ah really appreciate ya tryin’ to help me.”

“No, it’s not okay! Here.” Pinkie pulled out her lunchbox and opened it. To no pony’s surprise, it was filled entirely with sweets. She pulled out some candy and gave it to Applejack. “I hope you can forgive me.”

“Ah do. Thanks, Pinkie.” She stood up and was ready to leave. “Ah need to get goin’ and set up the apple cart.”

“That reminds me! Do you have an apple? I’m craving caramel apples!” She pulled out a jar which was filled with caramel.

Applejack reached into her bag, pulled out two apples, and gave them to her friend. ”Make one for me as well.” Pinkie nodded and began coating the apples. “So did he give you some of his left over caramel for free again?”

“Yep! I asked him if he was going to get in trouble with Bon-Bon and he said I was cute enough to make that risk worth it. He even called me Cutie Pie!” Pinkie giggled loudly.

“Boy, that Caramel sure does have a way with the ladies. Ah guess that comes with his good looks. Maybe that’s why they get so much business. Ah have to admit, it’s that charm of his that keeps bringin’ me back.” Chrysalis shifted her eyes over to them.

Pinkie finished dunking the apples into the jar and gave one to her friend. “All done! One super delicious apology caramel apple for you and one for me!”

Applejack happily took the apple. “Thanks, Pinkie. That really does look good.”

Chrysalis put her book down. “Applejack, who is this Caramel?”

Applejack was busy staring at her candy-coated treat. “He’s the pony that works at Bon-Bon’s sweet shop and he keeps her supplied with some of his famous caramel.”

“I believe you said something about him getting really friendly with female customers.”

Applejack took a bite out of her treat. “It’s kind of what he does. Bon-Bon lets him do it all the time since it gets them good business.”

Pinkie took a huge bite out of her own apple. “Except sometimes he gives away free candy and she gets really mad at him. She uses the funniest words when she’s angry!”

“Does she get mad because she’s jealous?” Chrysalis asked.

Applejack shook her head. “Ah doubt it, seein’ how she’s with a mare named Lyra, if ya know what Ah mean.”

Chrysalis nodded to show that she understood. Pinkie didn’t. “Well just because she’s roommates with her doesn’t mean she doesn’t like him!” Pinkie then suddenly gasped. “What if they both like him? That could ruin their friendship forever!”

“And is he single?” Chrysalis questioned as she ignored her.

Applejack shrugged at her. “Ah guess so. Ah’ve seen him hang out with girls outside of work, but never really seen him get close to any of them. Ah think he just likes the company.”

“Do you know him well at all?”

“Known him since we were kids. He usually stops by my cart when he’s gettin’ apples. We say hi to each other sometimes and we just talk about stuff. Sometimes he tries usin’ that charm on me and Ah have to admit it’s rather flatterin’.”

“And what do you think of him?” She was starting to think that Pinkie wasn’t completely worthless after all.

“In my opinion, he’s a hard workin’ pony who knows how to make a girl’s day.”

Chrysalis grinned at her. “And I do believe I heard you called him good looking.”

Applejack stopped eating, stalled by Chrysalis’s comment. “What are ya gettin’ at?”

The changeling leaned on her desk. “Applejack, I think you should make a move on this Caramel.”

Applejack was taken aback. “Well…Ah…ya see…Ah’m not sure. Ah mean he’s sweet and all but…”

Pinkie saw her slightly blushing and jumped in the air, flailing excitedly. “Applejack likes Caramel! Applejack likes Caramel! Applej-” She was immediately cut off when the jar of caramel was magically thrown onto her head. She was now struggling desperately, trying to take it off.

The orange earth pony turned away from her friend. “Ah-Ah do not! He’s nice and all, but Ah’m not sure if he would like livin’ on a farm.”

Chrysalis wasn’t happy with her protest. “Let me stop you right there. I think that you care more about your apples than actually finding somepony you actually want to be with.” Applejack opened her mouth to respond, but Chrysalis saw that she couldn’t come up with anything. “Caramel sounds like a winner in all of the other categories. You said it yourself: He’s hard working, attractive, and honest. Well, maybe not completely honest, but close enough. You even said that he was quite the charmer.” Pinkie popped the jar off her head and took deep breaths. She suddenly used her tongue to clean her head of the gooey goodness.

Applejack’s face was now as red as her apples. “Ah’ll think about it.” Her eyes were bouncing all over until they landed on the clock in the room. “Well would you look at the time!” she said incredibly fast. “Ah’m going to be late for my…thing! Yeah! So Ah better go now. Catch ya two later!” She jumped off the chair and quickly walked to the door. She tried turning the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. She noticed that it was glowing green and turned around to see the older mare standing behind her.

“Listen. I think you should go over to Caramel right now and see if you can get something started between you two. You both already know each other, so that’ll make things much easier. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t.” Chrysalis kept trying to push her, hoping the little pony would break.

“Ah said Ah’ll do it later. You can’t rush these things.” She turned and tried turning a doorknob again, only to end up unsuccessful in doing so.

“I suppose you’re right.” Chrysalis made a feigned sigh. “Oh, what was that thing you said? About how he likes to flirt with all the female customers and they always come back for more?” Her face shifted into a stern look. “Look, if you don’t make a move soon, I promise you somepony else will and he’s going to be gone. And what would Rainbow Dash say if she found out that you waited too long?”

Applejack looked at the floor, feeling cornered. “Do ya really think we’re good for each other?”

Pinkie, who had finally managed to catch her breath, opened her mouth and took a deep breath, ready to say something. Chrysalis immediately took one of the apples with her magic and shoved it into her mouth to prevent her from ruining the moment. Chrysalis then took the second caramel-coated apple and levitated it right in front of Applejack’s face. “I think you two will go great together.”

Applejack watched the apple as it dangled in the air. After a moment, she felt her confidence resurface. She took the apple and stashed it in her bag. “Ya’re right! Ah’m gonna go over there right now. Thanks, Cherub!”

“My pleasure.” Chrysalis suddenly thought of something. She couldn’t take the gamble of waiting for Applejack to possibly get together with Caramel. She got very embarrassed by just talking about him and would likely not have the courage to ask him out. Since they were barely getting customers anyway, she felt now would be a good time for a hooves-on approach. “Let us get going.”

“What do ya mean ‘us’?” Applejack asked, confused.

Chrysalis gave her a small smile as she went past her. “Pinkie and I shall accompany you in order to ensure success between the both of you. It is our job to ensure that love blooms for everypony who comes to us.”

Pinkie Pie had finally managed to get the apple out of her mouth by swallowing it whole. “Yay! First day of work and we get a field trip!” She ran right past them and flew out the door.

Applejack shook her head. “Sorry, but Ah’m going to have to pass on that. Ah don’t need any help.”

“Why? Because you were doing so well before?” Applejack lowered her head slightly, feeling embarrassed. “Don’t worry. We will do our best to stay out of your way. We will just be there to provide you with guidance, nothing more.”

Applejack was quite for a moment, and then nodded. “Well alright. Let’s go!” They took Pinkie’s lead and followed her. The pink pony skipped with every step, singing out loud all of the candy she was going to buy when they got there.

The trio had made their way across town to a large candy store. They stopped outside and went around to the side. They found some bushes to hide in, went to the window, and peered inside. It was filled with about ten ponies, most of them mares, and over on the cash register was Caramel himself, flirting with one of them, as well as Bon-Bon, who was standing behind him and watching him intensely as she was making more candy.

Chrysalis pulled away from the window to look at her client. “Well there he is, Applejack. Pinkie and I will wait outside if you need us. Are you ready?”

“There sure are a lot of ponies in there,” Applejack said with concern. “Ah’d like to be alone with him. Ah can’t help it but Ah’d feel embarrassed with all those ponies around.”

“If you want some alone time, we might have to wait until they close.” She really hoped they wouldn’t have to do that. She had much better things to do than hide in bushes with two of the six ponies she hated most in this town for several hours.

“But we can’t wait! Ah’m supposed to run the apple stand today,” Applejack objected.

Chrysalis became angry, becoming ultimately sick of her reluctance. “How about when he goes on break? Would that work for you?” she muttered, trying to keep her voice relaxed.

Applejack shook her head. “No, it wouldn’t. Bon-Bon doesn’t let him out of her sight anymore cause of all the givin’ away he does.”

Pinkie pulled away from the window, still smiling despite the situation. “Yeah! She said if she ever caught him doing it again, she would turn him into caramel with her own hooves!” She licked her lips. “Mmm, caramel-flavored Caramel!”

Chrysalis was about to scream and turn Applejack into caramel herself. She was so close to creating her first successful relationship, but the cowgirl was being incredibly stubborn. “Well unless you can make all those ponies just magically disappear, you’re just going to have to hit on him in public, so stop being a coward and get in there already!”

While she and Applejack were arguing, Pinkie started to think of what they could do. After a moment, she jumped up excitedly. “Oh! Oh! I have an idea!” Both of them watched as she ran toward the entrance of the shop, curious of what she had in mind. She threw the door open and yelled at the top of her lungs, “Hey everypony! I just saw Photo Finish at the far other side of town and she said she’s looking for a new model right here in Ponyville and she also said that she’s desperate enough to take anypony due to a recent swimsuit photo scandal!” She immediately jumped out of the way as a horde of mares rushed out the door, screaming with joy as they disappeared into the distance. Caramel stood there, completely surprised by what had just happened. She went back to where Chrysalis and Applejack were hiding with a large grin on her face.

“Wow, Pinkie,” Chrysalis said in amazement. “That was actually really clever of you.” She couldn’t believe that after everything she had done before, Pinkie would actually do something of some intelligence. Maybe there truly was more to the pony than what she saw.

“And now Applejack has Caramel all to herself! Are you ready?”

Applejack blushed again. “Ah guess Ah don't have excuses now, do Ah?”

Chrysalis got behind Applejack and started rubbing her shoulders. “Just relax and take a deep breath. You’re not trying to get him to propose to you or anything like that. You’re just going to go in there and talk. Try to let him know that you’re really interested in him and ask him out for a date. And just so you know, stallions can be stubborn, so don’t take no for an answer. You got to take control of the situation. Understand?” Chrysalis really hoped that she did. She needed to improve her success rate and was now depending on the farmer.

Applejack gulped and nodded. She walked as slowly as possible to the door and entered. Chrysalis and Pinkie waited by the window and watched from outside. Applejack finally approached the counter and spoke. “Hey there, Caramel!”

Caramel suddenly realized that she was there and smiled. “Oh hi, Applejack! You just missed the craziest thing! Your friend Pinkie just came in and yelled something about Photo Finish being in town and the next thing I know, everypony just runs out the door. I think Bon-Bon was with them, too.”

Applejack chuckled. “Boy, that sure does sound like somethin’. Ah can only imagine Photo’s face when she sees a flood of mares chargin’ at her. She’s gonna run for the hills!”

They both laughed out loud for a bit. After they stopped, Caramel resumed the conversation. “So what can I do for you today, Applejack?”

“Ah just came in to say hi and get some bonbons before Ah started work today. Figured Ah could use a treat before gettin' started.”

“Sure thing.” He went under the counter and started bagging some bonbons.

Applejack took a deep breath before she spoke. “So how’s business, Caramel?”

“Well it’s been going great until about a minute ago,” he said optimistically. “How about you?”

“It’s been goin’ fine. Sales have dipped a little, but Ah’m doin’ alright.”

“Well that’s good to hear.” Caramel was almost finished collecting the bonbons.

The mare straightened her posture and cleared her throat. “Personally, Ah wish Ah had a way with the customers like you do. Could clear the whole farm in a week if Ah wanted.”

Caramel came back up with a bag full of bonbons. Back outside, Pinkie was drooling on the glass while Chrysalis just sat there, watching impatiently as she waited for Applejack to make her move. “You certainly have the looks. You just got to talk the talk and everypony will be eating out of your hooves.”

Applejack blushed as she laughed. “Thanks for the complement. So how much do Ah owe ya?”

Caramel rang up the register. “That’ll be eight bits. I slipped in a little extra just for you.”

“Aw, you’re sweet. But Ah don’t think Bon-Bon would like that too much. She might actually fire ya if she finds out about this.”

Caramel leaned over the counter and got closer to her. “Well that old hag is not here right now, so I don’t think she would mind. She’s out looking for Photo Finish.” A faint smile began to appear on his lips. “Now that I think about it, I think you should go find her as well. You would make a great model.”

Applejack took her eyes away from him. “T-that’s not really my t-thing, to be honest. Ah’m n-not really that p-pretty like those other mares.”

Caramel looked at her in a way that made her heart pound. “Don’t say that. You have a lot of natural beauty. You may not know it, but you always give your friend Rarity a run for her money.”

She was now starting to sweat and she hid her face behind her hat. “Y-ya really think s-so?”

He leaned in even closer to whisper, “I know so.”

Chrysalis could actually see Applejack physically trembling. She knew that the cowgirl had lost her nerve and was ready to bail, which she could not afford to let happen. She pulled away from the window and started making her way toward the front. Pinkie took notice of this and asked, “Where are you going, Ms. Bosserma’am?”

The changeling didn’t even look at her as she kept walking. “I feel that direct intervention is now necessary.”

Right before she reached the door, she saw Applejack take several steps away from the counter. “T-thanks for the bonbons, Caramel. Ah’ll catch you later. Bye!” She walked towards the door and was stopped when she bumped into the changeling.

Chrysalis acted like she was completely surprised as she looked down at her. “Applejack! I didn’t expect seeing you here of all places!”

Applejack got off the floor and brushed herself off. “Oh, hi, Cherub.”

Chrysalis leaned around her. “And who is that handsome stallion you were talking to?”

“What!?” both Pinkie and Applejack shouted.

Caramel looked at her with a slight grin on his face. “My name is Caramel.” His tone was making Applejack start to worry. “My boss, Bon-Bon, isn’t here right now, so I’d be more than willing to share some of these delicious treats with you for free, beautiful.”

Chrysalis walked towards the counter while swaying her hips. “How very generous of you. Just give me a little, I wouldn’t want to ruin my gorgeous figure,” she said seductively.

Applejack had gotten over the shock and had started to become agitated. “Excuse me, Cherub…”

Caramel didn’t notice her talking, scanning his eyes across Chrysalis's body. “Yes, that would be shame. You have a really nice figure, especially for a mare of your age.”

Chrysalis let out of a fake giggle. She saw the anger on Applejack’s face and knew that her plan was working. “That’s really sweet of you to say. You make me feel so young.”

“In my opinion, I think mares like you age like fine wine.”

Pinkie was now devouring a bucket of popcorn while she watched and Applejack was grinding her teeth while she looked at the disguised changeling. Chrysalis saw this and decided that it was the perfect time to push the farm girl over the edge. She got up close to Caramel’s face and whispered loudly, “You know what? Forget the candy. Why don’t you just give me some sugar?”

Applejack stomped the ground with enough force to leave cracks. “Oh no ya don’t! Ah won’t let ya have him! He’s mine!” She realized what she had just said and fell silent.

The sweet shop had become dead quiet. Applejack stared at the floor and Caramel was staring at her, completely surprised by her outburst. Chrysalis, on the other hoof, was feeling proud of herself. “Well then! I think you two have a lot of to talk about.” Right as she walked by Applejack on her way to the exit, she whispered in her ear, “It’s all up you now, cowgirl. Don’t let him slip away.” Once she had gotten outside, she returned to Pinkie, whose mouth was hanging open and probably did not even notice her there.

Back inside, Applejack and Caramel sat in awkward silence. Caramel was the first to break it. “Applejack, is there something you want to tell me?”

Applejack nodded. “Ah’m gonna be honest with ya. The truth is Ah’ve been lookin’ for a coltfriend because my friend Rainbow kept botherin’ me about hers. Ah couldn’t find anypony so Ah went to Cherub for help. Ah kind of mentioned ya while Ah was there and she said that ya would be perfect for me.”

“So you just want me to be your coltfriend so your friend can leave you alone?”

Applejack quickly shook her head. She went up to the counter, her faced filled with seriousness. “Ah’m doin’ this because Ah really do want a special somepony.” Caramel did not seem completely convinced. “Look, Ah really do think you’re sweet. We’ve known each other for so long, and now Ah was kind of hoping we could try being more than friends. Ah know it’s sudden, but Ah would really like to see if anythin’ could happen between us.”

Caramel looked at her with surprise, mildly blushing. “Applejack, are you asking me out?”

She looked him in the eyes. “Yes. Yes Ah am.”

It felt like a long time had passed as the three mares waited for him to finally give his answer. “I really appreciate the offer, but I’m not sure if I ready for a serious relationship. This is going to sound awful of me, but I really like just having mares swoon over me. I’m really sorry, Applejack. Please don’t be upset.”

Pinkie gasped, unable to grasp what had happened. Chrysalis could feel her blood boiling within her as all that effort she put into it was for nothing. She wondered if using a little mind control would go unnoticed. “Ah see. Sorry to bother ya,” Applejack said disappointingly. She turned and slowly made her way to the door. “Ah guess Ah’m goin’ to have to find Bon-Bon now.”

Caramel’s heart jumped. “Wait, what?”

Applejack didn’t stop walking. “Yeah, Ah’m goin’ to have to tell her about what you were doin’ while she was out. What do ya think will make her angrier, ya givin’ away more free stuff or you callin’ her an old hag?” she teased.

Chrysalis and Pinkie stood there in complete disbelief. Chrysalis didn’t think Applejack had this kind of side to her, but she liked it. Caramel was visibly sweating “Y-you can’t do that! I’ll get fired, or worse!”

“Alright, Ah won’t under one condition.” She turned around and faced him. “We will have a date. One date. Ah’m not trying to pressure ya, Caramel. Just one date and we’ll see if anythin’ happens. Deal?”

Caramel hastily nodded. “Sure, one date! No problem!”

Applejack smiled and went up to the counter. “Good. Come by the farm on Saturday.”

“Okay, I will. Just please don’t tell Bon-Bon!”

“Ah won’t, Ah promise.” Suddenly, she leaned across the counter and got right up to his face. “By the way, ya still sellin’ some of that sugar?” She grabbed Caramel, pulled him in, and kissed him on the mouth, causing Pinkie and Chrysalis to gasp. After several seconds, Applejack pulled away and walked out the door, leaving behind a wide-eyed Caramel. “Oh, if you try any of that cute stuff with any mare but me, Bon-Bon will be the second scariest pony you’ll ever know.”

Applejack went outside and Pinkie and Chrysalis ran up to her. Pinkie was bouncing wildly and practically screaming. “You did it, Applejack! That was totally amazing! I thought it was gonna be super sad, but now you made it super happy!”

Chrysalis clapped her hooves. “I must admit that I am very impressed by how you got him to agree. Blackmail and seduction; I couldn’t have done it better myself.”

Applejack blushed. “Ah wouldn’t call it that. Think of it more like persuasion and a little taste of what he’s missin’ out on. Do ya think it left an impression?”

Chrysalis turned towards the sweet shop, sensing a fair amount of love emanating from inside. “I think with that little taste, he’s eager for seconds.”

“Well Ah should be thankin’ ya for that. Ah don’t think Ah would’ve ever tried anythin’ like that if it weren’t for ya two. Ah can’t wait to tell Rainbow about this!” Applejack started digging through her bag. “So how much do Ah owe ya, Cherub?”

“I’ll mail you the bill, seeing how you are so desperate to go sell your apples.” Because she was Twilight’s friend, she was going to charge her extra.

Applejack hit herself with her hoof. “Oh shoot, almost forgot! Ah better get movin’. Thanks again for everythin’!”

“Goodbye, Applejack. Tell your friends about me!” Chrysalis and Pinkie waved as Applejack left.

Pinkie then looked at her boss, filled with excitement. “We did it! Applejack now has a special somepony! I can’t wait for our next customer so we can go to another field trip!”

“Calm down, Pinkie,” she said while rolling her eyes. “This isn’t something we’ll be doing every time. Just for those ponies who need that little extra help. If we kept going with everypony, we’d never get anything done. Now let’s get back to the office and wait for the next one.”

Chrysalis walked while Pinkie jumped alongside her. “So how did I do, Ms. Bosserma’am? I did really super great, right!?”

The red unicorn halted. She was going to have to be honest with Pinkie; no holdbacks. “Well Pinkie, the only reason I even considered hiring you in the first place was because you were supposed to have an amazing memory that you would use to find somepony good enough for the customers, yet it was I who had come up with Caramel while you listed a bunch of idiotic ideas.” Pinkie stopped bouncing and stood there, looking at her with incredibly sad eyes. But then, Chrysalis let out a sigh. “However, I suppose I was only able to make that conclusion because you happened to bring him up. Also, as much as I hate to admit it, what you did when you got rid of those ponies was actually really smart.”

Pinkie’s face lit up with hope. “So does that mean you’re not going to fire me?”

Chrysalis couldn’t even look her in the eyes. As much as she hated her, she needed her. This was their first job together, not counting the first two who Pinkie had driven off, and they had created a successful relationship. She was just going to have to help Pinkie with coming up with a good special somepony candidates and if they did things just as well as they did today, she would be out of here soon. “Yes, I want you to keep working for me. Just promise me you’ll work harder next time.”

Pinkie suddenly sprung into the air and let out a loud cheer. Right as she landed, she ran to her boss and gave her a hug. “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! I promise I’ll do better!”

Chrysalis managed to push Pinkie off her and onto the ground. She got up close into face and said threateningly, “We don’t hug. Ever.” She turned around and continued back on her way to where she worked.

Pinkie got up and immediately followed her. “Oops. Sorry, Ms. Bosserma’am!”

The changeling groaned. “One more thing. Please just call me Ms. Cherub.” As they walked, she noticed a large clock tower. After all they had done today, it wasn’t even noon. It felt like an eternity to her, being stuck with the obnoxious pony and she would continue being stuck with her every day until the weekend, which was when she was closed. She hoped she wouldn’t have to stay in Ponyville with her for too long.

There was a kingdom waiting for her.

A Special Visitor

Chrysalis sighed as she tossed the book onto the floor. It was the one time of the week she could relax and do whatever she wanted, but she was completely bored out of her mind. Normally she would read something she borrowed from Twilight’s library, but after several weeks of doing so, she was too used to it. She was going stir crazy and she needed to get herself out of the house. The only problem was that she had no idea what could she do in this town. It was filled with ponies that were too friendly and too boring to ever have anything interesting happen. The Changeling Kingdom at least always had something going on. She got off the bed and headed for the front door, thinking that at least she could get some fresh air.

She quietly groaned as she aimlessly wandered through the town, realizing that walking was just as dreadfully boring as just staying at home. Ponyville, despite the spirit in its citizens, was just dull. She had heard of a lot of crazy things that had happened in the past, but she was now having doubts that any of those stories were true. The Running of the Leaves was at least something eventful, but it made her feel out of shape because of all the ponies she couldn’t keep up with. Chrysalis decided she was going to need to go to a gym as physical strength was just as important as magic for when she was going to get revenge. There was also the fact she would eventually be surrounded by so much love to consume and she would need to keep her figure.

She was happy that her business was at least doing decently, which was all that mattered. Much to her dismay, the amount of work she had done so far barely had any impact on the amount of love in the town. It didn’t help that her poor first impression gave her little customers to work with. It was going to be some time until Ponyville would be ready to feed her people, so she just needed to be patient. Chrysalis just wanted the weekend to be done so she could resume her plan.

Right as she was about to turn around and head back home, she heard a familiar voice singing. Once she had realized who it was, she wanted nothing more than to get as far away as possible. When she took the first step to flee, it was too late. “Hi, Cherub!”

Chrysalis remained motionless with the exception of her gritting her teeth. Once she took a deep breath, she turned around to face the pony intruding her personal space with a forced smile. “Hello, Pinkie, I didn’t see you there. Are you enjoying your time off?”

“I most certainly am,” she said happily while carrying several boxes and trays of sweets. She and Pinkie were making good progress in the dating business so far. Pinkie had gotten better at deciding on which ponies were the most suitable for their costumers and their amount of successes was steadily climbing. However, the cost of her success came with her daily annoyances. Pinkie would always run her mouth about the crazy stuff she and her friends had gotten into in the past or would try come up with jokes to make Chrysalis smile, which never worked. Pinkie also missed her friends since she was busy, so she had brought in little toy models of them that she would talk and play with. The worst thing she ever did was pull pranks in the office, which often resulted in Chrysalis throwing a fit at her. “I’d love to stay and talk, but I’m in a big hurry so I’ll see you Monday.” Pinkie waved goodbye and began to trot away.

Chrysalis felt relieved that she was only going to have to deal with her for only a minute, but for some reason unknown to her, she asked, “In a hurry for what?”

Pinkie turned around and began jumping in place, somehow not losing balance of the various items she carried. “I’m going to bring these sweets to Twilight’s. It’s going to be super fun because all my friends will be there and she’s even having a special visitor coming!”

Chrysalis’s curiosity was sparked. “And who’s this special visitor?”

Pinkie shook her head. “Sorry, but I made a Pinkie promise not to say who it is to anypony.”

Chrysalis pondered her current situation. On one hoof, she could just leave right now and she wouldn’t need to see her again until Monday, which was plenty of time for some peace and quiet. But on the other hoof, the peace and quiet she desired was the reason she was out here in the first place. Her time with Pinkie was often interesting, but mostly just frustrating. There was also the fact that she would be surrounded by the Elements, so it would be incredibly risky. She reluctantly picked the latter as she really had nothing else to do. “Would you be able to show me who it is instead?”

Pinkie rubbed her chin. “Well, Twilight technically said I couldn’t say who it was, not show who it was, so I guess it’s okay.” She gave her a huge grin. “Come on, Cherub, let me show you her!” said Pinkie as she skipped away. Chrysalis followed and wondered to herself what sort of mess she had just got herself into.

Pinkie threw the door to the library open. “Twilight, I brought the goodies! And I brought my own special guest!”

Twilight came out from one of the rooms and was confused by the unicorn’s presence. “Cherub? What brings you here?”

“Pinkie mentioned you were having a little get together with your friends and that you even had a special guest coming by. I hope it isn’t too much trouble if I come to see what all the fuss is about.”

Twilight turned to Pinkie, annoyed. “Pinkie, you Pinkie promised not to say anything!”

“No, you said I couldn’t say who it was, not that you were having somepony coming,” Pinkie argued.

“Yes, but-” Twilight trailed off for a moment before sighing. “I guess it’s okay if only one pony knows. You won’t say anything about this, will you, Cherub?”

“You have my word.”

Twilight nodded and motioned them towards her. “Alright, she’s in the back with the others.” Chrysalis was very curious about who could have possibly been such a big deal. It couldn’t have been Princess Celestia as she had already visited before, everypony in town always knew about it, and she always brought her guards. Also, who would want their visit to be a secret and why?

Pinkie ran ahead to the room with Twilight right behind her. “Hey girls and Spike, I’m back!”

“Wow, Pinkie! That sure is a lot of boxes.” Chrysalis recognized the voice to be Spike’s.

“She doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to a good time. Can we have some candy now?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Yes, I believe now is a good time for the consumption of many treats!”

Chrysalis stopped dead in her tracks, eyes wide. She knew whose voice she had just heard and felt terror wash over her body. The only thing going through her mind was to get out as fast as she possibly could. Before she could turn, Pinkie ran out to her. “Why are you just standing there? Everypony is in here, silly.” She got behind Chrysalis and pushed her forward. Once she entered the room, her worst fears were confirmed.

“Hello there! Have you come to join us?” asked Princess Luna with delight.

Pinkie led Chrysalis to a seat around the table and the terrified changeling slowly sat down, never taking her eyes off the princess. She tried to form words and only achieved in producing babble. “There’s no need to be nervous,” said Rarity with a chuckle. “She may be royalty, but she is very friendly with us common folk.”

“H-h-hello.” Chrysalis was ready to faint. While she had fooled the alicorn before, she now doubted herself. Luna was the head of Canterlot’s anti-changeling group and they were always on the lookout for her kind. What was worse was that she was trying to find Chrysalis specifically, wanting to severely punish the one who had attacked her sister and took her niece. If there was anypony who could catch onto her, it was the Princess of the Night. The word “escape” kept echoing in her mind. “Well, i-it was n-nice meeting you, but I just remembered I have something important that I need to do right now, so I’ll be leaving.” She got up and walked quickly towards the entrance. “See you Monday, Pinkie.”

“But you didn’t get any candy!” her employee called out from behind her.

Chrysalis made it to the door, ready to bolt the second she got outside. “Why are you so desperate to get away from me?”

She whirled around to see Luna somehow right behind her. This greatly startled Chrysalis, causing her to fall on the floor. She was in complete panic while the others were staring at her. Her fear only grew as Luna was giving her a suspicious look. “You feeling alright, Cherub?” asked Twilight. “You seemed to be really freaked.”

“You’re acting like she’s still Nightmare Moon,” Spike taunted.

Chrysalis went still, surprised that she was given a way out. She was familiar with the tale of Nightmare Moon and her return and had even heard from gossip a few ponies in town still being nervous about her. She decided to play along with it and acted as scared as possible. “W-well how do you know she still isn’t? A thousand years alone could have done wonders to her mind!”

Luna was taken aback as well as everyone else. “But I’m not like that anymore! I have been long cleansed of the darkness! Give me a chance to show you that I’ve changed!”

Chrysalis got up from the floor and took a few steps away from her. “No thanks. The only thing I want to do now is make as much distance between you and I as possible, so goodbye, Nightmare Moon.” She got back to the door and reached for the knob, not wanting to look back.

“I see. Goodbye then,” she heard Luna say gloomily.

Luna’s suddenly change in tone made her curious, so she took a quick look behind her. She saw that Luna was walking back to the other room with her head down, clearly hurt by her words. The princess’s woe gave a stroke of euphoria within Chrysalis. Not only did she throw off her suspicion, but she had also greatly offended Luna. Today turned out to be a lot of fun after all.

At least, it would have been, had Pinkie not run in front of the door, blocking the only exit. “How could you do that to her, Cherub? You were being a total jerky-jerk!”

Twilight went to her and tried to pull her away. “Let her go, Pinkie. You can’t make her stay if she doesn’t want to.”

Pinkie shook her head. “No! Everypony should know that she’s not Nightmare Moon anymore, including her!”

The others joined in as they tried to pry her from the doorway. “You can’t tell other ponies what to think, so please stop making a scene and let her go already,” insisted Rarity.

After a moment of being pulled by her friends, Pinkie gave in. “Fine,” she said angrily. She walked back to the room where Luna was, not even looking at Chrysalis.

Fluttershy looked into the room. “Wow, she’s mad. Maybe you should go apologize to both her and Luna.”

Chrysalis let out a loud groan, having just turned the knob when Fluttershy butted in. “I really just want to go home right now. I’m sure they’re both fine.” She saw they were all looking in her with various levels of disapproval, but it wasn’t like she ever cared about their opinions in the first place.

“Well it was nice seeing you, Cherub,” Twilight said blandly. “Come on, girls. Let’s see how they’re doing.” They all left her behind and walked back into the room. Rainbow Dash turned her head and blew a raspberry at Chrysalis before disappearing.

The changeling wiped the sweat off her forehead, thankful that she was done with them and she could just leave. She put her hoof on the doorknob, but she couldn’t bring herself to turn it. She started to think that maybe what she did was actually a bad thing. If the ponies really did get past the whole Nightmare Moon thing, then she just looked like a very ignorant jerk. Even worse, if Pinkie and the rest had spread the word about her through gossip, it could potentially be very damaging to her business. There was also the fact that Pinkie was clearly mad at her and she couldn’t afford to lose her or any of her effort no matter what. She had to fix the mess she made to get away and to do that, she had to go back to the presence of her enemies.

Chrysalis hit herself multiple times in the face with her hoof, very angry for getting herself in the mess in the first place. “I will never agree to do anything with Pinkie ever again, even if it is her dying wish.” She headed back into the room while slowly taking one step at a time, preparing for the inevitable. Once she had re-entered the room, she saw Pinkie in the middle of hugging Luna. Pinkie then saw her standing there and broke away.

“What are you still doing here?”

Everyone immediately looked at Chrysalis. “Did you forget something, Cherub?” queried Twilight.

Chrysalis took a deep breath. “I’m here because I think I might have acted very foolishly and I want to apologize.” She turned to Luna, who was looking at her expectantly. “Princess Luna, I am greatly sorry for offending you earlier and I hope you find it within your heart to forgive me. I’m sure you are not Nightmare Moon anymore and that you’re a nice princess like Celestia.” She wondered if she was going to be punished for insulting the princess. Chrysalis would have definitely given a beating to any changeling who had insulted her like that when she was queen.

To her surprise, Luna only smiled warmly at her, giving her immense relief. “It’s alright, Cherub. Many ponies still feel intimidated around me and I can’t blame them for it. I’m just glad you are willing to try to see me for who I am. And please, just call me Luna.”

Applejack pointed at a spot next to her. “Why don’t ya stick around for a while? Luna’s great company.”

Despite it being a risk to hang around with the alicorn, Chrysalis nodded. Perhaps befriending Celestia’s sister could prove beneficial to her in the future. As she walked around the table, Pinkie got up in her face. “Not so fast! You need to do a little more than just say you’re sorry.”

“Like what exactly?” asked Fluttershy.

Pinkie grew a huge grin as she pointed at Luna. “She should give her an apology hug for making her all saddy-waddy!”

Chrysalis felt her heart jump. “I don’t know…” She saw they were all looking at her with pleading eyes and knew there was no way out. “Alright, I’ll do it.” When she was queen again, the first thing she would do would be to make Pinkie regret everything she had ever done in her life.

She approached the princess, who had her forelegs stretched out for the hug. Chrysalis took a deep breath, went to her, and embraced her. She heard them cheering as she hugged Luna and pulled away after a few seconds. Suddenly, Pinkie jumped on her, giving her a hug herself. “I knew you could do it, Cherub!”

Pushed to her limit, Chrysalis pried her off, held her over her head, and launched across the room into a shelf of books. Pinkie slammed against it and was covered by an avalanche of literature. “You and I still don’t hug!”

To her relief, everypony was laughing about what happened. Pinkie popped her head of the pile with a book in her mouth, which she spat out. “Well at least I tried,” she said happily as she trotted back to the group.

Chrysalis sat down between Applejack and Fluttershy. “So Luna, what are you doing here anyway? Don’t you have royal duties to attend to or something?”

Luna put a box of chocolate cupcakes in front of her and started eating one. “I just wanted a break from everything that is going on in Canterlot. It’s just been constant arguing and protesting these last few months. It hasn’t been the same in a long time.”

“It’s because of those dreadful changelings,” stated Rarity. “Ever since they have showed their repulsive faces at the wedding, nopony can get a good night’s rest, always worrying about them. Even I sometimes fear running into one.”

“Yeah, and after everythin’ they did, now they want to make peace and live with us?” Applejack bit into a doughnut. “Ah tell ya, Ah don’t trust them at all. Ah mean they attack us and now they want to be our friends? Ah ain’t buyin’ it.”

Twilight nodded in agreement. “I’m with you, Applejack. After what they and their queen had put me, my brother, and Cadance through, I wouldn’t mind so much if I never saw any of them ever again in my life.”

Surprisingly, Fluttershy thought differently. “But wasn’t Queen Chrysalis the reason they did it in the first place? They don’t seem to like her too much anymore. They got a new queen and she might be better. Maybe we should give them a chance.” Chrysalis snarled as she started digging through the cookies.

“The new queen seems nice,” said Pinkie. “She’s the one who wants to be our friend!”

Dash leaned across the table towards her friend. “But changelings are all about being sneaky, so they could just be saying that to fool us. Chrysalis could just be back at their kingdom, plotting with Nymph as they wait for us to put our guard down.”

Spike trembled slightly. “And Nymph’s her sister, so she could be just as bad or even worse. She’s definitely just as ugly.”

Chrysalis flared on the inside, listening them insulting her and her people. She couldn’t believe Nymph would tolerate such insolence from the lesser race. There was going to be serious retribution when she was ruler again.

“Cherub?”

She snapped out of train of thought. “Yes, Twilight?”

“What do you think about all of this?”

Chrysalis bit her lip. Given the fear of changelings in Ponyville, it would be more of the norm to be against the changelings than it would be to support them. “I think they shouldn’t be granted citizenship. They are a race of tricksters who want nothing more than to feed from us. As for that Nymph, I don’t trust her one bit. I also don’t really believe she would send her own sister into exile and it is most likely that they are conspiring against us together.”

Luna nodded as she took another cupcake for herself. “You speak the truth, Cherub. They should not be trusted. I have said something like this before, but it is a shame that my sister cannot see otherwise.”

“How can she be so trusting? They ponynapped her own niece and tried to take over Equestria,” Spike pointed out.

Luna sighed loudly as she rubbed her temples. “I really don’t know. Sometimes I think her good nature clouds her judgment.” She put her hooves down and looked at everypony. “As much as I understand their predicament, that in no way excuses what they had done. Even if they could be trusted, I will withhold my support as long as most of the nation opposes them. Having them come in at a time like this would result in something that would make Discord proud.”

“Well you just need to convince her otherwise. Just let them go back and stay in whatever hole they came out of,” Dash said aggressively as she leaned on the table. “They can just stay underground where they belong.”

“They seemed to have been doin’ fine without us, so it should just stay that way. Plus can ya imagine how confusin’ it would be since they could look like any pony? Ponies would start getting’ framed for their crimes left and right!” complained Applejack.

Luna swallowed the rest of her treat. “That is indeed another good point that has been brought up before. Although we now have magic to disrupt their disguises, it would still be chaotic. They just need to stay out of Equestria and everything will be just fine.”

“But if we don’t let them live with us, won’t they starve?” asked Fluttershy, full of concern.

The room became uncomfortably silent. Chrysalis was worried that they would change their opinions, which would’ve ruined everything. If the changelings were to be granted citizenship, not only would they be able to feed freely and not need Chrysalis anymore, ruining her chance of reclaiming her title, but they would be at the mercy of the ponies, forever robbed of their glory. Twilight broke the silence. “No, I don’t want them to. It’s just so hard to trust them. They’re capable of anything.”

Applejack was next to speak. “Maybe we could give them a chance and see how it goes. And if it doesn’t work out, we can just drive them out like we did before.”

“I don’t know, I think they kinda deserve it,” Spike admitted in a quiet voice.

“Spike! That’s a horrible thing to say!” Spike looked away while rubbing his tail, feeling ashamed that Rarity had shouted at him. “As much as I don’t like them, I believe we should be of some assistance to their dilemma. We can’t just leave them to suffer because of one bad apple. I’m sure we could form some sort of compromise that will keep us all satisfied.”

“But isn’t Celestia having ponies give them love so they could eat?” asked Pinkie.

“Yes, but it is not enough," Luna answered. "We’re having enough trouble getting ponies to give some up and their population is slightly too large to be fully sustained with what we’re giving them. It has certainly eased things for them, but the problem persists.” The princess stood up. “I do think you all have brought up a good point, however. I feel that I may have not thought things through entirely. Perhaps I should speak with Celestia and-“

“No.”

They looked at Chrysalis, who had a very serious look on her face. “No?” asked Pinkie.

“No,” she said again. Chrysalis stood up as Luna sat back down. “They are a menace to us all and we cannot allow them to come here freely. I do not truly believe that they are truly sorry for what they have done and are simply taking advantage of us. If they actually wanted to be allies, they would have tried peaceful methods instead of an invasion. Giving them access to Equestria would make them too dangerous.”

“But if that’s true, then why would they be so desperate for citizenship now?” asked Twilight.

“It’s obvious: they plan on ruling over us, wanting to take our land for themselves. Think about it. They have lived underground their entire lives and they blame the other races of the world for it. The changelings are just getting payback by taking what is ours. Chrysalis alone was powerful enough to defeat Celestia herself. Can you imagine how dangerous they would be if a whole army was able to gain that much power?” She felt pleased with herself as she watched them exchange worried looks with each other. “And don’t forget, Twilight, they left Cadance in the mines to die.” This wasn’t actually part of her plan, but she found it to be really helpful with the argument. Killing off a pony who was essentially the Princess of Food to the hungry changelings would have been incredibly stupid and she was surprised none of the ponies had caught on to that. “Not one of them took pity on her and came to her aid. Not one. Do you really want such heartless beasts living in this town, using you as a way to grow stronger?”

Fluttershy hid under the table. “Please make them go away, Luna. They’re too scary!”

Pinkie developed a large frown. “Yeah, changelings don’t sound like fun anymore. I think I like living with just other ponies.”

“I take it you all feel the same?” Luna saw that they all nodded. “Very well, I will stick to my position. I don’t care anymore of what my sister thinks. They can just stay out for all I care. They are a problem I do not wish to deal with.”

“You’ll still feed them, right?”

They looked at Chrysalis in confusion as they heard the mild desperation in her voice. “But I thought you said they couldn’t be trusted,” said Rarity.

“Well yes, but they still need love to survive. I don’t think I can sleep well while knowing that there is a nation that is starving.”

“We will continue to try,” informed Luna. “I’m certain with enough volunteers, we can keep their hunger in check. They will certainly grow stronger, but we can keep a close eye on them. I am sure they wouldn’t dare bite the hoof that feeds them.”

Chrysalis sighed with relief. “That’s good to hear.”

“Now Cherub, since you are so caring about the changelings, would you like to help feed them?” Luna offered in a friendly voice.

“I would, but I’m afraid I don’t have much love to give,” she admitted.

“No argument here.” Chrysalis magically took a large cupcake and shoved it in Spike’s mouth, causing a chuckle from the other ponies.

“You have certainly proven your case,” commented Luna, “but I think that’s enough about that. I came here to get away from this sort of discussion.”

“Let’s talk about something else. How is the lovely couple doing?” asked Rarity with interest.

“They are doing very well,” Luna answered happily. “However, I’ve been working Shining Armor fulltime because of the security needed in Canterlot. I’m really sorry, Twilight.”

Twilight giggled. “It’s okay. I’m sure he’s happy to do his duty. Although, I wish they would visit me more often.”

“As for Cadance, she’s been attending several public events while under heavy protection. I believe she is now over what had happened and it’s good to see her so happy again. They still do not like being apart after the incident and I tend to let Shining Armor to have a lot of time off so he can be with his wife. He will do anything to keep the princess happy and I think it is very sweet.” Luna faintly blushed. “Sometimes I can’t help but feel jealous of her, having such a loving pony like him.”

“Has the stork come yet?” asked Pinkie.

Luna blushed even deeper. “Excuse me?”

“The stork, silly. Did he bring them a baby yet? If he did, can I babysit for them!? I’m really good at that kind of stuff!”

All of the ponies cracked up, which confused her. Even Chrysalis joined along, finding it amusing that Pinkie could be so dense. “Pinkie, I don’t think the ‘stork’ may be coming for a long time,” said Twilight as she tried to control herself.

Pinkie frowned from her response. “But why not? Don’t you want to be an aunt, Twilight?”

Twilight’s face flushed as the laughter redirected towards her. “I do, but it might be a while until that happens. They might not be ready for one yet.”

“How come? He should give them one right now!” demanded Pinkie.

“I’m sure the ‘stork’ will eventually want a foal and will work Shining Armor over harder than Luna is right now in more ways you can imagine.” While everypony but Pinkie, Twilight, and Spike burst out in hysterics, Chrysalis shuddered. She immediately regretted saying that as she now had the image in her head of the couple doing some baby making.

Twilight was now completely flustered and could feel her face burning. “I-I think we’ve said enough about that!” she stammered. “Any of you girls got something you want to share? Please!”

Eventually, Luna managed to contain herself. “I think I have something,” she said as she looked at their latest guest. “Cherub.”

Chrysalis slightly jumped when Luna said her name. “Yes, Luna?”

To her relief, Luna was giving her a friendly look. “This is our first time meeting, so I’d like to know more about you.”

Chrysalis cleared her throat and spoke in a friendly tone. “I moved here a while ago from Manehatten in order to set up my dating service. I help lonely ponies find true love as it is a part of my talent.” She stood up and showed off her cutie mark.

“That sounds very nice. I take it that is why you feel strongly about the changelings?”

“You are indeed a sharp one, Princess,” Chrysalis complemented as she sat back down. “Love is something that should be felt between lovers, not used as a source of power.”

“And from what I understand, you have employed Pinkie Pie,” Luna said while looking at the party pony.

“Regrettably, yes.” She groaned as they all giggled at her. “While her knowledge has certainly been of great help, she can be quite a burden.”

Pinkie stood up. “I’m not that bad!” she protested. “In fact, I think I’m getting better.”

Chrysalis leaned across the table and glared at her. “Does that include putting a whoopee-cushion on my seat while dealing with a client?”

“But he thought it was pretty funny!” Pinkie countered.

Rainbow Dash smirked at Chrysalis. “Everypony loves a good Pinkie prank. You just need to loosen up.”

Chrysalis ignored her and resumed her charm. “Anyway, business has been rather slow, but with all my recent success, I think that should be ending soon. With enough time, I guarantee that this town will be just flooding with romance.”

Applejack grabbed her and pulled her towards her. “Take it from me; she’s really good at what she does.”

“Thank you for the complement. How has it been going with you and Caramel? I heard he’s been dropping by Sweet Apple Acres a lot. Getting that friendly with him already?”

Applejack blushed. “No, but he’s a real sweetheart. After that first date, he can’t get enough of me and we see each other all the time. I just wish Granny would come around. She thinks he’s no good and she keeps hitting him with her cane. Oh, and the weird thing is after Caramel and I started officially datin’, Bonbon came by to personally thank me and even gave me money.”

“I believe it’s because he hasn’t been giving away anymore candy.” Rarity let out a sigh. “It’s a shame he also stopped his sweet talk. He really knows how to make a girl feel great about herself.”

“Well I can do that, Rarity.” Spike stammered for a moment. “You’re the most beautiful pony in all of Equestria.”

She giggled while blushing. “That was a little corny, but I really appreciate it.” She brought him in for a hug, causing Spike to have hearts in his eyes.

Pinkie gasped happily and jumped onto the table. “Oh! Why don’t you girls come down sometime? Cherub can find you the best special somepony ever!”

The former queen took deep breathes, trying to keep her cool. However, as much as she wanted to say no, she realized that there was no real harm in helping the ones she hated. The more love she could produce, the better. “I think that is a splendid idea, Pinkie,” she said cheerfully. “What would you say if we were to start Monday?” She then noticed something odd. The three single mares did not look very excited with the idea. She saw Spike was just about to say something, but then he noticed Twilight looking at him, which caused him to remain quiet.

“It’s a really lovely idea but…” Rarity fidgeted nervously, but then became happy. “…but I’m just too busy! Yes, with all my business trips to Canterlot, so perhaps another time.” She put on an innocent grin, which Chrysalis immediately saw right through as bullmanure. However, she decided not to push the issue any further as she was not that interested.

“I’d like to find one, but I haven’t done much research on dating, so maybe later.”

“Oh come on, Twilight,” complained Rainbow Dash. “I didn’t know all that much about dating either, but I’m doing great now. You totally have to try it.”

“She’s right, Twilight. You should really get out of those books of yours and get into the dating world.” While Chrysalis hated her more than anything, she would have liked for her to accept her offer so she could leave Ponyville sooner. Maybe she could even put Twilight through a bad breakup as a goodbye present.

Twilight shook her head. “Nope. I’d rather maximize my chances of a successful relationship. I’ve seen what rejection has done to ponies and I would rather avoid such an experience.”

Dash crossed her forelegs and huffed. “Whatever, egghead.”

Pinkie ran onto the table and stood over Fluttershy. “What about you? Don’t you want a special somepony?”

Fluttershy was clearly flustered and she hid her face behind her hair. “Oh, um, that’s sounds really nice, but I’m not sure if I’m ready yet. I’m sorry, please don’t be mad.”

“What’s wrong, Fluttershy? Don’t you like boys?” Dash said mockingly.

“O-of course I do! It’s just that…I…um…err…”

Chrysalis decided to cut in, feeling some pity for the yellow pegasus. “It’s alright, Fluttershy. There’s no need to feel pressured.” For some reason, she was unsure why she disliked the shy pony. She never did anything that ever got on her nerves and was usually quiet and friendly. Dash was a bragger, Rarity was a drama queen, Applejack was all about honesty and pride, and she hated Pinkie and Twilight for obvious reasons. She assumed she didn’t like her by default for being a friend of Twilight.

Pinkie sat back in her seat, clearly disappointed by none of her friends agreeing to her offer. She suddenly jumped back up. “I almost forgot!” Spike smiled. “Luna!” Spike slumped his shoulders and stared at the floor. “Do you want a special somepony?”

Luna shook her head. “I thank you for the offer, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to pass. I would rather find one on my own and I’m not sure if I’m ready to start dating again. I hope I don’t offend you, Cherub.”

“Not at all, I’m perfectly fine with you decision.” She was actually disappointed that the Princess of the Night said no. Had Luna accepted and she managed to find a good match for her, her business would have skyrocketed and she’d be queen again in no time.

“What about you, Pinkie?” asked Dash. “Haven’t you been looking for one at all?”

“I am, but there are just too many stallions to choose from.” She pulled on her own hair. “I like them all and that makes it really difficult for me. I don’t know who to choose!”

“What a shock,” stated the changeling blandly, causing the others to laugh.

“How about you, Cherub?” questioned Twilight. “Surely a pony with your talent would be interested in one.”

Chrysalis sighed, thinking about how her false relationship with Shining Armor had led her to where she was now. Perhaps she could somehow spin a similar story to help explain why she got upset when ponies hit on her. It already looked strange that a pony who was all about finding love for others would not be interested in finding it for herself. “Not exactly, Twilight. My last ‘relationship’ was a rather painful one and I don’t think I will be finding myself in another for quite a while.”

All of the laughter from earlier ceased and they looked at her with concern. “Was it really that bad?” Fluttershy asked with empathy.

Chrysalis laid her head on the table. “I was practically at the altar when everything fell apart.” She heard some of them gasp. “In the end, things just didn’t work out the way I had planned.”

Pinkie pulled on her hair more while her eyes became moist. “That’s just so horrible!”

“I agree. You have my deepest condolences,” said Rarity sympathetically.

“Is that why you are such a grouch?” asked Rainbow Dash, followed by a grunt as Applejack elbowed her in the stomach.

“Sadly, that is partially true. It was a rather bad break up and has really turned my world around. I think I can easily say it is the worst thing to have ever happened in my life.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before!?” Pinkie cried.

“Because I felt like it was none of your business,” she responded, slightly annoyed.

“But if you told me, I would have thrown you a party to help make you feel better!”

The changeling merely rolled her eyes. “I would have probably passed on that. It’s going to take more than a party to fix anything that has gone wrong for me.”

“So what happened between you two?” asked Luna.

Chrysalis raised her head back up and just rested it on a hoof as she looked at Luna. “I don’t like talking about it. I prefer to just get things back together in my life and just move on. And if it’s alright with all of you, I would like to drop this subject. It's just too painful for me to discuss.”

The princess nodded. “Very well. Do any of you have anything else you want to discuss?”

Pinkie shot up. “I do! My parents sent me a letter about the annual boulder migration!” She pulled out several sheets of paper, cleared her throat, and began reading. “Dear Pinkamena Diane Pie…”

After the long and thrilling tale of the rock farm family, the meetup became something Chrysalis absolutely dreaded: a party. Remembering how much she had “enjoyed” the last one she took part in, she thought the smart thing to do was to avoid it all together. She told Twilight that she had a bad headache and went to go lie down in Twilight’s bed upstairs. She laid on the bed with a smirk on her face, loving how easy it was to enter Twilight’s home without that girl suspecting a single thing.

While she was alone in the unicorn’s bedroom, gears began to turn in her head. Chrysalis got off the bed and began looking around the room. She was curious about whether or not Twilight had kept a diary around. She was not expecting anything too juicy from the unicorn who loved studying more than anything, but she decided to check anyway. Any embarrassing secrets would help make her feel better about her life. She looked in drawers, the closet, and even the shelves, but she was so far unsuccessful. As she lifted the mattress to look under, she heard somepony come up the stairs. “I see you’re feeling better, Cherub.”

The false unicorn dropped the mattress and looked behind her, finding Luna on the lower level. Chrysalis laughed nervously, worried about why Luna was coming to her alone. “Yeah, I just suddenly felt better. I’ll go down to the party right now.”

Luna smirked as she stepped in. “That’s a shame. I just brought some medicine for you.” She took out a bottle of brandy and two glasses from her bag with magic.

Chrysalis looked at her with surprise and then placed the back of her hoof on her forehead. “Actually, I think it’s coming back. Do you think you can help me, Dr. Luna?”

The pony found humor in her joke. “I think I can. Have a seat.” They sat the table in the room and Luna poured her a glass. “You are quite a clever one, aren’t you?”

The changeling shifted her eyes around. “I don’t know what you mean.”

The princess’s quiet chuckling made her gulp. “I know you were lying. I’ve been taught to read ponies since the invasion. You seemed to have been rather annoyed when Pinkie said it was time to party.”

Chrysalis was relieved she was only interested in that. She let out a sigh and decided to tell her something that was actually true. Lying anymore to Luna could lead her to trouble. “Fine, you caught me. I just think I’m a little too old for some childish party, but I didn’t want to say anything. I’m pretty sure Pinkie Pie would have hounded me until I gave in.”

Luna took a sip of her drink. “I sort of feel the same way.”

“You do?” asked Chrysalis with slight surprise and confusion.

The pony gave a light but firm nod. “Yes. I admit they can be fun at times, but sometimes I just feel a little embarrassed in taking part in these sorts of parties. It is usually little filly stuff and I am a grown adult. It’s fun to let loose once in a while, but I do not wish to make it a habit.”

Chrysalis’s interest in the princess suddenly rose. “Is that why you wanted your visit to be a big secret?”

Luna gave out a hearty laugh as she shook her head. “No, I just wanted some alone time with my friends and not be bothered by the other citizens. They have taken a much larger interest in politics since the invasion and they are restless to learn anything new. Poor Celestia is often harassed by journalists who want to get the latest on the negotiations and I just want to avoid going through that.”

Chrysalis chuckled. “I see your point. Why did you even come here if you don’t want to participate in their little party?”

“Because they are all my friends. They are certainly a fun group and I do like to keep a close eye on the Bearers of Harmony. It’s just they like to do things that I sometimes have no interest in. I enjoyed our discussions and jokes from earlier and I was a little disappointed when they wanted to party.”

“I completely understand. I take it that is why you came to see me?” asked Chrysalis as she stared at her glass.

“That and I wanted to get to know you better. You certainly stick out from the bunch.”

The changeling smirked. “Because I’m older?”

“I meant your sour personality,” Luna jested.

Annoyance appeared on Chrysalis’s face. “Wow. Thanks, Princess.”

Luna put a hoof over her mouth to cover her smile. “Sorry. I just happened to notice you were nowhere as cheery as any of us.”

Chrysalis finished her drink and wiped her mouth. “I think you already know why that is.”

“I understand. I can tell you are going through some difficult things and I just wanted to see if I could be any help.”

“Of course you can help.” She raised her empty glass towards the alicorn.

The princess chuckled as she understood what she was referring to and refilled it. “I don’t think more alcohol will solve anything.”

“Works for me pretty well,” commented the changeling right before drinking some of it.

Faint chuckling could be heard from the princess. Once she stopped, she said, “So tell me more about yourself, Cherub.”

Chrysalis merely shrugged. “Not much to say; I’m just your average pony. I’m sure Twilight and her friends go through more interesting things in a week than I have in my life.”

“I suppose that’s true, but what about that dating service of yours?”

“It’s doing pretty well and I guess it’s all thanks to Pinkie.”

“She certainly saved you from closing,” Luna added.

“No kidding. I’m glad that…” Chrysalis looked at her with surprise. “How do you know about that?”

“Pinkie told me through a letter,” said Luna as she poured herself another round. “She was so happy to get a job from you and she seems to be really into what you do.”

“I honestly wish I only had to deal with Pinkie through letters. Her presence can be rather overwhelming,” said Chrysalis with slight annoyance.

“You’ll warm up to her, given how you’ve already lasted this long.” She gave out a sigh. “Shame I lost twenty bits.”

“What do you mean?”

“I should have mentioned since I am often awake during the night, the ponies and I communicate mostly through letters and they usually tell me anything of interest. When I heard a pony actually hired Pinkie Pie for helping ponies find love, I wagered with Celestia that it would take a week before she got fired or drove the pony into insanity.”

Chrysalis was surprised by how Luna also thought that Pinkie would one day drive somepony over the edge, which made her more comfortable with her. “Well I’ve certainly proved you wrong. I have to admit, I had never expected you to say such mean things about Pinkie, or any of the other ponies for that matter.”

Luna blushed. “I’m not trying to be mean; I just like to poke fun. Celestia and I like to gossip too, you know.”

“Now that I think about it, why aren’t you spending time with her? I’m sure you would much rather be with her than be here.”

Luna rested her head on her hoof and sighed deeply. “I am afraid she is much too busy as of late. The issues with the changelings are still around and she tries tirelessly to resolve them. We barely have time for each other anymore.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Much to Chrysalis's surprise, she sort of meant it.

“It’s all right. I still have a few other friends that I can spend time with in the night. Of course, it eventually becomes too late for them to stay up and I am left by myself.”

“How do you handle being alone in the night?”

“A lot better than you think.” Luna answered in a more upbeat tone. “I have many ways I can take up my time.” She looked around and motioned Chrysalis closer. “There’s also a benefit to being the Princess of the Night,” she whispered.

“Oh yeah?” she asked with great interest. “What’s that?”

“Almost nopony ever comes to night court, so every day is almost like a day off.” They both laughed.

“I suppose that is a plus to leave your sister to do all that boring stuff.”

“I still lend a hoof in certain matters. As a princess, I have many duties that I must attend to.” Luna decided to put her glass aside. “Enough about me, let’s get back to you.”

The outcast just shrugged again. “Not much to really say about me.” She did not take much time developing a background for herself as she felt it was unneeded. If she gave away too much information, ponies would become suspicious if they found something in her fabricated life that didn’t hold water.

“Well about your fiancé?” asked Luna.

Chrysalis placed a hoof on her face and groaned loudly, actually upset. “No, I really don’t want to talk about that at all.” She slightly regretted saying that she had a poor relationship before, but it would at least give her an excuse to be more like herself. Being nice and friendly all the time was definitely not her thing.

“I take it he did something horrible to you?”

She sipped her glass. “Yes, everything is his fault. I hope to get back at him someday for all the trouble he has put me through.” She could feel her anger rising as she thought about her defeat by the hooves of Shining Armor and his wife.

Luna reached over and patted her hoof sympathetically, which helped calm her down. “Don’t be so hung up about it. He must be a fool to lose a beautiful mare like yourself.”

Chrysalis smirked. “Thanks. Speaking of marriage, you sure you don’t want a special somepony?”

The alicorn gave a devious smile. “Oh, I see how it is. You just want to help me so you can boost your own reputation,” Luna teased.

Chrysalis gave an innocent grin. “So is that a yes?”

“I’m afraid not.”

It wasn’t the answer she had hoped for, but Chrysalis was still in a good mood. “That’s a shame. I’m sure I could find you a real boy toy who could satisfy you in many ways.”

Luna tilted her head. “Oh? I thought you wanted to help me find love.”

“Well who doesn’t love sex?” asked Chrysalis playfully.

They both laughed once again. “You have a point, but I think it would be unfitting of me to just take in a stallion like that.”

“You’re a princess. You can do whatever you want.”

“But I would rather do it with somepony I have feelings for.”

“I think it’s very silly to save yourself for such a thing. You shouldn’t bother waiting to get married before having fun with him,” commented the changeling.

“It’s not silly,” Luna protested with mild anger. “I waited for my first marriage before getting intimate and it was well worth the wait.”

“Wow, you actually saved yourself for the honeymoon? That was a terrible idea.” She laughed a little when she saw Luna frowning at her. Chrysalis took the bottle and began pouring herself more alcohol. “I don’t get what the big deal is. It is very natural for us to have urges. We don’t need some holy ceremony to permit us to do it.” Chrysalis emptied her glass and rolled her eyes up as she thought some more. “Now that I think about it, marriage might be a little overrated.”

“Well at least I got married,” Luna countered in a non-serious tone.

Chrysalis slammed the glass onto the table, causing Luna to jump. The changeling looked into Luna’s eyes with a cold glare. “That was a low blow, Luna.”

“Sorry,” said the princess with guilt in her voice, “I should have never said that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.” She immediately lost all her respect for Luna. She had the nerve to rub in her massive failure and she felt worse than she had in a long time. She just could not bear being around the alicorn anymore.

Chrysalis stood up and walked past her. “Where are you going?”

“Home. I think I’ve had enough for the day and I’ll be sure to mention our conversation to Twilight on the way out. See you later, Princess.”

Luna ran in front of the stairway. “Wait! I’m really sorry about what I said, please don’t go.”

“I don’t care. I’m done with you,” she spat.

As she tried to leave, Luna placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Please stay. I really like spending time with you and I don’t want you to be upset. Just stay,” she begged.

As Chrysalis looked into her pleading eyes, she thought about how fun it would be to just go home and leave the princess to her misery. However, she decided against it. She already had Pinkie make her give one apology hug already and she was in no mood for another. There was also the fun they had prior to her comment, which there was plenty of. If she just stayed mad at Luna, she would be back to only having Pinkie and her little friends to socialize with, which was already sad enough. She sighed loudly, knowing that she was going to have to stay with her. “Fine.”

Luna faintly smiled. “Thank you, Cherub. I hope you can forgive me for upsetting you.”

Chrysalis just turned away and walked towards her seat. “Just never say such a thing to my face again.”

“It’s a deal.”

Chrysalis sat herself back down and just turned herself away from Luna. She was very angry about how Luna had killed the mood with her comment. She was actually having a good time until then. She knew that she was going to have to say that she forgave her, but she just couldn’t bring herself to. Thinking about her failure left her bitter. She couldn’t wait for the day where she would kick her flank like she had done with her sister.

“Are you still mad at me?” asked Luna worriedly.

“Yes,” Chrysalis replied harshly.

The princess’s ears flopped. “I’m really sorry, I just thought it would have been funny, but I clearly wasn’t thinking straight. I did not mean any offense, Cherub.” Chrysalis just remained silent. “Is there any way I can make it up to you?”

“Nope.” Security plans and potential weaknesses of the alicorns did come to mind, but now was not the best time to attempt in extracting such information.

Luna sighed gloomily. “I am really sorry about what I said and I am also sorry about what happened between you two. I do hope you find another that you will enjoy the rest of your life with.”

“Me too. That jerk hurt me in more ways you can imagine.”

“How are you doing now with your life?”

“Horrible,” Chrysalis answered with complete honesty. “I feel like I’ve hit rock bottom and I am trying to dig my way out. If anypony dares get in my way, I will drag them down with me.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Luna got up from her seat and sat next to her. “Are you sure there isn’t any way I can help? I’m sure there must be something.”

Chrysalis merely shook her head while still not looking at her. “No, not really. It is something that I have to deal with alone. It will be a while until I fix all the damage he has caused. After that, I’m getting payback on him.”

“That sounds like a good plan. You should let me know when you’re ready as I would like to join you.”

Chrysalis faced her with a raised eyebrow. “Oh?”

“He sounds like a terrible stallion for breaking your heart like that and I do not wish to see such an act go unpunished,” the alicorn commented deviously.

The outcast smirked. “How very noble of you, I will gladly take you on my conquest for vengeance. I’m just a little surprised you would be up for such a thing.”

“I just feel that sometimes if you want something done right, you have to get your hooves dirty.” Luna rubbed her hooves together, grinning.

Chrysalis smiled mischievously. “I think I’m beginning to like you, Luna.”

They heard hoofsteps approaching and saw Pinkie standing there. “Hey, you’re all better now, Cherub! Come on down and party with us! We're having a blast!” Pinkie then hopped away towards the source of the loud music.

The red unicorn groaned as she slowly stood up. “Looks like I don’t have much of a choice.”

“At least I will be there with you, and trust me when I say her parties are a little better when you’re tipsy.”

Chrysalis cocked her head. “Are you saying you’ve intoxicated yourself before because of these parties?”

Luna blushed. “Maybe.”

“Is that why you had brandy in the first place?” The princess gave an innocent grin as she shrugged, causing Chrysalis to crack up. “Now that I think about it, I wonder what these parties will be like when Pinkie becomes old enough to drink.”

“Now that would be a sight to behold.”

They broke into a fit of laughter as they descended the stairway.

Chrysalis stayed in Twilight’s home until it was nightfall. Despite being forced to participate in some of the games they played, she actually felt that it was nice to have a change of things, rather than sitting at home and reading. Even though she was surrounded by those who she despised, she didn’t have that bad of a time, except for whenever Pinkie tried to bring up her non-existent lover. Once it was time to leave, she said her goodbyes and thanked Twilight and Pinkie for having her over while actually being sincere. Luna was leaving as well, so they both walked out together.

“This has certainly been a wonderful day,” Luna said cheerfully as she looked at her stars above.

“Surprisingly, I have to agree. Normally I only find misfortune whenever I’m with Pinkie, but I think you helped in preventing that.”

“Glad I could help, but Pinkie Pie is not that bad. She’s a really sweet pony if you get to know her. Everypony likes her and I am sure you will too.”

“I suppose, but I think I really need to work on telling Pinkie that I don’t want to be a part of any of her parties.” Chrysalis turned her head to examine her hind legs. “I swear that cake has already gone to my thighs.”

They stopped walking and faced each other. “It’s been nice meeting you, Cherub.”

“Likewise. It’s not every day I get to spend time with a princess. You’re a lot different than I expected. I never thought you would be so fun.” She still found it strange that Luna was the highest of royalty and could just act like how she did.

Luna giggled. “Just because I’m royalty doesn’t mean I can’t be both fun and friendly.”

Chrysalis smiled and nodded. However, there was something she was very curious about and wanted to ask in private. “Hey, can I ask you something personal?”

“You can ask me anything.”

“Let me first just say that I’m once again sorry about how I acted earlier, thinking you were Nightmare Moon.” Chrysalis stuck a hoof out. She thought this would be a good idea before going through with her question in order to put any hard feelings behind them.

Luna took her hoof and firmly shook it. “Apology accepted. It’s amusing how you were so much like Fluttershy when she thought the same thing now that I think about it.”

“Gee, thanks,” said Chrysalis while rolling her eyes.

Luna chuckled at her. “Sorry. So what is it you wanted to ask?”

Chrysalis was hesitant. “After you came back from the moon and got defeated, how did you get your sister and everypony else to forgive you for what you did?”

Luna’s smile disappeared and was replaced with an uncomfortable look. “When I first returned to Canterlot after my long imprisonment, the only thing I wanted to do was lock myself away from it all. I couldn’t bear to face anypony because I just felt so ashamed of what I did. After a day, my sister managed to get inside and I just wanted to hide.”

“Was she mad at you?”

Luna shook her head. “I thought she was, but she was actually worried about me. She told me that I needed to get out, but I just didn’t want to leave. I couldn’t even look at her. Every time I did, I couldn’t stop thinking about what I had done. She knew what I was thinking and just held me, telling me I shouldn’t worry about the past and that she would always love me. I’m so lucky to have a sister like her.”

“So what did you do after?”

“Once I had returned to my original form, I started raising the moon like I used to back then. And when Celestia had given me a brief lesson about the history I was not present for, I was allowed to do other things like creating treaties and laws.”

Chrysalis quietly huffed as Luna wasn’t answering the question that she was interested in. “What about your subjects? How did they feel about you?” she tried asking politely.

“At first, they were terrified of me, thinking I was still the evil Nightmare Moon, but thanks to Twilight, she helped me change that. Now I am looked at as highly as my sister.”

“They accepted you? Just like that?” she questioned in disbelief.

“When I was Nightmare Moon, all I felt was jealousy and anger, but after I had been restored, all I wanted was forgiveness. I was able to be forgiven because I had changed. I wasn’t the pony they all feared anymore as I was one who was kind, friendly, and understanding. They eventually learned that I no longer had evil intentions and they felt safe around me. There are still many who feel like I am still the same from before and I hope to prove them wrong.”

Chrysalis nodded. “I see. Thank you for allowing me to take your time, Princess Luna.”

“It’s no problem. It has always been a difficult subject for me to talk about, but I appreciate that you are willing to listen.”

“I’m sorry for bringing it up. I was just curious.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Chrysalis could see a mischievous look on her face and became worried. “But now you have to do something for me.”

“Like what exactly?”

“You now have to tell me about your last relationship.”

Chrysalis stared at her, mouth agape. She wasn’t sure how she was going to come up with a convincing story on the spot and she didn’t think she could turn down her demand after what she asked. “Well, it’s a long story, and, well, you see…”

Luna started laughing. “I was merely pulling your leg. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“Oh, well that’s a relief.” She couldn’t believe the alicorn princess had just pulled a fast one on her.

“I need to get going now. It has been fun talking with you and I hope we see each other soon.”

Chrysalis nodded in agreement. “I would like that. Goodbye, Luna.”

“Goodbye, Cherub. Have a good night.”

She watched as Luna flew off the ground. Her horn glowed brightly and after several seconds, she completely vanished. Once she was gone, Chrysalis started heading home. She wasn’t sure why, but she had found a lot of enjoyment in her company. She was much more interesting than she had thought and wouldn’t mind having her as a friend. Luna had even given her some advice that she thought about following for her return to her kingdom.

Chrysalis suddenly stopped and gagged loudly. She couldn’t believe what she was thinking. Being in this town was making her soft, actually considering making friends with her enemy. She didn’t need to change herself in any way. She was fine the way she was. It was just a setback that had put her in this position in the first place. She wasn’t even sure why she was even listening to Luna, who only tried to take over Equestria because of a temper tantrum. Chrysalis’s determination and vision would lead her people into the golden age they deserved and she would never get there by playing nice. She saw it as her sworn duty to stop Nymph from leading the changelings into losing their superiority in the world. They needed Chrysalis and she would not rest until it was done.

A Canterlot Couple

She wasn’t sure how it happened, but it was all over for her in a flash. Somepony had caught onto her and had her reported to the guards. Shining Armor and some of his men came for her in the middle of the night and had dragged her out in cuffs, taking her down without the changeling putting up much of a fight. She was powerless and scared out of her mind of what may be done upon her. The guards had her restrained like a captured animal within a carriage as they flew through the night sky. Any attempt to fight back would only cause Shining Armor to jump in and threaten her silently with his glowing horn.

They had taken Chrysalis to Canterlot’s royal court, where she was put on immediate trial for her attack against the ponies. In front of her was Princess Celestia, looming over her like the sun that she controlled every day. It was Celestia that would become her judge, jury, and likely executioner. Princess Luna, Cadance, Shining Armor, and Twilight with all of her friends were at the ends of the throne room, looking disgusted along with the many other ponies who were attending.

“Chrysalis,” Celestia’s voice bellowed as she looked down at her, “on the charges of ponynapping, assault on royalty, and conspiring to overthrow of the nation of Equestria, I find you guilty on all counts!” The room roared with the cheers of the ponies witnessing her trial. Once they quieted down, the princess spoke again. “And now, I sentence you to the worst possible punishment imaginable.”

Chrysalis trembled before the alicorn. “W-what punishment? Banishment to the moon? Imprisonment in stone?”

The Sun Princess smiled evilly at her. “Oh no, my little changeling, I have something far worse in store for you.” She raised her gavel over her head and struck it down on the armrest of her throne. A flash of light appeared and it blinded the criminal.

When her vision restored, Chrysalis looked around. She was now in the chapel where the royal wedding had happened several months before. All the ponies from the courtroom were there, quietly laughing. Before she could ask what they thought was so amusing, she noticed that she was wearing something. To her horror, she was in a bride’s outfit. Next to her was another pony in a bride’s dress, only that her face was covered in a wedding veil, and in front of her was Celestia, behind an altar. It didn’t take Chrysalis long to put together what was happening.

“By the power invested in me,” said Celestia, who was trying to contain her laughter, “I now pronounce you victim and wife!” The ponies exploded into laughter and cheers. “You may kiss the bride!”

Chrysalis turned towards the mysterious pony taking off the veil. Once it had come off, the changeling released a scream of pure terror.

“Give me a kissy, Chrysie-Wissie!”

Chrysalis’s eyes shot open and she frantically took a look around. To her relief, she was still in her bedroom in Cupid’s Arrow. After she managed to calm down, she got out of her bed and reverted back into her disguise. While she went downstairs and prepared her breakfast, she couldn’t stop thinking about her nightmare. This was the fourth time she had a similar dream and it was by far the worst. She always had to reassure herself that she was perfectly safe and no pony would discover her secret this time. Her strong opposition towards the changelings and her refusal to date had placed her off the radar. There was also the fact that since she was an entirely new pony and not taking another’s place, no pony paid too much attention to her personality. They accepted her for being a very mean pony, especially now since she sort of made up that story of her almost marriage. Even the intelligent unicorn Twilight, who caught onto her before, and Princess Luna, who led the ponies in unmasking her people, had completely bought her act.

During midday, work was progressing casually for both her and Pinkie. Chrysalis was still receiving a below decent amount of customers, but she was just glad she was at least getting activity. She was busy talking with one of them about dating advice while Pinkie was trying to find potential love interests for another. Recently, Pinkie had questioned her about why some ponies wanted to find another of the same gender. Chrysalis could easily tell that she didn’t know anything about gay ponies and rather than getting into that discussion with her, she just said that dating could be something between ponies who were just friends and Pinkie believed her.

Right after she sent the pony to go talk with Pinkie, Chrysalis noticed a familiar figure enter her home. “Hello, Spike. What are you doing here?” she asked in a friendly voice. She really didn’t mind the little dragon too much, even if he was kind of Twilight’s brother. She actually thought about finding one to raise herself in the future and she even wanted to ride it when it was large enough to fly, which would have been a great painting to hang in her throne room.

“Hi, Cherub. I just came by to drop off some of those books you asked for.” For some odd reason, Spike seemed to be nervous as he placed the books onto her desk.

She took them and placed them in one of the drawers. “That’s very kind of you, Spike. I didn’t think you made personal deliveries.”

He rubbed the back of his head while looking away. “W-well, you know, I was just walking by so I decided to drop them off.”

Chrysalis looked at him with fatal curiosity, knowing that something was up. “Was there something else you wanted from me?”

He jumped at her question before looking around. He motioned her closer and muttered in her ear, “C-could we t-talk in private?”

Chrysalis looked around the room. The other customers were busy talking with each other and Pinkie, so she was sure it would be fine to step out for only a moment. “Very well. Follow me into the kitchen.” They both moved to her kitchen and she sat on the floor. “So what do you want?” She watched as he took out a small sack from his bag and handed it to her. She took it and opened it up, seeing the many bits it carried. “What’s this for?”

Spike was still looking away with his face now dark red. “I want to hire you,” he said quietly.

The changeling was caught off guard by his statement. “Excuse me?”

“I want your help with getting a certain pony to like me,” he confessed while twiddling his fingers.

Chrysalis shoved the sack back into his arms. “Sorry, but I don’t help children. If you’re having girl problems, you should talk with Twilight. But then again, she might be just as hopeless as you!” She laughed out loudly, enjoying her personal jab at the unicorn.

She turned around and was about to leave, but Spike ran in front of her. “No, wait! Please hear me out.” She sighed and sat back on the floor, already impatient. “You see, I kind of...have a crush on...one of Twilight’s friends.”

“Rarity.”

His heart jumped when she said her name. “How did you know!?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ve been doing this sort of thing for years. I’ve known about your crush for a long time.” It wasn’t hard for her to notice since she could sense him generating a bit of love every time the white unicorn was near. Even if she wasn’t a changeling, the way he acted around her was a dead giveaway.

“So anyway, I’ve been trying to put the moves on her like I always do, but she hasn’t been paying much attention to me for a while. What’s worse is that she always wants to go to Canterlot. She’s been going there a lot for the last few months and I’m starting to worry.”

“Worry that what?”

Spike was reluctant to speak what he was thinking. “That she’s seeing somepony,” he said quietly.

“What would give you that idea?” she asked with some interest.

“Because she’s always excited to leave and she is always really happy when she comes back. She also never says what she did, just that it’s business.” Spike’s worry was really starting to show.

“And what exactly does all this have to do with me?”

“Rarity is going back tomorrow and I want you to go with her to see if it’s true. I need to know if Rarity is in love with somepony else.”

“Why don’t you do it?” she asked while pointing at him. “You don’t exactly need me to help you with that. I am much too busy to be bothered with such trivial tasks.” She wasn’t sure why Spike was bothering her about this. It always seemed like that the both of them were already very close and sometimes Rarity even seemed to be a little flirty with him.

“But if she really does have a coltfriend, I don’t think I can handle it.”

“And what if it is true, Spike? What do you want me to do, break them up?”

Spike’s face now matched her coat color. “Don’t say it like that.”

Chrysalis let out an amused gasp. “My goodness, Spike, I didn’t think you would ever go that far. I guess Twilight didn’t do that good of a job raising you after all.”

Spike stared at the floor, ashamed. “I know it’s wrong. It’s just that the last time she got with somepony in Canterlot, he was a real jerk and he made her upset. I don’t want that to happen again.”

“How sweet,” Chrysalis complemented. “You really must care about her.”

Spike placed his hands on his chest and smiled. “She is the most beautiful, sweetest, loveliest pony in all of Equestria. I’d give up everything I had to be with her. And she says I’m her Spike-Wikey, which I love. She even…why are you looking at me like that?”

Chrysalis stared at him with her eyes wide open and her mouth hanging open while slightly drooling. She was completely overwhelmed by the love the little dragon was giving off, which was a lot more than what he usually had. It was almost as much as the amount of love Shining Armor had in him for his fiancée. If she could successfully help him win Rarity’s heart, it would be an extraordinary boost to the amount of love in Ponyville or she could at least use him as a personal feeder. She was broken out of her trance by Spike snapping his fingers in front of her.

“Are you all right?”

Chrysalis quickly wiped the spit off her lip. “Sorry. I got distracted by something.” She quickly cleared her throat. “Anyway, I’ve considered what you have said and I’ve decided to help you.”

He smiled with extreme joy. “Really? Thank you, Cherub!” He rushed over and hugged one of her forelegs.

“Think nothing of it.” She then greedily swiped the bag of bits from him. “Now run along home and wait until the day after tomorrow. We will then figure out how to make you two more than just friends.”

The dragon eagerly nodded. “I can’t wait! Oh, and can you not tell anypony about this? I think Twilight might get mad if she knew I was doing this.”

She grinned at him. “It will be our little secret.”

“Great! See you later and thanks again!” Spike ran out and left the building.

Chrysalis walked back into the main room, where she saw Pinkie doing a dance on the table while the two ponies cheered her on, and wondered what she could have possibly missed in the few minutes she was away. Pinkie noticed her staring at her and stopped. “Hi, Ms. Cherub. Am I a great dancer or what?”

“Pinkie, come here.” The pink pony seemed to be worried about why her boss wanted to see her as she walked over. “First of all, I’m not even going to ask what you were doing, so don’t think you’re in trouble.” Pinkie gave a huge grin. “Second, we’re taking the day off tomorrow.”

“But why? It’s not the weekend yet.”

Chrysalis motioned her to come closer so they could whisper. “Spike came to me and needs me to help him with getting Rarity to like him. It seems he has a little crush on her.”

Pinkie became excited. “You’re going to help him get Rarity? I’ve been waiting so long for something like this to happen so I could throw a party!”

The outcast looked at her in mild surprise. “You mean you knew about this?”

“He told me about it one time.” Pinkie placed her hooves on her cheeks. “I think it’s the cutest thing ever!”

“I see. So I’ll be in Canterlot tomorrow and you can take the time to do whatever you want.”

“Can I come? Please?”

“Sorry, but I need to do this alone.” There were two reasons as to why Chrysalis didn’t want to bring her. The first reason was that she was Pinkie Pie. The second reason was that if Rarity was in fact seeing somepony, she was going to have them split up and Pinkie would have only gotten in the way.

Pinkie was disappointed by her response. “But why? Why don’t you want me to come?” She then gasped. “Are you going to look for a new coltfriend!?”

Chrysalis grabbed her by the head and looked her straight in the eyes, furious. “For the last time, I don’t need a coltfriend. I am perfectly fine with being single.” Her only regret with the phony backstory was that Pinkie was asking her about it almost every day. For a few days, Pinkie had brought her up as possible matches to every stallion that had come in and Chrysalis was not happy at all. The pony was very determined to help her get into a new relationship as she thought that doing so would help her stop being angry. Sadly, her problems couldn’t be solved so easily.

“Well let me know if you change your mind! I know plenty of stallions that you will just love! Oh, and I might have told that other pony that you were available,” she confessed nervously.

Chrysalis frowned at her. “I see, but enough about that. We’ve got customers to attend to.” She got back at her desk and waved to the stallion who had just recently entered. “Welcome to Cupid’s Arrow, where true love blooms. And if you even dare try using a pick up line on me, you will be picking up your teeth off the floor.”

The next day, Chrysalis arrived at the train station as part of her deal with the dragon. She decided to take one of her dresses that she had kept in order to fit in with the crowd in Canterlot, which was somewhere she wasn’t looking forward going to as it reminded her of her downfall. She didn’t want to stand out too much, so she had chosen a simple orange dress. She looked through the crowd of ponies, trying to find her target. She soon found Rarity in the crowd, who was wearing a dark blue outfit and looking excited, and she had a bad feeling of why the girl was all dressed up. Chrysalis decided to not approach her yet, trying to make her appearance not too suspicious. Eventually, the train had arrived and she boarded on a separate car from Rarity.

She scouted each of the cars until she found the white unicorn, sitting alone. “Rarity!” she exclaimed while acting completely surprised.

The pony looked up at her. “Cherub? What a surprise! What are you doing here?"

“I’m just having a little vacation time. Work has been simply tiring and I’ve always wanted to see Canterlot.” She motioned a hoof at the bench in front of her. “Do you mind if I sit here?”

“Please do.” Chrysalis sat across from her. “You will absolutely love it. It’s simply the most beautiful city in Equestria and it holds some of the most respectable ponies.”

“I bet it does.” She remembered during her time disguised as Princess Cadance that all these wonderful ponies that Rarity spoke of were very rude and dreadfully boring, kind of like some changelings back home. Now that she thought about it, it was bizarre how two very different species could be so alike. Still, she couldn’t understand why Rarity would be so obsessed with the place.

“And trust me; your dress is simply marvelous. I designed it myself,” she proclaimed proudly.

“You don’t say.” Chrysalis was going to burn it when she got home. “So Rarity, why are you going to Canterlot, anyway?”

Rarity tried to contain her excitement. “Oh you know. I’m just doing some business deals with Hoity Toity, nothing special.”

Chrysalis smiled wickedly. “If it’s nothing special, then why do you seem so happy about it?

Rarity seemed flustered. “Well because it’s Canterlot and you know, it’s great and all.”

The false unicorn leaned in. “Come on, Rarity. There’s no need for secrets between us girls. I know you’re lying.”

Rarity was unable to look into her eyes. After half a minute of enduring Chrysalis’s gaze, she gave in. “Do you promise not to tell anypony?”

The changeling leaned back, satisfied from exposing her. “You have my word.”

The seamstress gulped and said in a hushed voice, “I’m romantically involved with somepony.”

“Oh my. I never would have known!” She tried not to show that she was very annoyed. If Spike had been wrong, the job would have been much easier and she could have just gone home, but at least breaking them up and probably causing Rarity to cry was a bonus. The only problem was that it would likely be very difficult for her to break them up without it seeming like she planned it. “Who is he? Tell me all about him!”

Rarity was no longer nervous and was eager to talk. “His name is Fancy Pants and he is simply the most handsome and charming unicorn I have ever met. I’ve known him for a while, but when he asked me for a dance at the royal wedding, I just knew it was meant to be! We’ve been seeing each other for months now.”

“I’m so happy for you, Rarity,” she said with feigned friendless. “So is it…serious?”

“I would think so. We’ve been out on multiple dates and he’s just so interested in me.” Rarity continued to blush the more she spoke.

The way she talked about him was sappy enough to make Chrysalis barf. She was curious about one thing, however. “But why all the secrecy? I’m sure your friends would be thrilled if you told them about having a lover.”

Rarity sighed and rested her head on a hoof, looking out at the area outside the train. “I do plan on telling them. It’s just that I want it to be a surprise. Fancy and I are in a long distance relationship, so I wanted us to figure that out first. We don’t see as much of each other as we would hope.”

“It must be difficult for you two. It’s a shame that you couldn’t find somepony sweet in Ponyville,” she hinted.

“Yes, but Fancy Pants certainly stands out among the other ponies I know.” She began giggling. “I think he might be my soul mate!”

“How nice for you,” Chrysalis said sarcastically. It was obvious to her that Rarity was seriously into this Fancy Pants, given the amount of love she had been producing while talking about him. Compared to Spike, however, it was incredibly inferior. If only it was stronger would she have told the dragon to find a new girl, but Spike’s show unfortunately still had to go on. She then noticed that Rarity was still talking and started to listen to her. She needed to know everything about her coltfriend if she was going to do this successfully.

Both unicorns strolled through the busy streets of Canterlot after departing from the train. While Rarity was humming and admiring the surrounding city, Chrysalis was busy scheming. She was trying to devise a plan to somehow get Rarity and Fancy Pants to split. Rarity seemed to be obsessed with him and from what she had told her, he had a way with mares. Getting them apart would be very difficult, but she needed Spike’s love badly.

She broke away from her plotting and looked around. There were much more guards patrolling and the walls were littered with posters about anti-changeling propaganda. She began to imitate Rarity’s cheery mood, hoping that it would throw off suspicion. She looked towards the direction of the palace and saw a group of ponies angrily shouting while holding signs in front of the gates. It was likely Nymph was in there at the moment and the group was protesting her presence. She was actually happy that there was so much public opposition because it only hindered Nymph’s progress. She wasn’t sure what was so appealing about ponies to her sister that she would consider making deals with them.

“Canterlot is a lot different than I expected,” she said while looking over at the mob.

Rarity looked at the protesters along with her. “It’s been like this for months. I think until the negotiations end, the protesters will keep making a fuss and the guards will always be on the lookout for the changelings.”

“Have they actually found any?” she asked with concern. She would hate to think any of her subjects were being currently held against their will.

“Only a very few, but Celestia always releases them back to their kingdom. She’s quite forgiving. Rumor is Queen Nymph is trying to prohibit any of them from staying in Equestria in order to prevent a crisis, but since they need our love to live, I have my doubts they will listen.”

She doubted it as well, knowing that the changelings had to feed somehow. “Any idea about how they feel about living with us?”

Rarity gave a shrug. “She seems to be having not as much trouble as Celestia does with her people, but there are still enough changelings who oppose the idea. They still think that we are planning to do something to them to get even for their invasion and they do not seem fond of any other species in the world.”

Chrysalis figured that most of the changelings would be for the idea of living together, given that the other options were to either starve or expect a counterattack. Were things so bad that they would consider being at the ponies’ mercy? Did they actually want to become allies? “How come Ponyville isn’t like this? You’d think that Celestia would provide some protection for the town with her student.”

“Twilight can handle herself. I think it’s probably because Nymph keeps coming here, so they would need all the guards they can get if anything were to go wrong.”

“Shining Armor must be working them hard.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me, seeing how Chrysalis kidnapped his wife and he almost ended up marrying her instead. Just thinking about him marrying such a vile creature makes me sick.” Rarity spat her tongue out to show her disgust. The red unicorn remained silent as she felt that she was only going to be insulted more if she continued the conversation.

Eventually, both of them entered a fancy restaurant several blocks from the crowd, where Rarity said they would be meeting her dream stallion. Once they were seated, the seamstress kept checking herself in a small compact mirror. “So how do I look? There’s nothing out of place, right?” she asked nervously.

“You look fine. I’m sure Fancy Pants will be thrilled to see you, no matter how you look.” While Rarity kept checking herself, Chrysalis decided to brainstorm. Mind control was obviously out of the question with all of the security around her and it was more of a short term solution. Trying to seduce the stallion away would probably end up having Pinkie finding out and walk out for hurting her friend. She just needed one of them to dump the other; preferably Fancy dumping her so Rarity would want to take Spike in to fill the void.

She noticed a blue haired stallion wearing a suit and a monocle walk over towards Rarity, who she assumed to be Fancy Pants. “Hello, Ms. Rarity. It is always a pleasure to see you again.” He grabbed her hoof and kissed it, which caused her to giggle.

“Same to you, Fancy Pants.” She pointed across the table. “This is my friend, Cherub. She’s from Ponyville as well.”

He took a seat next to Rarity and gave a charming smile to the former queen. “It’s nice to meet you, Cherub.”

Chrysalis faked her own smile. “The pleasure’s all mine. Rarity has told me much about you.” It wasn’t like she could get Rarity to stop during their ride.

“All good things, I hope.” He turned towards Rarity and they started speaking. Chrysalis had blocked them out so she could resume her plot.

While she kept thinking, she took notice of something highly intriguing. While Rarity was producing a high amount of love, Fancy Pants was completely devoid of it. Was he not into her after all? That would have made this so much simpler. Rarity, however, would be the difficult part as she was seriously attached to him and was probably living in a fantasy world whenever she was around him. If what Chrysalis assumed was true, then all she needed to do was make Rarity realize the truth. This was likely going to be her most difficult job yet. She just hoped that he was gay, which would make the whole thing futile for Rarity. She decided for her next step she would try to gain some insight on their relationship from his point of view, hoping she could find something to expose him. “I must say, you two make a really great couple.”

Fancy Pants tilted his head. “Excuse me?”

Rarity leaned right next to him. “Thank you, Cherub. Isn’t he just the sweetest?”

The stallion gently pulled away. “Now wait just a minute. Ms. Rarity, having you been telling ponies that you and I are an item?”

Rarity was stunned by his words and she steadily became distraught. “W-well yes, we are t-together.” She gulped. “Aren’t we?”

Fancy Pants took her hooves and sighed. “Rarity, I’m afraid that you have been misled. We are not dating.” Chrysalis put her hooves over her mouth, pretending to act shocked while she was actually trying to hide her huge smile. With just one compliment, she had already lit the fuse. She wished she had some popcorn on her for the upcoming boom.

Rarity looked like she was about cry. “B-but what about that dance and everything else we’ve done together? I thought those were special!”

“Those were just things we were doing as friends. I’m sorry if you have thought otherwise. Had I known this was going on, I would have told you sooner.”

“But can’t we just start now? You and I get along so well!” she pleaded desperately.

He slowly shook his head. “While I do think we both get along quite well, I believe I’m a little too old for you.”

“But it’s only by a few years. I don’t think anypony will mind!” Chrysalis wondered how much the poor pony could take before she had a complete meltdown.

“Rarity, how old do you think I am?”

She trembled violently. “Um…twenty-seven?”

“I’m forty-six,” Fancy Pants corrected.

“WHAT!?” Several ponies were now looking at them. Chrysalis was trying extremely hard not to laugh. The fact that Rarity was dating a pony old enough to be her father was just too much.

“It’s true. I’m sorry, but you and I can’t be together in a relationship.”

Chrysalis watched as Rarity bolted out crying as Fancy Pants called out after to her, which attracted the attention of every pony inside. The sight had made her day and she just wanted to break out into applause for such a wonderful display. She couldn’t believe how simple it was to bring them apart, but now her duty was done and she could now leave the paranoid city. “Well that was unexpected,” she said in high spirits.

Fancy Pants returned to the table, confused yet upset by what had transpired. “I hope she can forgive me for giving her the idea. I really do enjoy her company, but I had no idea I was leading her on like that.”

She shrugged at him. “It’s just your natural charm. It’s certainly intoxicating.”

He looked at her. “Would you believe me if I told you this wasn’t the first time this has happened?”

She laughed. “I would. What I actually have a hard time believing is that a stallion with your looks would remain single. From what she had told me, you are quite a big deal around here.”

The stallion rested his head in his hooves. “It’s just that there’s only one mare that I’m honestly interested in. We had a fling once, but that’s ancient history now. I have yet to bring myself to love another mare.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Chrysalis couldn’t care less about his love life. While helping him could really bring in some customers since he was practically famous, that would require remaining in the city where everypony was on the lookout for her kind, so it wouldn’t be worth the risk.

“Well I suppose I should let you go. I’m sure Rarity will need your comfort,” he said as he started to stand.

Alarms went off in her head as she hastily pulled him back down. “Not so fast. I happen to be a specialist in love and I think I can help you with your problem.” Getting caught suddenly seemed nowhere as bad as dealing with the drama of the unicorn of generosity. Rarity right now was only amusing to watch but terrible to talk with. If anything, she would really not like to meet up with her as long as she could while she went through her crying.

“But what about Rarity? You haven’t been too concerned about her at all.”

She just laughed and waved a hoof. “She’ll be fine. This happens more often than you think and she does better alone.”

Fancy Pants looked at her, completely unconvinced. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” she spat out quickly.

The stallion knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere with her, so he decided to take her word for it. “I see. Well then, shall we depart?” Right as he stood, Chrysalis pulled him down again.

“We’re not going anywhere. As the first part of your payment, you’re buying me lunch. I’m starving.”

During their meal, the changeling socialized with the infamous Fancy Pants. It didn’t take long for her to figure out why he was so popular. There was something about his personality and the way he spoke that was just alluring. What also made him so well liked was how he ran charities for many foundations and was extremely friendly and understanding. She was surprised that Celestia herself had not tried making a move on him as even Chrysalis took a moderate liking to him. She thought it was an absolute shame that she had never met a changeling that could even come close to his charm. Out of all the ponies she knew besides Princess Luna, Fancy Pants was alright in her book.

After she had her fill, Chrysalis followed the stallion through Canterlot until he led her to a large building. The inside was filled with many well-dressed ponies going about their business. A slender, white unicorn with a pink mane approached them. “Welcome back, Fancy. The boss has been looking for you.”

He gave her a nod. “Thank you, Fleur. I hope I haven’t been keeping her waiting for too long.”

Chrysalis watched her as she walked away. “She seems pretty cute. Is that her?”

Fancy Pants chuckled. “Not quite. Fleur is just one of my assistants as well as a close friend. It’s actually her boss that I am interested in.” They went into a large hallway with many photos of various models hanging on the walls. “This is all of her work. We’ve been in business together for a long time and we make quite the team. I provide her with the models and she turns them into a star.”

Chrysalis looked around at the pictures. There were many attractive ponies of all types displayed, each in a different pose while wearing a different outfit. There was even one portrait of a griffon, which she found to be really strange. “You must make an awful lot of bits,” she said while she examined the portraits.

“That’s not why I do it. These ponies all desire one thing, and that is to be famous. We just help them realize their potential and enter the Canterlot high life. They are turned from being a simple pony into a one that is loved and respected by many.” He began to look at her. “Now that I think about it, have you ever considered modeling, Cherub? I honestly believe you have the looks.”

The changeling laughed. “Not really, but I’ll be sure to think about it.” She actually liked the idea of posing and having thousands of ponies drooling over her. Or at least her disguised form. They would just scream or vomit if they saw how she really looked. She realized what she had just thought and immediately hated herself for it. “What about Rarity? Why haven’t you asked her to do any modeling? I’m sure she would have accepted without thinking twice.”

“She tried, but my friend didn’t like her. I believe she chose her friend Fluttershy instead.” Chrysalis’s mood was instantly restored.

Fancy Pants turned towards one of the doors and opened it. Inside was a studio with various ponies setting up a photo shoot while various mares were either walking around or had their photos taken. A pegasus mare was surrounded by various make-up artists as a blue earth pony ordered them what to do. “No, less eye liner. More. Perfect! She iz ready now. It iz now time to make…da magics!” she exclaimed while sticking a hoof out.

“Hard at work as usual I see, Photo.”

She turned and looked at him, pleased with his arrival. “Zere you are! I need you to review our contracts with da publishing company in Trottiningham.” She then took notice of his company. “And who is zis? Another model?”

Chrysalis, who figured out who Fancy’s mystery lover was, saw a moment of opportunity and took it. “Yes I am. Fancy Pants was an acquaintance of one of my friends and she's always telling me that I should be a model. I just met him today and I decided to give it a try, if it isn’t too much trouble.”

Photo Finish circled around her, carefully examining her figure. She got behind her and stopped to stare at her flank. “Zis cutie mark. What iz it?”

“I sort of help ponies fall in love. It’s not really that special,” she answered while pretending to be shy.

Photo laughed loudly. “I think it iz an excellent talent. Love iz the greatest zing a pony could feel.” Her expression then turned into scorn. “Shame zat not all poniez realize zis and would rather mess around.” She saw the way Chrysalis was looking at her and resumed her regular self. “I zink you have what it takes. What iz your name, by the way?”

“Cherub,” she said proudly.

“Alright, Cherub, please wait here while I prepare a room for you.” She went to one of the doors in the back of the room and disappeared.

The changeling turned towards the stallion. “You’re telling me that out of all the mares you get, she’s the one you want?"

He nodded. “That is correct. She and I have known each other for a very long time and I have taken a liking to her. And what you are even doing accepting her offer? I thought you were supposed to be helping me.”

“I’m doing it because I want to for myself and that it will help me with my job. I won’t stand out as much if I look like I work here. Playing matchmaker in the field requires a bit of subtlety.”

He smiled. “I see. That is very clever.”

“Anyway, why don’t you ask her out or something? It should be easy enough if you’re good friends.”

Fancy Pants let out a sigh. “I’m afraid it’s not so simple. Did you see how mad she got when she talked about ponies messing around?”

It took her a moment to realize what he was implying. “Was she talking about you?”

“Yes. You see, many years ago, I was not the gentlecolt I am now. I was wild young thing who loved nothing more than spending money and chasing girls. One of those girls was Photo herself. There was just something about her that just kept bringing me back to her. Perhaps it was her fiery passion for art, or maybe it was her accent. Whatever it was, it was the first time I had fallen in love.”

“So we kept seeing each other and eventually she gave me a job here. She was originally just a simple photographer, but I helped her turn into something much more. I financed her and provided her with many beautiful mares. We later on grew close and began dating. Sadly, the charm I used to convince the models to join tended to stick, sort of like with Rarity, and being surrounded by so many gorgeous mares who wanted a piece of me brought me to my old ways.”

The changeling gasped. “How scandalous!”

“Indeed. I had started becoming distant with Photo as I was much more interested in all of the other girls. After several months, she had caught me having a rather private photo session with one of them and had figured out everything. I confronted her in her home and she was furious. I tried to calm her down, but I was only met with heavy objects being flung towards me.”

Chrysalis was actually surprised from his story. After everything she had seen from him, she did not expect him to have done anything like that. Releasing the story to the media would have made things interesting for a while, but she thought it was a little too mean for somepony she didn’t hate as much. “So why are you two still working together if she hates your guts? I would have fired you if I was her.”

“As much as she wanted me out of her life, I was one of the reasons why she had become a big success in the first place. She decided to keep me and it was over a month before she had said a word to me. Right now we are just business partners and nothing more. I should have told you of all this before, but I was just so ashamed. Do you think you can help me, Cherub?”

Chrysalis rubbed her chin, pondering everything he told her. “I’m not going to lie: if she’s held on to a grudge this long, it would be very hard to have her let go in a day. I may help ponies find love, but you might need a miracle worker to help you with this.”

Fancy became slightly afraid. “Please try your best,” he pleaded. “I would greatly appreciate any effort you make.”

“Cherub!” a voice called. They looked and saw Photo waving to her. “We are ready for you now.”

“Coming, Ms. Finish.” She left the stallion behind and entered the other room. She was seated in front of a large mirror and then immediately surrounded by several make-up artists, bombarding her with powder, lipstick, and other things. When they were finished, she looked into the mirror. She hated how she looked, but she decided to keep her thoughts to herself. Chrysalis was taken out of her seat and was given a dress, which she put on.

Photo examined her all over, making sure everything was in place. “Oh, it looks perfect on you. Now we go! Let’s see you make…da magics!”

They returned to the room with the set and Chrysalis stood in front of the cameras. She wasn’t nervous at all since she was only doing this temporarily and using a false identity, but while she was doing this, she was going to have fun with it. “So what do I do?”

“Just go stand over there and do what I tell you to do. Now, show me what you got!” Chrysalis decided to strike a pose and the next thing she knew, she was being blinded by many flashes. “Good! Now give me something else. Yes! Nice! Keep going! More! More! Oh, zis iz beautiful. Okay, enough!” The crew departed from the set as Photo started dragging her back into the changing room. Inside, she tossed her another dress. “Put zis on,” she ordered.

While Chrysalis was dressing, she decided to get to work. “So Fancy Pants has told me a lot about you, Ms. Finish.”

“Oh really?” She noticed that’s Photo’s tone had changed into something aggressive. Clearly she was just as mad as she was all that time ago. “What waz it zat he had to say?”

“He just told me about you two help ponies reach stardom.”

The earth pony scoffed. “We do so much more than zat. We create art! Culture! Lifestyle! Being famous simply pales to what is created by my talent. Of course he wouldn’t share my vision. All he sees is bits and beautiful girls.”

Chrysalis was very annoyed by how Photo twisted her words. “I’m pretty sure that’s not what he meant.”

“Are you finished yet? Good. Let us resume in da picture making.” They went back out to the studio. Photo left her on the set and brought over a yellow unicorn. “Now, I want you to do a few pictures with Honey Dew. You zink you can handle that?”

“I think I can,” she lied.

“Excellent. Now you two wait here while I get my good camera.” Photo turned and left the two mares behind.

While the former queen was hostile, the model was more than friendly. “Are you new here? It’s so nice to meet you! I can’t wait to get to know you.”

Chrysalis didn’t like the idea of having anyone trying to steal her spotlight, especially a lowly pony. “I just hope Photo’s good camera is a magic one that drops ten pounds instead of adding, seeing your condition.”

Honey Dew looked at her, appalled. “M-my condition?”

“You know.” She got up to her ear and whispered, “Your weight issue.”

“I-I don’t have one!” the model shouted defiantly.

The changeling giggled and leaned around the mare. “I noticed your butt jiggling when you were walking.”

Honey gasped and looked at her flank. “It’s not that big, is it!?”

“It was bouncing all over place like jello. Do they call you Honey Dew because you like to stick your hoof in the honey jar and get nice and fat?”

Honey shrieked and bolted to the restroom, likely trying to lose her imaginary weight through the fastest way possible. Photo Finish returned, but had not noticed what happened. “Where iz Ms. Honey Dew?” she asked while looking around the room.

“I don’t know,” Chrysalis replied innocently.

Photo sighed. “I guess it will be just you again, Cherub. Just do what you did last time.” This time, Chrysalis was more eager to show off her body. For these pictures, she decided to crank up the sex appeal. If this didn’t put her on the cover of any magazine, then nothing would have.

“Celestia, eat your heart out,” she said under her breath as she continued to pose.

After several more pictures, the camera crew left to go to another set. The photographer began heading towards the dressing room again. “Alright, five more of dese and zen you can take your break, Cherub.”

The changeling quickly trotted up to her. “Ms. Finish, about Fancy Pants.”

Photo Finish growled. “What about him now?”

Chrysalis thought there was no point to beat around the bush any longer. “He kind of told me about you two having a relationship in the past.”

The earth pony stopped and stared at her. “And did he tell you why it ended?” she asked coldly.

“Yeah, and he feels really bad about what he did.”

“Seeing how he didn’t care about my feelings back then, I don’t so much care about hiz now!” Photo Finish continued heading back to the back room, her mood completely soured.

Leaving her in a foul mood because of the past was not going to help her in the slightest. “You don’t miss him at all? I thought you two were very close.”

Photo didn’t bother to look at her. “I’m not sure what I could possibly mizz about zat deviant.”

Chrysalis increased her pace and stood in front of her. “Come on. You sure there’s nothing you like about him? There must be something if you kept him around this long. Just try to think of one good moment the two of you shared. Anything.”

Photo decided to recollect her time with the stallion. A few seconds later, a smile appeared over her scowl. “Well, for a first date, he waz kind enough to bring me to…it doesn’t matter! I did the smart thing and left hiz sorry flank behind while I moved ahead in life. I will not make the same mistake again. There’s much more magic to create, so less talking and more working.” After Chrysalis got dressed up again, the pony went behind her camera as Chrysalis got back onto the set. The changeling was happy that she managed to chip away a piece of the brick wall that was Photo Finish. Maybe her job wasn’t a complete lost cause if she remained persistent.

“Now, bring more me more beauty! Good. Excellent! Superb!” Photo suddenly gasped. “Stop zat right now! We are making art, not pictures for Playcolt! Cut!”

Chrysalis spent over four hours modeling and as much as she enjoyed doing it, her current assignment took a higher priority. Whenever she had the chance, she would go to Photo and try to bring up Fancy Pants as much as she could in hopes of convincing her to drop all her hatred of him. She managed to get her to talk a little about her past with the stallion, but she was still determined on blowing him off. But now whenever they spoke, she would only think of the good times, so she was getting somewhere.

It was the end of the work day and she was certain she would give in at any moment. Since she would not be there tomorrow, now would have been the best time to make her final push. “Alright, dat’s a wrap!” called out Photo to her entire staff.

To the changeling’s surprise, posing for several hours was actually very exhausting. “So how did I do?”

Photo’s eyes were gleaming and she clapped her hooves together. “You were absolutely marvelous! Have you done something like zis before?”

Chrysalis loved her praise. “No, I just went with what felt natural.” She had actually done a bit of posing during her hunts, but she had mostly done it in private and in front of a mirror.

The earth pony threw a hoof around her and pointed outward. “You have such grace, Cherub. If you stay with me, I will take you as high as the starz themselvez and make you a symbol of Equestrian culture!”

Chrysalis smiled, desiring what she was being promised. “I’ll be sure to thank Fancy Pants for giving me such an amazing opportunity.”

Photo became agitated by her comment. “If you want to make it big, you better stay away from him. He iz no good.”

“I really think you need to forgive him for that one mistake.”

Photo Finish groaned. “Must you bring dis up again? I have my reasons for breaking up with him. I don’t trust him. He may seem all charming, but there’s a reason he works in a modeling agency.”

“Does it bother you when he’s with other mares?”

Photo Finish was flustered. “Of course it does. No mare should fall for his charade. At first he makes you feel like you’re special and you’re the only one he has his eyes on. And before you know it, you catch him saying zat exact same thing to another mare. If you cannot zee him for what he iz, zen zis conversation is over.”

Right as she turned around, Chrysalis grabbed her and turned her back. “Believe me when I say Fancy Pants is definitely not like that anymore. I think you should go and just give him a chance.” She didn’t notice the other models were now looking at them.

“Why? Just to have my heart broken again? After what he did, I could never bring myself to love another,” barked Photo.

“I thought you said love was the most important thing a pony could feel,” Chrysalis reminded.

“I guess it’s just something not for me,” replied the stubborn mare.

“So what then? Do you want to grow old and live alone as you go senile and talk to your photos as if they were really alive?” The earth pony stared her down from behind her large glasses. “Look, it’s obvious you are still attached to him, but you’re scared of getting hurt again. I can sympathize with what happened, but you just need to give him another chance. It’s better than just living in spite for the rest of your life. He’s not the same pony he was back then. He’s a true gentlecolt.”

Photo was steadily becoming angrier with her. “And why should I take your word for it? Why do you keep insisting on talking about him when it’s clear dat I don’t want to be with him?”

“Because my talent is to help ponies fall in love, remember?” She pointed a hoof at her cutie mark, hoping she would get the hint.

Something clicked in the head of the blue mare and her hatred of Fancy Pants began to sway. “Yes, I see. Maybe you do know what you’re saying after all. But how do you know he even thinks of me that way?”

“While we were coming here, he wouldn’t stop talking about you. He went on about you being good at taking pictures and stuff like that and feels completely ashamed about what happened. Hasn’t he ever tried apologizing to you for it?”

Photo eyed the floor. “Yes, but I always told him off. I just can’t bring myself into forgiving him. He was such a jerk.”

“Trust me when I say that he is a completely different pony from all that time ago. There is a reason he is now one of the most respected ponies in all of Equestria. He is polite, charismatic, and he always runs those charity events. Does that sound like the Fancy Pants who took advantage of you all those years ago?”

Photo slowly smiled. “I zink you bring up a good point. I really do want to be with him. He was so dreamy back zen and he still iz now, maybe even a little more after you described him.” She looked up at Chrysalis. “You’re da expert. What should I do?”

Chrysalis threw a hoof around her and pulled her close. “It’s simple. Just go to dinner with him tonight and talk. It doesn’t need to be romantic, just you two spending some quality time together as friends. I’m sure you can ignite an old spark. Even if you don’t, at least let go of what happened. I promise you that he wants things to be back to the way they were and it would be better than holding a grudge. And if things just don’t work out romantically, I promise I will help find another stallion for you.” The models were now grouping together, murmuring to each other.

Photo was becoming very excited over thinking that she could actually live happily ever after. “Very well. You go tell him zat I will meet him in an hour. He’ll know where I want to go. I must make some preparationz before coming.” Photo finish walked out with a skip in her step, humming happily.

Chrysalis was smiling as well, believing that her attempt was successful. She couldn’t wait to tell Fancy Pants the news and be done with this incredibly long job. If things ended well tonight, her business would be booming. However, as she tried to leave the studio, she was blocked off by a mare. “Excuse me, what do you think you’re doing?” she asked the changeling.

“I’m trying to leave, so get out of my way.” Chrysalis tried to walk past her, but was shoved back. “Watch it, girl,” she said threateningly. She then noticed that all of the other models had surrounded her, all of them angry. “Why are you all looking at me like that?”

“It’s because you want Fancy Pants to marry that old crone!” the mare yelled at her.

“And why is that any of your concern?” she asked hatefully.

“Don’t you get it?” barked another model. “Fancy Pants is one of the wealthiest and most popular bachelors in Equestria.”

Chrysalis gave out an annoyed sigh. “And let me guess, you want to marry him.”

“Exactly.”

“So you want to deny him and Photo Finish true happiness just so you can get rich and have your picture shown in a few magazines?” Chrysalis would have easily done the same thing, but now wasn’t the time.

“Hardly. I think he would be much happier with a young girl like us.”

Chrysalis became very worried. Her plan was going to go up in smoke if a dozen mares barged in on their date and demanded his hoof in marriage and she probably couldn’t take them all on by herself. But like she did as a queen, she could just have others solve her problems for her. “So which one of you will be the lucky bride?” she asked the mob.

“Me!” they all said at once. They then looked at each other, actually surprised that another mare wanted him.

Chrysalis chuckled loudly, annoying her captors. “Now you see the problem. He can’t possibly marry all of you. He would probably pick the most beautiful mare. Now which one of you is that?”

“Well that’s easy,” said one mare. “It’s me. I’m the best looking.”

“Oh please, you’re so last month. I’m the one who’s hot right now!”

“Yeah, but that’s only because you got wing implants,” another hissed.

“Liar!”

Chrysalis could feel the rising tension in the room. They were currently yelling at each other and had forgotten about her. She slowly inched her way to the door, hoping that none of them would notice her. It was good that they had turned on each other, but she decided to play it safe and make sure none of them would interfere at all. “Hey!” All of the models became silent. “You know what Fancy Pants doesn’t find attractive? Black eyes and bruises.”

All of the other mares looked at her, confused. When they realized what she was getting at, they turned towards each other with malicious smiles on their faces. They yelled as they all piled on each other and started fighting. They were all bucking, biting, and even pulling on each others hair. Chrysalis saw three mares charging towards her and rushed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her. She grabbed a nearby chair and lodged it against the door. The door was being pounded with tremendous force as a bunch of ponies slammed against it.

“What is going on!?” Chrysalis looked and saw Fleur dashing over.

“Fleur, help me hold the door!” she ordered.

“But-”

“Just do it!”

Fleur obeyed and took hold of the chair. “What is going on in there? Why are they all fighting?”

“No time to explain. For Celestia’s sake, you need to keep that door closed. Also, where is Fancy Pants?”

“He is currently in his office, on the third floor.” Chrysalis bolted down the hall, leaving her behind. “Wait! How long am I supposed to stay here!?”

The red unicorn dashed up the flight of stairs and threw the door to the office open. Fancy Pants was sitting at a desk, going through several documents and was not expecting her entrance as some of the papers fell onto the floor. “Cherub?” he asked in surprise. “Whatever is the matter?”

“Great news,” Chrysalis panted. “Photo Finish wants to go to dinner with you in about an hour.”

The stallion quickly stood up, completely overjoyed. “Really? That’s fantastic!”

She ran over and started dragging him by the hoof. “Yeah, but we need to get going right now.”

He took a pocket watch out of his suit. “But what’s the rush? There’s still plenty of time.”

“We need to get out of here as soon as possible. Your life depends on it.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Let’s go already!”

He decided not to ask anymore and followed her out. When they returned to the lobby, they saw several security guards rushing towards the studio. “What is going on over there?”

“Nothing. Just keep walking.”

It was dusk as both of the unicorns waited nearby the entrance of the restaurant. For the past fifteen minutes, Fancy Pants kept rechecking himself in the window. “For the last time, you have nothing in your teeth and your hair doesn’t look like you’re wearing a toupee, so stop worrying so much and just act natural.”

He pulled away from the glass and nodded. “Sorry, it’s just that I’m a bit nervous.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “You don’t say.”

“I can’t believe she’s given me another chance,” he said excitedly. “I’ve tried convincing her myself, but she wouldn’t have any of it. How in Equestria did you get her to change her mind?”

She shrugged. “What can I say? I have a way with words. Just make sure you do your part and maybe we’ll be hearing wedding bells in the near future.”

He suddenly took her hoof. “I can never thank you enough for what you have done. You are a truly remarkable pony and you have changed my life forever.” He then proceeded to kiss her hoof, which Chrysalis didn’t mind.

“FANCY PANTZ!”

Both of them jumped and saw a very angry Photo Finish approaching. “Photo!” Fancy Pants gasped.

She furiously stomped over to them and got right in the changeling’s face. “So is this how it is, Cherub? You try so hard to tell me what a wonderful guy he is and den proceed to make moves on him!? How dare you toy with me like zis!” Photo began to walk away. “Enough of zese games! You can keep your tramp, Fancy! And don’t bother coming to work tomorrow, Cherub!”

He quickly ran to her. “Now just wait a minute. I was just properly thanking Ms. Cherub for helping me in convincing you. There is nothing going on between us,” he assured.

She scoffed. “Sure, and you probably just happen to have several pictures of her for your cutie mark collage!”

Chrysalis felt weird by what she had just said, but she decided to ignore it. “Ms. Finish, if you would just listen for a minute.”

Photo faced her and the changeling could somehow see the rage from behind her glasses. “I don’t need to listen to anything! I can clearly see what iz going on, you trollop.”

“Ms. Finish…” she said with rising anger.

“You obviously are in cahootz with him. You were to try to make me think that Fancy Pantz had changed in order to get my hopez up. And when I arrive, you would show that it waz a lie, crushing my spiritz.”

Chrysalis absolutely despised being ignored, especially now as she was so close to complete a task that would greatly benefit her needs. “Photo…”

“And when I run home and cry myself to sleep, you would come and finish me off, making it look like it waz my own doing. And then you would change my will to have it say I left all my money to you two. Well I will not stand for dis!” She got on her hind legs and raised her front hooves, giving off jabs in the air. “Dis old girl still has fight in her. Your magic cannot compare to my kung-hoof training!”

“Will you just shut up for a minute and listen!?” Both ponies stared at her, surprised by her outburst. “You want the truth? Well here it is! I actually do have a job in matchmaking and Fancy Pants is my client!”

Photo took a quick step back. “What!?”

“Yes. I met him through a friend and when he heard about my profession, he told me about his situation and hired me. He even got on his knees and begged for my help because he is so in love with you.”

“No, I-” He saw the look Chrysalis was giving him and knew what she was trying to do. “I mean, yes I did. I know it seems silly, but I was just so desperate for you.”

“Fancy…” the mare said in shock.

“I couldn’t get the guy to leave me alone. He kept going on and on about how he couldn’t live without you and how no girl ever caught his eye like you did. Trust me, Photo, he is really into you. You-”

Photo Finish raised a hoof in front of Chrysalis’s face. “You stop speaking, now!” The way she interrupted the changeling was almost enough for her to take the hoof and sink her fangs into it in rage, but Chrysalis restrained herself. Photo Finish turned towards Fancy Pants. She took off her large sunglasses, showing her violet eyes. “I want to hear everything from him.”

Fancy Pants looked deeply into her eyes. “Everything she has said is true. I hired her because I knew I could never convince you myself, no matter how hard I try. I know what I did to you hurt more than anything else in your life and I can never forgive myself. You are the most important pony to me, Photo. You are the reason I changed my ways into becoming the stallion I am today. I want to show you how much you have changed me and make you happy. So what do you say? Will you allow me to show you?”

“Oh Fancy Pantz…” Both of them stared at each other in silence, smiling. Suddenly, Photo Finish slapped him across the face. “You should have said dis to me sooner!”

“But I’ve tried!” he complained while rubbing his cheek.

“You should have tried harder!” She then let out a sigh. “Maybe I’ve been too angry at you. Fifteen years iz a long time to stay mad about something. I suppose I should have given you a second chance before, or maybe at least gone lighter on you. I was just so angry for how you betrayed my feelings. But now, I feel dat things will actually end happily between us. I want to try to make this work this time.” She looked up at him with moist eyes. “I want you in my life, Fancy.”

Fancy felt bliss from her words. “I am so joyed to hear that. Now we should-”

“Don’t zink you’re off da hook!” she snapped. “You are going to walk me home and cook dinner for me. And tomorrow, you are going to pay for the damages and apologize to my staff for having that unicorn of yours start that brawl!”

“What? What damages? What brawl?” He looked at Chrysalis, who was looking away and whistling innocently. “O-of course. I will get right on it.”

“Good, and there will be much more to be expected. Now let us depart. I tire of the night air.”

“Just give me a moment. I need to speak with her for just a minute.” Fancy Pants ran over to Chrysalis. “I cannot thank you enough for all you have done for me. I am in your debt.”

“She still seems to hate you, though,” noted the changeling.

He took a glance at Photo. “She does, but at least she has given me the chance for me to redeem myself. That is more than I could ever ask for.” He reached into his suit and pulled out a large bag. “Here is the rest of your payment. It has been worth every bit.”

Chrysalis accepted his very generous offer. It was likely he was paying her more than the actual price of her services, but she decided not to say anything. “It’s been a pleasure. If things do work out between you two, be sure to tell everypony that I was responsible for it.”

He nodded. “I promise. And when you see Rarity, please tell her that I am sorry for what happened and give her my best regards.”

“Fancy, hurry up!” called out the mare. “I am having da cravings!”

“Coming, Photo!” He ran to her side and they disappeared into the distance.

Chrysalis turned and started heading towards the train station. She was relieved to be finally able to leave Canterlot and return to the less dangerous Ponyville. She couldn’t help but smile. She made a good amount of money, possibly increased her reputation by about tenfold, was able to strut her stuff, start a fight, and best of all, she made one of Twilight’s closest friends cry, all in one day. At least now that Rarity was single again, Spike would be able to get with her and generate some love for the town. It seemed like things were finally going her way.

She looked around the city once more. It bothered her to see all of the posters demonizing her kind. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t even spoken with a changeling in several months. She was still trapped in Ponyville with nowhere else to go. She looked up at the castle and began to think about the one back at her home. She had never been away from her home for this long before. Chrysalis missed the beautiful sight that was her kingdom, wondering whether or not she would ever be able to return home. The thought of failure began to weigh down on her as she hung her head. She missed it all: Her throne, her subjects, the atmosphere, everything from the Changeling Kingdom.

Everything except Nymph.

Dating Damsels in Distress for Dragon Dummies

Celestia’s sun pierced through the window of Cupid’s Arrow and soon awakened the slumbering changeling. The morning was much different for her because instead of resting in her bed as she normally did, she was currently hanging from the ceiling. Her longing for home had gotten the best of her the night before and she decided to create a cocoon to sleep in. Changeling cocoons were created by weaving slime they produced from a sac in their throats. The fluid was not just ordinary slime, however. It was mostly produced by converting the love they absorbed into a physical form with their magic, giving it magical properties. It was used to catch and imprison prey and could heal injuries on a changeling. She felt odd about sleeping in one, but it certainly made her feel better.

The former queen began wiggling around to free herself from her chrysalis. She broke free by cutting it open with her horn and gently lowered herself onto the floor. The slime covered her entire body, so Chrysalis headed into the bathroom to wash herself off with a hot shower. When she was done cleaning herself, she went downstairs to acquire the mop and bucket she kept in the storage closet. She cleaned the mess she made by dumping the goo into the bucket and then pouring it down the bathtub drain. Once she was finished, she stashed the cleaning tools back into the closet.

In the kitchen, she hummed to herself as she prepared herself toast and coffee. She was not too fond of pony food, but they really knew how to make some good coffee. She was in a very good mood as she knew that the news of the Fancy Pants' and Photo Finish’s relationship would come up one day and she would attract many customers. Another bonus was now that Rarity was officially single and likely an emotional wreck, Spike should have no problem winning her over.

She picked up the newspaper from outside her front door and sat at her desk. The front article informed her that the protesters she noticed yesterday grew out of control when Nymph was leaving and bombarded her with rotten vegetables. The picture of the article showed the queen hiding behind her guards as a tomato struck her in the face. Chrysalis laughed at the sight of it and tore out the paper so she could frame it. She was glad that things weren’t going so well as it would be a good reason why her people would want her back.

Once the clock struck nine, she spoke aloud, “I hope you enjoyed your day off, Pinkie, because today we’re going to work much harder to make up for lost time.” She was only met with silence. “What’s the matter? Does it bother you to put in extra effort?” She looked up and was met with an unusual sight. “Pinkie?” she asked while looking around. For the first time, she was not exactly on time. She shrugged and resumed reading. “I guess there’s a first time for everything.”

Time passed and Chrysalis was becoming both more curious about her whereabouts and more agitated. Five minutes had passed and nothing. The curiosity shifted to annoyance. Twenty minutes went by and still no sign. Her annoyance evaporated to anger. Eventually, she tossed the paper aside in a fit of rage. Pinkie was now over an hour late and she had no idea why. She couldn’t afford to waste any more time. She leapt from her seat and stormed out the door. Many ponies were frightened by the pure fury she expressed on her face as she went past them. One pony was foolish enough to try to talk to her and was picked up by her telekinesis, only to be hurled an incredibly long distance. She had one destination in mind and nothing was going to get in her way.

Mr. Cake pulled the brownies out of the oven and stored them in the box. He and his wife were having a busy day with many orders and Pinkie’s absence meant there was much more work for them to try to make up. He was glad she was at least still around for the weekend to lend a hoof. He heard the door open and greeted the new customer. “Hello, Cherub! How can-” He fell silent as the furious mare slowly stomped her way over to the counter. He and his wife grabbed each other and fell to the floor, fearing their guest. She leaned over the counter and looked at them with intense anger. Her eyes were glowing intensely green and she was snarling at them. “W-what do you want from us!?”

“WHERE. IS. PINKIE PIE?”

Pinkie handed her friend a box of tissue. “Here, Rarity.”

Rarity blew her nose and tossed the tissue into the trash. “Thank you.”

“You’re a wreck, Rarity. Are you sure there’s nothing we can do for you?” asked Twilight with concern.

“No, but thank you for offering. I’m just glad you are all here for me.”

Pinkie felt almost as sad as she did. Before she left Sugarcube Corner, Fluttershy came and informed her about Rarity’s state. She immediately hurried over and the rest of her friends joined her there later on. It turned out that Rarity secretly had a coltfriend. At least, she thought she did. She was still upset over the whole ordeal and Pinkie was sure Cherub would understand why she didn’t come today.

“So how come ya never mentioned ya were involved with Fancy Pants?” questioned Applejack.

Rarity rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. “I’m sorry, girls. I was just waiting for the right time before telling you all. I was even going to have a party planned to announce our love.”

“I don’t get why you’re so upset about him,” said Spike. “Can’t you just find somepony else?”

“But I wanted him!” Rarity bawled. “He was gentle, intelligent, and charismatic. He was perfect in every way!”

“Except for being really old,” Rainbow Dash pointed out mockingly.

Rarity cried louder while Twilight looked at her friend with a look that showed she wasn’t happy with what she did and Dash gave a nervous grin in return. Suddenly, they heard the door being thrown open downstairs, startling all of them. “Pinkie Pie, get your flank down here right now!”

“Uh-oh!” Pinkie ran out of the room and dashed down the stairs to meet with her boss. “Hi, Cherub. Are you here to see Rarity?”

“I’m here because you suddenly decided to not bother showing up to work. Instead, I find you just playing with your friends,” Chrysalis spat bitterly. She felt that they were not needed to help Rarity and would be better off working with other ponies. If the unicorn was doing as badly as the Cakes told her, she would have taken Spike in a heartbeat.

“But I’m not playing!” Pinkie protested. “Rarity’s really upset about something and I want to be with her until she’s happy again.”

“I’m sorry to hear about her, but it’s going to have to wait until we’re done today. You and I have work to do,” she reminded.

“But, but…” The earth pony was only met with a disgruntled look and sighed. “Can I just stay for a few more minutes?”

Chrysalis wanted to refuse, but she couldn’t bring herself to saying no as she stared in her pleading eyes. “Just make it quick.”

“Thank you, Cherub.”

The former queen watched as she quickly returned upstairs. A few seconds later, Spike came downstairs and headed straight towards her. “Hello, Spike. Having any luck catching Rarity on the rebound?”

“What did you do!?” he angrily shouted at her. “She’s practically in pieces!” He charged her, ready to attack, but was stopped when she held him back with a hoof on his forehead as he wailed his fists at the air.

“Calm down and stop yelling at me. I didn’t do anything. Her so called ‘lover’ found out that she thought they were more than friends and let her down.”

He pulled himself away from her as he lost all of his fury and sat against on the steps. “She seems so devastated. Did she like him that much?”

“She wouldn’t shut up about him almost the entire time I was with her. I’m pretty sure she was expecting him to propose someday.” She could see the upset look on his face, so she smiled and patted him on the head. “But hey, now that she’s single again, you can finally get with your dream girl. Now get up there and make a move, lover boy,” she suggested encouragingly.

Spike looked down onto the ground. “But I don’t want to make a move on her like this. I caused this to happen. It doesn’t feel right for me to ask anything from her.”

“Why not? She’s desperate for a lover and you seem to fit that category pretty well, Spike. Besides, you did absolutely nothing wrong. Her fantasy was doomed from the start.”

“But she really liked Fancy Pants and he wasn’t even trying to get her to like him. She’ll never love me that much. I’m just a kid.” He then slumped his shoulders, devoid of any hope.

Chrysalis groaned as she listened to him talk. It was clear her end of the whole thing wasn’t over just yet. She lied on the floor in front of him and lifted his head by his chin. “Spike, you just have to try. I honestly think you have a shot.”

“Really?”

“Sure. You’re the only one I know who she gives a pet name to, Spikey-Wikey.” Spike blushed. “You’re a real nice guy and you could be just like Fancy Pants if you try. It’s just that I will have to help Rarity see that.”

Hope ignited in the dragon’s eyes. “You mean you’re going to help me?”

She rubbed his head. “Of course. True love must always prosper.” So she and her people could feed on it later.

They then noticed Pinkie coming down the stairs with a large frown on her face. “I’m ready to go now,” she said depressingly.

“Excellent, because we just happen to have a job right now. Right, Spike?” she said while winking at him.

Pinkie tilted her head. “What?”

“We’re going to get Rarity to love Spike.” Pinkie took in a deep breath, ready to let out a scream of joy, and Chrysalis charged to stick a hoof over her mouth. “Don’t do that. Ever.”

“But how do we do it?” she asked, muffled under Chrysalis’s hoof.

The outcast released her and wiped her hoof on herself to get the slobber off. “For starters, we need her to get over Fancy Pants, which shouldn’t be too hard. Once that’s done, we’ll help our little dragon take her heart.”

“But she needs that to live!” Pinkie cried frantically.

“Metaphorically, you idiot.”

Pinkie immediately calmed down. “Oh.”

Spike was next to panic. “But if she sees you hanging around, she might get suspicious!”

“I will be there as a concerned friend, nothing more. When she’s all better, I will instruct you on how to handle her. I am afraid I cannot be around as much as I would like, so you are going to have to do most of the work yourself.”

The pony stood on her hind legs and waved her forelegs. “And I know how to make Rarity feel better!”

“I doubt a party would help.” Pinkie sat down, but then raised a hoof to say something else. “Cake won’t either.” She put her hoof down. “There’s no need for anything complicated. Let’s just go upstairs and see her. We can figure out what to do from there.”

They ascended the stairway and entered the unicorn’s room, finding her on the bed while wearing a robe. Her hair was a rat’s nest and her eye liner was leaking onto her face. She and the other ponies took notice of them entering. “Aren’t you supposed to be going to work, Pinkie?” questioned Rarity.

The latest guest of the boutique stepped in front of Pinkie and approached her. “When I heard about your current state, I decided to let her take the day off. I had not realized how much of a mess you were.”

Rarity looked at her angrily and sat up. “How could you have not noticed!? You were there at the restaurant!”

Chrysalis darted her eyes around, unable of creating a credible excuse on the spot. “I…wasn’t paying attention.”

“I bet you weren’t since you were too busy with your real intention of coming to Canterlot!” She pointed a hoof at the red unicorn. “I know all about your plot!”

Both Chrysalis and Spike became worried. “You do?”

Rarity reached under her pillow and pulled something out. “It wasn’t hard to figure out, since it was published this morning!”

She threw a magazine at her, which Chrysalis picked it up and examined. The rest of the ponies gathered around her to see what she was talking about. On the cover was one of the various pictures of Chrysalis from the modeling she had done the day before. She was surprised by how fast Photo Finish had it ready for print. “Even if the camera adds ten pounds, I still got it,” she said, admiring the picture.

“It couldn’t have been a coincidence that you wanted to come to Canterlot on the same day as I did," Rarity spoke, regrabbing everyone's attention. "You must have known I was close to Fancy Pants. You just wanted to use me so you could become a model!”

All of her friends gasped except for Spike. “Cherub, how could you!?” yelled Pinkie.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “You’re overreacting. I only did that modeling one time while providing my service to Fancy Pants.”

“What service? Taking advantage of your friend?” Rarity shouted accusingly.

“Matchmaking,” she replied proudly.

Everypony looked at her in complete surprise. “He…hired you?” asked Rarity in shock as her voice shook.

“Yes he did, and I’m sure he and Photo Finish will be very happy together.” Rarity fell back onto the bed. The whole room remained silent for a moment until she started bawling again, causing the changeling to groan. “What’s wrong with you now?”

“I’m going to grow old and die alone!” she whined. “Why can’t I find a good stallion? Is there something wrong with me? Am I…ugly!?” She dug her face into her pillow and sobbed loudly.

“Don’t cry, Rarity. I’m sure you will find somepony who will love you,” said Fluttershy in an attempt to calm her friend down. "You just need to give it time."

Chrysalis pushed Spike towards her and he climbed onto the edge of the bed, stroking her hair. “You’re not ugly, Rarity. Your beauty is unmatched across all of Equestria. What happened with Fancy Pants wasn’t your fault, so please stop crying. Everything’s going to be all right." He then took her hoof. "I promise it will be okay.”

Her sobbing eventually faded and she smiled at him, causing the drake’s heart to flutter. “Thank you, Spike. I miss Fancy Pants so much, but I guess it was not meant to be." She rolled onto her back and loudly sighed. "Twice now I've fallen in love with somepony that didn't feel the same about me. I just wish there was an easier way to find a pony that was suitable for me.”

Before Spike could say something to take advantage of the moment, Twilight got an idea. “Rarity, isn’t an obvious? Why don’t you hire Cherub and Pinkie? They could help you find a coltfriend!”

Rarity gasped and sprung up. “Of course! Why haven’t I thought about that before?” She looked at the older mare, whose eye was twitching slightly. “Please forgive me for my earlier accusations. I’m afraid I acted in haste. If it's not too much trouble, could you perhaps help me with my little problem?”

Chrysalis was ready to tackle Twilight, but she managed to maintain her composure. “Don’t worry about it. I will gladly help you find somepony perfect for you. Why don’t you get some rest first? You will want to look your best for your possible future husband.”

The seamstress nodded. “You’re absolutely right. I’ll catch up on my beauty sleep and see you when I’m ready.”

“We’ll be on our way then,” said Applejack. “Ah wish ya the best of luck, Rarity.”

All of her friends said their goodbyes as they left the unicorn to her slumber. Once they were outside the boutique, Twilight looked at Chrysalis with worry. “So do you think you can help her? Rarity does not deal with stress very well and I’m not sure what else to do. You’re kind of her only hope.”

Chrysalis gritted her teeth and shot her a hateful glare. “Well I had everything figured out until you opened your big mouth, Twilight.”

Twilight and the other ponies paused. “What?”

She spun around and looked at the group. “I was hired by a certain someone to help have Rarity like him, but now all she’s going to want is for me to find her some other rich and famous stallion to get disappointed by. You must feel so proud, Sparkle.”

“Who could have possibly hired you to get Rarity to like him?” asked Rainbow Dash. "I mean, she's my friend and all, but you see how crazy she got over Fancy Pants? Who would want to deal with that drama?"

With a smirk on her face, the matchmaking queen pointed at the dragon. “Him.”

Twilight’s friends gasped and Spike blushed furiously. “You were supposed to keep it a secret!”

Rainbow Dash laughed hard, causing Spike to hide his face behind his claws. “You’re in love with Ms. Drama Queen!? I didn’t take you for the type!”

“Now be nice, Rainbow,” Applejack said sternly. “Ah should have known though, the way ya always keep starin’ at her and whatnot.”

“I think it’s really sweet,” said Fluttershy. “You’re really nice and Rarity likes you a lot. You would make a great coltfriend for her. Well, if you were a little older that is.”

Twilight walked over to the Chrysalis, unhappy. “Cherub, you cannot seriously be helping him. As Fluttershy said, he’s a little too young for her.”

The changeling shrugged. “Nothing a few years can’t fix. In my personal experience, I feel that Spike is the best choice for her. He’s polite, sensitive, caring, charming, and Rarity thinks he’s adorable. They're already good friends, so why not get them a little closer?”

“But-”

“Before you even say another word, tell me right now how much you know about love that you didn’t learn from a book.” Twilight blushed and lowered her head while Rainbow Dash laughed at her, giving the changeling immense satisfaction. “That’s what I thought. And don’t worry, I know exactly what I’m doing, so I want the rest of you to go home while Pinkie and I handle this.”

Twilight stuttered as she tried to think of something to argue against what Chrysalis was doing, but sighed when she came up with nothing. “Fine.” She walked over to her assistant, trying to smile. “Spike, I know I’ve said I didn’t think Rarity would ever return the same feelings, but for once I hope I’m wrong. I hope everything works out.” She reached out and hugged him tightly. "And if it doesn't, just remember I'll always be here for you, no matter what."

He couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks, Twilight. I really appreciate it.”

“And if it does work out, I will make the wedding cake!” shouted Pinkie excitedly.

“I think you’re thinking a little too far ahead,” remarked Fluttershy shyly.

“We’ll see what happens, but right now we have work to do. Come on, you two.” Pinkie and Spike followed Chrysalis as they headed towards Cupid’s Arrow.

Twilight and her friends watched as they left and then walked together in the opposite direction. “Do you think she can really get Rarity to love Spike?” asked Fluttershy with worry.

The unicorn felt as uneasy as her, having doubts about any good coming out of the situation. “I’m not sure, but I just hope this doesn’t end badly for him. He’s been so obsessed with her that I worry of how hurt he would be if she turned him down.”

“Trust me, Twi, Cherub is a professional at what she does. She will make them into an item without a doubt. Ah’m sure with how Rarity is feelin’, she will handle the situation with great care.”

“Are you sure this will work?”

“Trust me, it will.” Chrysalis didn’t even look at him since she was reading another book. She had recently grown bored of horror stories and had moved onto murder mysteries.

Spike still felt doubtful despite her reassurance. “But don’t you think it’s a little…extreme?”

“No. It’s exactly what she needs.”

Pinkie ran over and rubbed Spike’s head comfortingly. “Quit worrying, Spike. Cherub is totally good at this stuff!”

“Does that include telling Twilight’s friends about my crush on her?” he asked in an annoyed tone.

Chrysalis placed the book down and looked at him. “I’m really sorry about that, but I just wanted to make sure they didn’t get in the way. And they were all fine with your secret, so there’s no need to feel embarrassed.”

“I guess.”

She studied his body language. “Are you nervous?”

“I’ve never been out on a date before.”

“You’re not going on a date,” she corrected sternly. “You are here to bring her comfort during her time of need. Mares really appreciate a shoulder to cry on and this will take you far. Now stop fretting and act like you’re busy. We wouldn’t want Rarity to catch on.”

Spike and Pinkie worked on sorting files in the filing cabinet as they waited for the seamstress to appear. Eventually, Rarity came in and Chrysalis felt Spike's nervousness increasing sharply. She was back to her beautiful, cheery self, had makeup on her face, and even one of her favorite hats, which was large, pink in color, and carried a pink and while flower on the side. “Hello, darlings, I’m here!” she announced as she entered Cupid’s Arrow. As she approached the front desk, she noticed Spike near the filing cabinets along with Pinkie. “What is little Spikey doing here?”

“He’s assisting me today since I’m a little behind on some things because of my day off. I can see now why Twilight likes having him around. He’s just so reliable and sweet. I wouldn’t mind having a stallion like him in my life,” Chrysalis emphasized. The red unicorn pointed at the chair in front of her desk and Rarity sat down excitedly. “Let’s get down to business. Just tell me what you desire in a stallion and Pinkie and I will try to find the perfect match for you.”

Rarity didn’t even need to think about what she wanted. “I’m looking for a proper gentlecolt, one who is highly respected. He should be able to have high standards of the high life and love me for the beautiful and loving pony that I am.”

Chrysalis stared her down, which Rarity didn’t notice. Her guess of what she wanted was pretty spot on and this was good for what she had in store for her. “You really aim for the top, don’t you?” she asked, pretending to be happy.

Rarity gave out a giggle. “I’m just a girl who knows what she wants.”

She chuckled under her breath. “Well Pinkie and I will be upstairs for a moment. I keep some celebrity magazines which we could look through since there aren’t any single ponies here like what you have described.”

Rarity became more excited. “A celebrity? Can I join you two?”

“No. Stay down here and let us do our job. Spike should be good company while we’re working.” Chrysalis got up and motioned Pinkie to follow her. She looked over at Spike and winked at him, which made him smile. The duo got on top of the stairs and tried to listen to what was happening below. “I really hope he knows what he’s doing.”

“What could possibly go wrong?” asked Pinkie optimistically.

“He confesses to her too soon and she friend zones him.”

They heard Spike talking and they became quiet. “How are you feeling, Rarity?”

“I’m doing much better now,” she responded cheerily. “I just hope Cherub and Pinkie can find somepony for me.”

“Yeah, me too,” he lied.

“So how did you end up working here?”

Spike was glad that he was given an excuse beforehand. “Pinkie asked me to help because she said Cherub was working her overtime.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. A dating service like this must be a lot of work for those two.”

“Well it’s definitely less work than what I do with Twilight. Working here wouldn’t be so bad if Cherub pays well.”

“I guess not, but then you would be stuck with Cherub,” she said jokingly. Chrysalis noticed Pinkie giggling and smacked her on the back of the head. “Even if she doesn't really show it, she must enjoy having this for a career. She seems to be really good at what she does and what could be better than bringing ponies together romantically?”

“I think she just scares them into loving each other with her temper.” Both of them laughed, making Chrysalis grind her hoof against the floor. “But I guess it would be easy since only desperate ponies would come here.”

Rarity’s smile immediately vanished. “Is that what you think I am? Some sort of desperate damsel?” she asked sternly. Chrysalis and Pinkie looked at each other with worry.

Spike realized what he had just implied and panicked. “I-I didn’t mean it like that, Rarity!”

“Well how did you mean it, hmm?”

The little dragon was sweating bullets. “I…well…you see…”

Chrysalis and Pinkie ran down the stairs, startling them. “We got one!” Pinkie shouted excitedly.

Rarity instantly forgot about being angry and clapped her hooves. “You did? That’s fabulous!”

The false unicorn sat at her desk while holding a magazine. “It was difficult, but we managed to find only one pony available that is perfect for you. Let me describe him to you before I do the grand reveal.” Pinkie reached under her desk and pulled out some drums, doing a drum roll as Chrysalis spoke. “He’s one of the richest and most well-known ponies in Equestria.”

Rarity, grinning widely, leaned forward in her seat. “Yes?”

“He is the most sought out bachelor in the city of Canterlot, if not Equestria.”

“Yes!?” Rarity asked with more enthusiasm

“And he is even royalty!”

“Tell me who he is already!” Spike watched anxiously, bracing himself for the impact.

“Rarity, I give you,” Chrysalis slid a torn out page to her, “Prince Blueblood!”

“NO!” Rarity grabbed the paper and tore it into hundreds of tiny pieces, which she threw onto the ground and began stomping on.

Pinkie had to drag her away from kicking the destroyed photo. “Rarity, calm down!” she cried as her friend was struggling to do more damage to the little that remained.

“You’re telling me the only pony you could find is that self-centered loser!?” the unicorn screeched.

“Uh…yes?” Chrysalis wasn’t expecting such an explosive reaction from her. What happened between them must have been much worse than what Pinkie had described to her.

Rarity huffed furiously, but once she calmed down, her waterworks began once again. “It’s true! I am going to die alone!” She ran over to one of the couches and began sobbing loudly.

Chrysalis rubbed her temples, annoyed that she would have to deal with her loud crying again. On the bright side, this was the second day she made Rarity cry in a row, so she was on a roll. She looked over at the Spike and motioned her head towards the crying pony. Spike got the message and ran to Rarity. “Don’t be upset, Rarity! You are not going to die alone. I’m sure you’ll find somepony someday.”

“But I want one now!”

Chrysalis came over and faked a sigh. “I’m sorry, Rarity, but it looks like there’s no other pony available at this time. Pinkie and I need to continue working, so Spike will be sure to escort you home. We'll just have to try again another time.”

Rarity nodded and got up from the couch. “Very well. Sorry for wasting your time.” She held her head down as she left Cupid’s Arrow.

Spike ran to the door, but stopped before opening it. He turned back at Chrysalis and asked, “Are you positive this is going to work?”

“It will. Just remember, she needs a friend right now, not a coltfriend, so try not making moves on her for now. Now go and comfort her. We will be right behind you.”

Spike left and walked alongside Rarity. As soon as they were almost out of sight, Chrysalis stepped outside. “Come on, Pinkie. We have to make sure that it all works out in the end. I’ve invested too much time in this already.”

Rather than her normal bouncing, Pinkie only walked, weighed down by guilt. “I feel so bad for Rarity. She was so dependent on us and we had to let her down.”

“We didn’t let her down. We’re just using alternative methods for giving her a lover. In case you haven’t noticed, she’s kind of spoiled.”

The pony gasped and ran in front of her. “No, she’s not!”

“Is it true that before the Gala, she was actually expecting Prince Blueblood to propose to her on the spot?” Pinkie’s silence made Chrysalis smile. “Exactly. She’s just so focused on the high life that had I even suggested Spike, I’m sure she would have broken his little heart.”

Pinkie frowned and looked at her friend in the distance. “You make Rarity sound terrible.”

“I wouldn’t say she’s terrible, just that she wants things she doesn’t need. Now stay quiet. We can’t let her hear us.” Once they were close enough, they hid behind various carts, trees, and ponies as they tried to overhear the conversation between the two.

“I can’t imagine what you’re going through, Rarity,” said Spike sympathetically.

Rarity still had tears in her eyes and she was using her hat to hide her face from the other ponies around. “It’s absolutely awful to not be able to find any love, especially after going through a breakup. I can’t stop thinking about Fancy Pants, either. I feel so embarrassed by what happened that I don’t think I can ever show my face to him again.”

“It could be worse. You could’ve actually tried giving Blueblood a second chance,” he joked in attempt to better her mood.

Rarity chuckled at the thought. “I suppose that’s true. I was at least smart enough to realize he was no good for me. Too bad I couldn’t see things for what they really were with Fancy Pants. He was a friend and nothing more.”

“I don’t get why you’re still hung on him. He sounds like a real jerk for leading you on like that.”

“Excuse me!?” Rarity looked at him intensely. “How dare you even say something like that about him!” she yelled, attracting the attention of the various citizens in the area. “He is one of the most respectable ponies I have ever met in my entire life! You have a lot of nerve to insult him like that, Spike!”

“Uh-oh,” said Chrysalis, who was currently standing behind a tree. “He’s really done it now.”

“What do we do, Ms. Cherub? She’s going to clobber him!”

Chrysalis looked around, trying to quickly come up with an idea. She would just need to create a distraction in order to have Rarity forget about what he said. She saw a nearby food stand and got an idea. “Pinkie, hide.” Pinkie hid behind the tree while she magically levitated one of the items.

Spike was on the ground with his hands in front of him, guarding himself from her wrath. “I’m sorry, Rarity. Just please stop yelling!”

“I don’t appreciate having you bad mouthing my friend like that. Maybe I should take you to Twilight so she can teach you-” Rarity was startled when a large tomato flew from nowhere and struck the dragon on the head. She gasped loudly and ran to his side. “Oh my goodness! Are you okay, Spikey?”

Spike was busy cleaning himself. “I think so. Where did that come from?”

Chrysalis tossed another one, which hit the ground in front of them. “Go back to where you came from, dragon! You don’t belong here!” she yelled in a disguised voice.

Rarity placed him on her back and galloped towards the boutique as Chrysalis and Pinkie came out of hiding to give chase. “Why did you do that!?” shouted Pinkie.

“Because the kid was in some serious hot water. It was either that or watch all of my hard work fall apart.”

They arrived outside Carousel Boutique and hid near one of the open windows. Inside, they could see Spike on the couch while Rarity cleaned him off with a towel. “There, is that any better?”

Spike felt relieved from the much kinder voice she was using. “A lot better. Who threw that, anyway?”

“I don’t know, but I swear if I ever find the pony responsible, I will break all of their legs!” Chrysalis made a mental note to have Pinkie swear she would never mention to anypony what she did. Rarity quickly calmed down and sighed. “I’m sorry, but I just need some alone time. Today has just been too much for me and I just need to think things over. Stay here and I will fetch you some gem stones for being such a good friend.”

As soon as she left the room, Spike noticed Chrysalis and Pinkie at the window, calling him over, and he approached them. “I’m glad you’re here. We’ve got a problem!”

Chrysalis gave him an irritated stare. “You bet we have a problem. You really need to watch what you say, kid. Getting her mad at you won’t help you at all.”

Spike shifted his eyes away, embarrassed that they had both seen the spectacle. “I know it won’t. It just sort of slipped out. Now she wants to be alone and she’s still upset. What should I do?”

“First, you apologize for what you said about Fancy Pants. Second, you’re here to make sure she’s doing alright and seeing how she was doing back in Cupid’s Arrow, I have my doubts. What you need to do is try to be supportive of her and make sure she’s happy.”

“But how do I do that? She seems so volatile.”

“Well duh,” said Pinkie while pointing a hoof at her own head. “You’re her friend. Just do what you always do when you’re over here.”

Spike thought about it and could only think of two things. “Help find gems and make dresses?” he asked, feeling unsure about his answer.

“Whatever takes her mind off of things. When she starts feeling better, you need to carefully push the issue and talk it out with her. Just try not to upset her again, or the next tomato will be a rock. A big rock.”

“Is somepony there?” Rarity called.

Chrysalis and Pinkie immediately ducked while Spike went over to the unicorn who just entered. “No. I was just talking to myself.”

Rarity gave him a basket full of various gems. “I want you to have this, Spike. I hope this will make up for everything I’ve put you through today. You are such a sweet friend for putting up with me today.”

The drake happily took the basket, thinking over the many foods he could create with the stones. “Thanks.” As he stared into his own reflection in each of the gems, he remembered what he was supposed to do and looked up. “Rarity, I just wanted to say I’m really sorry about what I said earlier.”

She gave him a heartwarming smile. “It’s alright, Spike. I know you’re trying to be supportive and I shouldn’t have reacted like that, but next time be careful about what you say.”

“I promise. So how are you feeling now?”

She got onto the couch and rested her head on a pillow. “I don’t know, to be honest. It’s been a rough couple of days. I think I just need some time off from everything.”

He went to Rarity’s side and held her hoof. “Is there anything I can do for you? We could make dresses if you want. That always makes you happy.”

Rarity smiled at him and he smiled back. “You’re very sweet, Spike, always looking out for me." The mare sat up and hopped off her seat. "Very well, I suppose I could use a hand with some of these dresses.” She went into her closet and brought out an unfinished dress, which she placed by her sewing machine. Rarity turned it on and proceeded to work. “I don’t need you to do anything yet, so you can just keep me company.”

“Alright.” He stood around, trying to think of what to talk about. “You know what’s funny? I heard that Queen Nymph was also hit by a tomato recently.” That brought out a smile from Chrysalis.

Rarity chuckled. “That is certainly amusing. While I can see why somepony might do that to her, I can’t imagine why somepony would do that to your cute little head.”

“Me neither. Speaking of changelings, did you see any yesterday while at Canterlot while Nymph was there?”

“Fortunately not. Cherub and I only saw the protesters outside the palace.” After a few seconds, Rarity suddenly stopped her sewing.

It was a moment before Spike took notice of her not working. “What’s up, Rarity?”

“Something just occurred to me about her.” Chrysalis didn’t like where this was going.

“Cherub? What about her?”

Rarity got up from her table and paced around. “She said she was there for vacation because she needed a break from her job and yet she was willing enough to help Fancy Pants.”

Spike looked around frantically, sweating. “M-maybe he offered her a lot of money. He is rich, after all.”

“I suppose. But I can’t help but think there’s a little more to it than that. I mean, it’s one thing that she comes on the same day as me, but then she leaves me and goes with him instead. And on the train before we arrived, she immediately started getting into my love life and wanted to know everything about us.” Rarity bit her lip as she continued to think intensely.

The dragon's teeth were chattering as sweat covered his body. “R-Rarity, I know you've had a rough few days, but you might be overthinking things a little. It’s not like somepony told her about you and him and wanted her to break you up.” Pinkie and Chrysalis face-hoofed.

Rarity gasped loudly, enraged. “You know what? I think you’re on to something! It’s all just a little too suspicious to me. I should go over there right now and demand answers! I will not be made a fool! Cherub will regret the day she-” The doorbell suddenly rang, interrupting her. “Oh! It seems I have a visitor. Excuse me for a moment.” She got up and left the room.

Chrysalis and Pinkie came to the window and called Spike over. When he came, Chrysalis grabbed him and lifted him up to her face. “Spike, is it possible for you to go for five minutes without saying something stupid!? If you keep this up, you are going to be on your own, love or no love.”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t think she would react like that. Please don’t go!” he begged.

She dropped him and stuck a hoof in his face. “Well you better do something before she breaks down my door and makes accusations that could damage my reputation.”

“Like what? I don’t know what to do with her! She just seems really angry and I keep thinking if I say anything, she’s just going to flip out again.”

“Do what I always do when I’m grumpy, fill up my tummy!” Pinkie rubbed her stomach. “Take her to a nice restaurant and I’m sure she will forget all about it.”

Spike smiled for a moment as he liked the idea, but he still had a problem. “But what should I say to her? I’m worried I’m going to upset her again.”

“Don’t worry! I’ll find a way to let you know what to say!” Pinkie promised.

Chrysalis dropped him and they got away from the window as Rarity returned to the room. “So who was it?” asked Spike.

She sat at her table and huffed angrily. “No pony. What pony goes around doing doorbell pranks?”

“Uh…Rainbow Dash?” he guessed.

Rarity let out a quiet smirk. “That does seem like her, but I doubt it was her just now.”

Spike watched as she worked with a look of disdain on her face. He felt a little nervous about saying anything to her. “Rarity?” he asked shyly.

“What?” she yelled in a very annoyed tone. She took notice of Spike looking hurt and sighed. “I’m sorry, Spikey. I’m just feeling really stressed out today.”

“I was going to say that I think we should go out somewhere. Working might not be the best thing for you today.”

Rarity moved away from her table. “I suppose you’re right. No point in trying to make anything if I can’t focus.” She took the dress and placed it back into the closet. She turned towards her friend with a smile on her face. “So what did you have in mind?”

“I was thinking we could go to a restaurant together for some lunch. As friends, I mean. It will be my treat.”

“Oh Spike, that’s so kind of you. I will gladly take you up on your offer.”

Chrysalis and Pinkie watched as they left Carousel Boutique and followed. “Well great,” said Chrysalis. “There’s no way we can get close to them now. It would be impossible to be sneaking around like this in a public area. I don't think we can bail him out of trouble now.”

“Sure we can. We just need a disguise! I left my kit at Cupid’s Arrow, so I’ll be right back!” Pinkie then ran off, leaving the changeling behind to keep watch of her targets on her own.

Spike and Rarity arrived at a small restaurant and were seated at one of the outside tables. Once they received their menus and the waiter left, Rarity addressed her friend. “It’s really nice of you to bring me here, Spike.”

He hid his face behind the menu. “W-well, you know, you’re my friend and I just want to help you.”

Rarity pulled it out of his hands, revealing his blushing face. “I don’t think you would have ever done something like this for Rainbow Dash or Applejack,” she cooed.

“I would too,” he objected. “It’s just that I don’t think they have ever been through something like you have.”

“I suppose that’s true.” Rarity sat silently and pondered as her friend looked for what he wanted to eat. “Spike?”

“Yes, Rarity?”

“Do you think I’ve been over dramatic about all this?” she asked, slightly ashamed.

He could see she was looking at him expectantly, making him a bit nervous. “Well, you have been acting a little too crazy and ow!” Spike felt something pull roughly on his tail.

“Are you all right?” Rarity questioned.

“I’m fine, just a cramp.” He looked around, trying to find what had done that. He then noticed a familiar pony at the table behind Rarity staring at him. He recognized her to be Cherub, but she was wearing a trench coat and sunglasses. Spike figured he was about to say something wrong and she was warning him with magic. “What I meant to say was I think you’re being reasonable. It must be hard to go through such a breakup with somepony you love very much.” He was glad that she bailed him out once again, but he wondered where Pinkie was since she said she was going to help him.

“It is. I think the worst part is how I actually thought we were dating. I feel like a complete idiot for thinking we were together.”

“Well you said Fancy Pants was unintentionally leading you on, so it’s not your fault.”

Rarity, however, just rested her head on the table. “I guess you’re right.”

They stopped talking as their waiter came over to them. “Hello! My name is Pin…I mean Stinkie and I will be your waiter today! What can I do for you?”

“Just give me a salad,” said Rarity without looking at her.

“And I will have the…” Spike looked up the waiter and nearly gasped. It was Pinkie wearing a uniform as well as her trusty mustache. “…The apple pie with a side of gem stones.”

“Excellent choices.” Pinkie held out a napkin to Spike. “Take this extra napkin.”

“Why?”

“I said take the napkin.” Spike gulped and nervously took it. “Good boy.” She then pulled on his cheek. “I’ll be right back with your food, you little cutie!” She ran from them and went inside the building.

Both Spike and Rarity watched as she left. “She was certainly friendly.”

“No kidding,” the dragon said while rubbing his cheek. Pinkie seemed to be acting odd. Why did she want him to take the napkin and why did she pull on his cheek? He looked at the napkin to see what was special about it. He noticed there was some writing on the underside of it. While Rarity wasn’t looking, he brought it under the table to read. On it was writing in marker that said, “Ask about Fancy Pants, tell jokes, tell her she’s pretty.” He put it aside and cleared his throat. “So what are you going to do about Fancy Pants now?”

Rarity rested her head on her hoof and sighed. “I suppose I could talk with him and have him try to forget what happened. I would still like to have him as at least a friend as I do love his company.”

“He sounds like a reasonable guy, so I’m sure he will just forget about the whole thing.”

The unicorn gave him a bit of a smile. “I think so, too. It will just be all water under the bridge and we might just laugh about the whole thing in the future.”

“Maybe you could bring him over sometime. I would like to meet him.”

Rarity became enthusiastic. “You will just love him. He is so interesting and delightful. I’m sure he would be very interested in meeting a dragon.”

“As the only dragon in Ponyville, I guess that makes me a celebrity like him.”

“But I’m sure all the mares will want his autograph more.” They both laughed.

“You might have a point. I’m surprised no pony has ever mistaken you for a celebrity, considering how beautiful and talented you are, Rarity.”

Rarity blushed. “That is very kind of you to say. It’s a shame that I don’t really think that will help with my situation. I may be the ideal mare, but I still need to find my ideal lover.”

The dragon shrugged at her. “Look on the bright side, your love life could be like Twilight’s.”

Rarity became very intrigued. “Oh really? What is it like for her? I didn't take her as the dating type.”

“Alright, let me tell you everything about it.” He motioned her to come closer and she leaned in. Spike remained completely silent until he said, “And that is everything about her love life!”

Rarity laughed. “Spike, that’s terrible!” Chrysalis chuckled from the nearby table. “But I suppose you have a point. I wish she would get out more and socialize with some boys. Princess Celestia should have made her write her reports about love, but maybe she would get a little too scientific.”

“Actually, she did have a relationship once.” The changeling took immediate interest in the subject.

Rarity gasped and leaned across the table. “She did!? She never told me about it! You have to tell me everything!”

“Oh, I remember all of it. She couldn’t get enough of him. She spent every moment with him, day and night. I think it was the first time she fell in love. I even remember her talking about how much she wanted to kiss him.”

“Whatever happened to him?”

“You really want to know?” he asked in a serious tone.

Rarity gulped. “I do.”

“She finished the book series and couldn't read about him anymore!” Both of them burst out laughing and Chrysalis joined along while banging her hoof on the table in hysterics. She would be sure to use that when she got her revenge on Twilight.

“Spikey,” Rarity said in between laughs, “that is just awful!”

“I know. They really should have made a few more books. Poor Twilight was just so upset that I'm surprised she didn't start writing her own books about him.”

The unicorn couldn't help but snicker. “You have quite the sense of humor.”

“Thanks, but don’t tell Twilight. I can’t imagine what she would do to me if she found out. Probably kick me out.”

“She would never do that. She loves you. But if that were to ever happen, you are more than welcome to stay with me, Spike. Just as long as you don’t make jokes like that about me.”

Spike felt really warm and nodded. “It’s a promise.”

Pinkie came back with their food. “Here you go! One salad for the pretty unicorn and one super delicious apple pie with a side of the best gem stones I could find!”

Spike licked his lips as the plate was placed in front of him. “Wow. Thank you so much!”

“No problem! Let me know if you need anything else, you little cute dragon.” Pinkie then smooched him on the cheek and ran off.

Spike and Rarity sat silently as they watched her leave. “Wow. Am I really that cute?” he asked in surprise as he rubbed his cheek.

She slowly nodded without looking at him. “You are, but that mustached mare seemed to be a little too friendly with you.”

Chrysalis pulled hard on her own mane, desperately trying to figure out what just happened. She could not believe that Pinkie had just kissed Spike like that in front of Rarity. She saw her employee coming by and grabbed her to sit her down to ask hostilely, “Pinkie, what in the name of Celestia was that!?”

“I’m sorry! I just suddenly noticed how cute he looked and I couldn’t help it!” She looked over towards Spike. “I just want to hug him and squeeze him and keep him all to myself! Why does he like Rarity and not me?”

Chrysalis felt confused as she listened to her talk. “Are you feeling okay? You seem to be acting way more unusual than usual.”

“I don’t know. I just suddenly noticed how attractive he is and I want him for myself!” She got up. “I’m going to see how they’re doing!”

Before she could take one step, Pinkie was pulled back down. “Oh, no you don’t. I am not letting you near them again until I figure out what is wrong with you.”

“Stinkie!” a voice called. They looked and saw another waiter standing nearby. “What are you doing? You need to get back to work!”

“Yes sir!” shouted Pinkie as she stood up and bolted.

Chrysalis tried to grab her again, but she was too quick. She loudly groaned as she watched Pinkie continuing to pretend to be a waiter, pounding a hoof on the table. “Why can’t things ever be simple?”

The two friends remained at the restaraunt for over an hour, talking about various subjects of interest. Chrysalis was bored out of her skull as she had to listen in to everything they said. She was glad Rarity looked a lot better than she did earlier, but she couldn't stop thinking that Spike would make another foolish choice and undo everything in an instant. She also kept an eye on Pinkie, still trying to think of a rationale explanation for her behavior and making sure she didn't do another stunt like that again. Once they were ready to leave, Spike paid for the meal and walked along Rarity. “Spike?” she asked once they were a good distance from the restaurant.

“Yeah?” His heart jumped when he saw that she had a faint tint of red on her face.

“Would you mind escorting me to the park? I don’t think I’m ready to go back yet and I would truly appreciate your company.”

“S-sure.” They walked side by side and found one of Ponyville’s parks, where they walked along the path and spoke with each other. So far, Spike thought the day was going very well with Rarity. It wasn’t as romantic as he thought it was going to be, but he would take it. He wished he thought about asking the red unicorn earlier, but like most of his friends, he thought she was kind of an unlikeable jerk. Ever since Applejack told him how she got together with Caramel, he decided to save up his allowance for a chance with the mare of his dreams.

Chrysalis and Pinkie arrived at the park and laid low in some bushes. Pinkie had started to settle down with her obsession with Spike, but Chrysalis was still uneasy about bringing her, still trying to find an explanation for Pinkie’s strange behavior. “Did you see how Rarity asked him to do something? I think it’s working!”

“I hope so. There’s no way she can turn down a guy like that, but he still might need some help, so we better stay close.” They watched as they sat at a nearby bench. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she was relieved to see Rarity smiling. “They actually seem to get along really well.”

“I know, right? Spike’s a really nice dragon and he really cares about Rarity. I wish I had a pony like that.”

“I agree. I wouldn’t mind having a personal flank-kisser like him.” She almost did have somepony like Spike, one who would obey her beck and call, until Twilight ruined it.

“It is really lovely out here,” said Rarity.

“Yeah. I could just sit here forever,” he said while looking at her.

“After what I have been through, I have to agree. It feels so good to unwind after everything.”

Spike was enjoying his quality time with his dream girl. He was glad that she was happy and loved this moment, but he knew that Rarity’s problem wasn’t going to go away anytime soon, so he would have to push the difficult question. “Rarity, can I ask you something?”

“You can ask me anything.”

He gulped, preparing for the worst. “Why do you want a coltfriend so bad?”

Rarity sat up and sighed. “I think it was because of the wedding. To see such a wonderful event made me want to have one for myself and my desire for it was only enforced when Fancy and I danced. I would do anything for a wedding exactly like Shining’s and Cadance’s.”

“Including the changelings?” he asked jokingly.

Rarity laughed. “Maybe not exactly like theirs, but something as romantic. I had even pictured Fancy Pants as my husband.”

Spike visibly cringed. “Are you at least happy for him now that he’s with Photo Finish?”

“I suppose I should be as it was never going to work out between us anyway. I’m just surprised he was that interested in her since he never brought her up before.”

“I bet he likes her because she has…da magics!” he said while imitating the mare.

Rarity giggled. “I can see it like that. I don’t think she’ll be too happy to see me since I helped convince Fluttershy to quit modeling.”

“She’ll come around. But don’t you think you’re rushing to get married? You’re still so young and have so many things you could still do.”

“Maybe. I guess I was just so focused on just getting married and only saw what I wanted to see. Maybe I just need to slow down and enjoy what I have now." She then gently wrapped her forelegs around her friend. "Like you, Spike.”

“So do you feel any better?”

“I actually feel a lot better and it’s all thanks to you.” She leaned and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “You’re my hero.”

Pinkie jumped up and down behind the bush. “Oh my gosh, she kissed him! Well technically she’s done it before, but still!”

“I think he’s got the hang of it now, but we should still keep an eye on them in case something goes wrong.” Chrysalis looked off in the distance and something caught her eye. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?”

“The…ladies’ room. Yeah, that’s it.” She got up and walked away, hoping that Pinkie would not do anything like before while she was gone.

Rarity got up from the bench. “I suppose I should be heading back, but there are still some errands I need to get around to. Would you mind coming with me?”

“It’d be my pleasure.” They walked along the trail of the park and were soon approached by a mare pushing a flower cart.

“Hello there. Would either of you like some flowers?” she asked them.

“Hi, Roseluck. How are you doing today?” greeted Rarity.

The flower pony gulped. “Y-yes, it is I, Roseluck. And I’m doing quite well. I might do better if one of you bought from my floral collection,” she hinted while moving a hoof over her items. “After all, what beautiful mare doesn’t like flowers?”

“I’ll take one,” said Spike. He looked over the many selections, carefully considering his options. “What are these ones?” he asked while pointed at the orange, star-shaped flowers.

“I don’t know,” Roseluck answered, uninterested.

“But isn’t knowing flowers your special talent?”

Roseluck’s eye began to twitch. “I haven’t got all day. Are you going to buy something or not, kid?”

He was surprised by her cold tone. “Just give me a rose,” he requested timidly.

The mare smiled. “Excellent choice.” She handed him the flower and Spike gave her the bits to pay for it. “Goodbye, you two. Have a nice day” She then ran off in a hurry, leaving them in the dust.

The unicorn turned towards her friend and asked, “Why did you buy a rose, Spike?”

“Because I wanted you to have it.” He held it out towards her.

Rarity smiled. “You really are sweet.” She took the flower and put it in her hair. “Remind me to reward you properly for this.”

Pinkie was giddy as she went from bush to bush. Suddenly, Chrysalis ran to her, completely out of breath. “Did I miss anything?”

“Spike bought Rarity a rose and she took it!” she exclaimed through a whisper.

“Aw, that’s sweet. Now let’s pray they leave this park quickly.”

“Why?”

“No reason.”

Spike and Rarity had spent hours shopping in the market district and fortunately Chrysalis and Pinkie didn’t need to step in anymore, but they still felt the need to keep an eye on things. It eventually became sunset and they were both exhausted from following them around. Once the errands were finished, Spike and Rarity headed back to her home, where the changeling would see how her efforts pay off.

Spike walked Rarity to the door and opened it for her. “Here we are, milady.”

“You’re too kind.” She disappeared into her home and exited without any of the shopping bags she was carrying. “I cannot thank you enough for what you have done. I feel so refreshed and uplifted and it’s all thanks to you.”

The dragon grinned. “I just wanted to make sure you were feeling good. Maybe tomorrow I can come by again, if you want.”

Rarity’s smile began to fade. “Spike.”

“And then we could go bowling or maybe fly kites.”

“Spikey.”

“Sorry, what were you saying?”

Rarity pulled him towards her and kissed him on the forehead. Pinkie became hysterical as she watched and Chrysalis felt glad that all of her hard work was about to payoff.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do this to you anymore.”

He felt a heavy weight fall in his chest. “What do you mean?”

“I know why you’re here, Spike. Why you have been by my side all this time, doing every little thing you can to make me happy.”

He looked away from her. “No, it’s not like that, Rarity.”

“Yes it is, Spike. I should have said something so long ago, but I didn’t and I feel so terrible.” She lifted Spike’s chin and looked him in the eyes. “Spike, you and I cannot be together romantically. We are just too different. I’m sorry I waited on telling you this, but I never had the heart to break it to you. Please forgive me for doing this to you.”

Spike eyes watered and he loudly sniffed. “But Rarity…”

Rarity hugged him, her eyes wet as well. “Please don’t cry. I hate seeing you so upset, but do you understand what I’m saying?”

He slowly nodded. “Yeah.”

Rarity let him go. “Go home, Spike. I’m sure Twilight is wondering where you are. We can talk about this later.”

“Not later, now!”

They were both surprised by the angry voice and looked at where it originated from. Chrysalis and Pinkie came out of hiding from around the building. “Cherub!?” exclaimed Rarity.

“In the flesh,” Chrysalis answered bitterly.

“Why are you…” Rarity became speechless and looked at the dragon. “Spike, did you hire her?”

“I…uh…”

“He did,” the changeling answered.

Rarity gasped. “So what happened at Cupid’s Arrow…”

“Was all a stunt,” she admitted.

Rarity bolted over and pressed her face against the changeling’s. “You tricked me!?”

“We’re sorry, Rarity,” spoke Pinkie. “We thought you would be much happier with Spike.”

The seamstress focused her anger towards her friend next. “But you lied to me! What kind of friend does that!?”

Chrysalis stood in front of Pinkie. “I will take the blame for that. I forced her to do it.”

“But what about yesterday with Fancy Pants? Were you going to break us up!?”

“Of course not!” Chrysalis lied. “I was merely there to observe and that was it. What happened at the restaurant was not intentional. But let’s get back to the main problem. Why is Spike so upset?”

“I told him that we couldn’t be together. It just wouldn’t work.”

“But why not, Rarity? He loves you!”

Rarity slowly turned from angry to depressed. “I know he does, but it’s just-”

“Wait a minute. You knew?” Chrysalis slowly approached Rarity, furious. “YOU KNEW!?”

“Of course I knew! It wasn’t hard to figure out by how he was always around and kept complementing me.” She looked at the sad dragon, now feeling even guiltier of hurting him. “I’m so sorry I never said anything before. It was truly awful of me to keep your hopes up for so long, but I just didn't want to hurt you.”

“Then why turn him down? Why get rid of the only guy that has ever loved you back?” questioned Chrysalis.

“Because I couldn’t go on getting his hopes up like that. We could never form a successful long term relationship.”

“But why not, Rarity?” asked Spike, ready to cry. “I love you. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

The white unicorn knelt down and gently wiped away his tears with her hooves. “Of course it does. It means so much to me, but there are some other issues. One that you should’ve known is that you’re too young for me.”

“Time can fix that,” Chrysalis quickly added.

“But the biggest reason is that I am a pony and you are a dragon.” She looked at Chrysalis. “Don’t you think he would be better off with a girl of his own species instead of a pony?”

“Well yeah, but…” For once, Chrysalis was stumped. She wasn’t sure what she could say to convince Rarity, or even herself for that matter. Even she thought it was a little bizarre that the little dragon was in love with a unicorn and she only wanted them to be together for her own personal gain. As hard as she tried, she could not find an answer. “I guess you’re right,” she reluctantly admitted.

“What!?” Pinkie shouted.

Rarity gave a firm nod. “Now you see why I did what I did. I just couldn’t let him get his hopes so high up just to crush him.”

Chrysalis wanted to argue, but she had nothing to offer. She realized now that this job was now a lost cause and it had all been for nothing. She was very angry with what happened, but she didn’t know what else she could do. “You’re right, Rarity. It was ridiculous of me to think I could have you two date.”

“It’s not ridiculous!” argued Pinkie, defiant of her friends’ answer. “You need to give him a chance! You just have to try!”

“Please try to understand, Pinkie. He would be better off with another dragon, not me.”

The party pony scratched her head. “But I’m confused. He went to go to live with the dragons and then you, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash wanted him back. ”

Chrysalis looked at her with an eyebrow raised. “What are you talking about?”

“One time, Spike went to go visit the dragons while they were migrating and then my friends went to go rescue him.”

“Of course we had to rescue him!” Rarity interjected. “They were so cruel and barbaric. I couldn’t possibly let him stay with such bad influences!”

Chrysalis grinned evilly, knowing that there was still some hope. She would be sure to greatly reward Pinkie later. “And now you want him to go back to them.”

Spike gasped and clinged to her leg. “Don’t make me go back, Rarity! Please! I’ll do anything!”

She quickly hugged him. “I would never do such a thing to you!”

“Oh, I wonder what would happen if he were to go back to look for a girl. I bet they would like him better as a kickball since he’s so tiny,” the false unicorn said tauntingly.

Rarity’s grip on the dragon tightened. “No!”

Pinkie got excited despite the topic. “That sounds like a fun game, but what would they call it? Spike ball?”

Chrysalis tapped her chin. “How about ‘Punt the Dragon’ or ‘Dragon Dunk’?”

Rarity put her hooves over her ears. “Stop it!”

The changeling looked at her wickedly, knowing that Rarity would give in at any moment. “If Spike were to miraculously find a girl, do you think she would be gentle and sweet like Rarity, or mean and nasty?”

Pinkie waved a hoof around. “Oh! Oh! Is it the second one?”

Rarity’s sorrow was replaced by rage. “If any dragon lays a claw on him, I will rip off their scales and make them into a dress they can wear!”

“Do you still think he would be better off with a dragon?”

The white unicorn gave out a heavy sigh. “I suppose you do have a point, Cherub. Spike is too gentle and sweet to be with such brutes.”

Chrysalis wore a satisfied smile. “So that only leaves you as a potential love interest.”

The mare looked at the dragon and then back at her. “Even if I am the best match for him, how are you so certain he’s the best for me? Would I...truly be happy with him?”

The changeling took notice of how quiet Spike was and had an idea. “I think you should be asking him that.”

He jumped, not expecting to be called upon. He slowly faced Rarity, trembling on the spot as he looked into the eyes of the mare of his dreams. Spike took a moment to get a hold of himself and then held her hoof. “Rarity, I know I may not be the richest, handsomest, or smartest dragon, but I love you more than anything. My heart feels light whenever I’m around you and you’re the only thing I can think about. When I saw how sad you were today, the only thing I could think about was how I could make you smile no matter what. All I want is to be at your side, making you happy in any way I can. Please give me a chance to do so.”

Tears were trickling down Rarity’s eyes. “That was beautiful, Spike. I never knew you had such a way with words.”

“Me neither. I guess you just sort of inspired me, just like every time we’re together.”

“Spike, I will admit that I have taken a strong liking to you before, but I never felt certain if it was the right thing to do. Would we even be accepted if we were seen together?”

“If I may,” said Chrysalis. “Love is a wonderful thing to explore, Rarity. It may seem strange to be with someone of a very different species, but why should that stop you? If you both love each other, then everypony should just accept it. If you truly love him, than the opinions of others should not stop you. Just do it and see where fate takes you. I mean, how could you possibly pass up a sweet little guy like him after all he has done for you?”

Rarity thought hard about what she said and everypony awaited for her to say something. “Wait here a moment.” She turned towards the door, entered her boutique, and returned moments later with something around her neck, which Pinkie recognized as the fire ruby Spike gave her. “This is my most treasured possession, given to me by him.”

Chrysalis stared at it with fascination, admiring its beauty. She was definitely going to make it her own before she left Ponyville. “He gave you that and you still had doubts about him?”

“It’s selfish, I know. I was just sort of more focused on more sophisticated stallions instead of little Spikey.”

“You mean rich stallions you could get your hooves around,” added Chrysalis insultingly.

The unicorn gave her a cold stare and the changeling just smirked at her. “I hate to admit it, but pretty much. Being in the high life was all I could think about, neglecting the wonderful treasure I already possessed.” She stared deeply into the ruby, then at the drake. “You have always been so kind and considerate to me. The one thing I treasure more than this gem is the friends I have, especially you.”

Spike gasped. “Really?”

The unicorn kissed his cheek. “Really.” Spike quickly hugged her and refused to let go, happy that she saw him as the loving dragon he was.

Once he let her go, he looked up at her. “Does this mean we’re dating now?”

“That’s the other thing. I’m afraid we cannot officially date for quite some time."

“But why not?”

“Like I said, you are simply too young for me right now. The other thing is I think I need some time before I go back into relationships. My previous ones have ended in some of the worst ways possible and I think I just need some time as a single mare. During that time, we should get to know each other better. Do you think you can wait a few years?”

Spike went over to her and kissed her on the cheek, surprising her as well as Pinkie and Chrysalis. “Anything for you, Rarity.”

As they looked into each other's eyes, Pinkie hopped around them excitedly. The changeling, on the other hoof, was currently feeding from the love that was coming out of the new couple. There was easily enough for her to have her fill and not have any side effects on either of the lovers. The love she was feasting on was incredibly delicious to her, filled with passion. She had to admit that the sight of the two lovers was pretty sweet too, considering she made it happen.

“You know what we should do?” asked Pinkie as she hugged both her friends. “We should have a party!”

“That’s a great idea, Pinkie!” said Spike excitedly.

“It will be an ‘Almost Dating’ party! Don’t you think that’s a good idea, Cherub?”

“I guess.” She knew this was going to be another kiddie party that she was going to be forced to attend. At least they didn’t feel as dreadful and now just felt tedious. “But it needs to be on the weekend. We are seriously behind on work.”

“Can do!”

“I can’t wait to tell Twilight about this.”

“I bet she will be overjoyed. Anyway, I need to retire for the day and think some things over, so I will see you tomorrow.”

“Bye, Rarity!” said Pinkie and Spike together.

Rarity blew a kiss to Spike and closed the door. The drake then rushed over and hugged Chrysalis’s leg again with more strength than last time. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Chrysalis smiled as she always loved receiving praise. “You’re very welcome, but don’t forget Pinkie. She had played a part in this as well.”

Spike immediately transitioned to the pony. “I’m so happy, Spike! We get to have a party and everything!”

“How can I ever repay you both for helping me?”

“Just keep loving her and make sure she always loves you. Your love is enough for me.” Chrysalis quickly licked her lips, craving more.

“You got it! I really need to go home now. I can’t wait to tell Twilight and Princess Celestia!”

“I’m sure they will be thrilled. Goodbye, Spike.” They waved at Spike as he ran off home. Once he was gone, Chrysalis and Pinkie walked together. “I’m so glad everything worked out. More than once I was certain I would fail.”

Pinkie laughed. “You can never fail! You’re the bestest matchmaking pony ever!”

Chrysalis giggled. “I suppose I am for making such an unusual romance work. Even if they aren’t officially together, I’m happy with how things turned out.” She thought Pinkie’s comment was especially amusing for she herself did not care for love and yet she was so good at creating it for others.

“And wait until Saturday for my awesome party! I promise you that this party will be jamming!”

The changeling smirked. “Whatever you say, Pinkie.”

Pinkie was disappointed by her reaction. “I bet anypony who doesn’t come will be really jelly.”

Chrysalis looked at her. “What is up with you?”

“I know about your jelly!” she said excitedly.

“Excuse me?”

“The jelly in the bucket in the closet in Cupid’s Arrow!”

Chrysalis thought her heart exploded as she knew what Pinkie was talking about. She realized that she completely forgot about cleaning the mop and bucket after she cleaned her room of the slime. Pinkie discovering it was a huge risk towards having her being exposed. “D-do you now…”

“Yep! And I was wondering if you could make more for the party!”

“M-more?” She couldn’t possibly think of a reason why Pinkie would want it at all. “Why?”

“Because it’s super tasty!” Pinkie ran her tongue over her lips.

Chrysalis jaw dropped as she looked at her in horror. “You ate it!?” She was just about ready to vomit, which might have made more slime and force her to vomit some more.

Pinkie took no notice of her boss’s reaction. “I sure did! It was so good that I brought some to the Cakes and they said it was really good too. They were wondering if you could give them some so they could make jelly doughnuts!”

Chrysalis thought she was going to faint. Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined something like this to ever happen. It was no shock that the first thing Pinkie would do upon discovering an unknown substance would be to put it in her mouth. The obvious solution was to say no and never bring it up again, but something else occurred to her. “Pinkie, when exactly did you eat it?”

“While I was looking for my disguise kit today.”

Her suspicions began to rise. “And then what happened?”

“I quickly went to Sugarcube Corner and gave some to the Cakes. After they ate it, they began to make out for some reason and they told me to leave. After that, I met with you at the restaurant.”

Chrysalis managed to put the pieces together and knew why Pinkie acted so strangely earlier. It seemed that upon consumption, changeling goo made ponies more likely to fall in love for a short period. The slime was produced from love in the first place, so that made sense to her. This would be exactly the method she needed to really get the ball rolling. She could sell some slime to the Cakes and hope that the jelly doughnuts that were consumed would help produce more love in Ponyville. It would require a good deal of her magic to create enough for a cocoon of her size, so she would only give them little for now. Once there was much more love, she would create much more in hopes of creating a surge in love large enough for her to show her people.

There was, of course, the risk of somepony figuring out what it was, but since there were not so many changeling sightings in months and Nymph restricted giving out information on changeling biology in fear of it being used against them, she felt that it would be safe enough to go forward with it. The most important factor was that she was a royal changeling, meaning she produced a much more different kind of slime. The chances of anypony finding out what it really was would be really low.

However, despite her hatred towards all of ponykind, even she thought this was going too far. The idea of selling her own vomit for ponies to eat made her stomach churn. But she pushed the thought aside. She needed to create a lot of love quickly to secure her place as queen. Chrysalis smiled at Pinkie. “Tell them I agree to their offer. However, it is part of a secret family recipe, so I cannot go around telling ponies. It is also difficult to make, so I can only produce so much at a time. I will make some and give it to them whenever I can.”

Pinkie sprung up. “Thank you, Cherub! They’re going to be so happy! I’ll be sure to bring you some during work too!”

Chrysalis put a hoof over her mouth. “No thanks. I’m on a diet.” She really hoped that this plan worked. The thought of what she was about to do in attempts of being queen again was really bothering her. She just hoped she would return home before something even worse happened.

Sweet Candy and Bitter Memories

Tonight was the holiday which honored one of the two alicorn rulers, Princess Luna, or at least Nightmare Moon, Luna’s envy given life. Chrysalis didn’t understand why the ponies would want to celebrate a holiday about a monster which stripped them of one of their beloved rulers for a thousand years. However, she really did like the idea of having a holiday all about herself, but she wasn’t sure what she would call it. Chrysalis Day was just far too simple. Maybe Chrysapalooza or Chrysmas would work better. She decided she would think about it later.

Work for her had lightened up since most ponies became more focused with the coming holiday and lessened their romantic priorities. Chrysalis actually felt relieved for a smaller workload, what with the stressful assignments and the ‘jelly’. So far, the slime that she had been providing for the Cakes was beginning to work out for her. They filled their pastries with it and even established a new kind of ice cream milkshake from the stuff. It certainly caused a small flux of love whenever they were sold and she couldn’t wait to see how it would do in the long term. She wanted to see the potential results, but she still could not accept how disgusting the whole concept was and wished Pinkie would stop eating them so much around her. The sight and even the sound of her consumption of the goo were just unbearable.

Chrysalis decided to participate in Nightmare Night since it involved scaring others, which was something she loved doing. For a costume, she decided that she would go as the scariest thing she could think of: herself. Of course, she wasn’t foolish enough to go parading around town as her real self since she would easily draw attention to herself with her huge height and the obvious holes in her legs. Instead, as her form of the unicorn Cherub, she painted herself black, dyed her hair and tail greenish blue, wore fake wings that were attached to her midsection that was wrapped in green paper wrap, and covered her horn with a fake one. She looked herself over in the mirror, thinking to herself about how good she looked. Chrysalis then realized that she was pretending to be a pony who was now pretending to be her and she tried to stop thinking about it as it made her head hurt.

She exited from Cupid’s Arrow and headed towards Sugarcube Corner as Pinkie wanted to show her how the holiday was celebrated in Ponyville. Chrysalis hoped she would do something interesting tonight and at least learn some more about Nightmare Night. By some miracle, she had grown somewhat tolerant of Pinkie’s shenanigans. Chrysalis still saw her as an annoyance, but she never got as agitated by her as she did since they first met and even began to value her as worthy. She hated to think about it, but the pony was slightly growing on her. She also felt odd that she was hanging out with ponies who were much younger than her, especially ones that are her mortal enemies. Given her age, she was basically going to hang out with children and she preferred older ponies to be friends with. But then again, the fewer ponies she got involved with, the better.

She entered the sweet shop, which was appropriately decorated for the holiday. She saw Pinkie’s friends, minus Fluttershy, standing by the stairs and wearing their costumes. Rarity was a witch, Rainbow Dash looked like an explorer, Applejack was a timber wolf, Twilight was dressed in some fancy robes, and Spike was something she couldn’t possibly describe. “Goodness, Cherub,” gasped Rarity. “I almost thought you were really Chrysalis for a moment.”

“Thanks,” Chrysalis laughed, “I worked real hard on it. Your costume’s nice too, but I think witches are supposed to be ugly.”

Rarity stroked her mane. “I’m a fabulous witch.”

The changeling rolled her eyes. “Where is Fluttershy?”

“She hates Nightmare Night,” answered the lavender mare. “She just locks herself in her house and doesn’t answer the door for anypony.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Chrysalis had been looking forward to seeing if it was possible to scare a pony to death for a while and was disappointed that the pegasus didn’t show up. The next thing that caught her attention was the dragon on Rarity’s back as his costume was a bizarre mix of different animal parts. “And what about you? Did you shove a bunch of costumes into a blender?” The ponies laughed at the comment.

“I’m supposed to be Discord, Ruler of Chaos!” Spike complained.

“Ah yes, Pinkie has told me a lot about him.” She wondered what Discord was up to since his apparent reformation, but after hearing everything he can do, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know. A deity with such power and a mind of a child was a dangerous combination. “If that’s how he looks, then it’s a pretty impressive costume.”

“I really like it. Rarity worked really hard on this just for me.”

Rarity nuzzled his cheek. “Anything for my little Spikey-Wikey. Doesn’t it look great on him?”

“He’s as threatening as a teddy bear,” remarked Chrysalis and the ponies all laughed again, causing Spike to blush.

“Well what about my costume?” Pinkie Pie’s voice called from upstairs.

They all looked upstairs and saw her coming down. When she came into clear view, all of her friends were in stitches, except for Chrysalis, who stood in complete disbelief. Pinkie was dragging a large cardboard box with her and she was dressed as a changeling.

“Wow, Pinkie, you look pretty good,” commented Rainbow Dash.

“I know! It’s the best costume idea ever because now, I can change into other costumes!” She jumped into the box and popped back out several seconds later. “Look! With my amazing changeling powers, I’m a princess.” She went back in and came right back out. “Now I’m an alien from space.” She jumped in a third time and came out wearing both costumes. “Now I’m the Princess of Space! Your puny Equestrian weapons will have no effect on me!”

Besides Chrysalis, everypony was rolling on the floor in laughter. She was taking deep breaths, ready to explode in fury. Pinkie had done things to tick her off before, but this was easily her greatest sin against both her and her people. Just as she had begun to tolerate her shenanigans, the pony went and offended her kind. Now she wasn’t sure if Twilight was the one she hated the most.

“That really is a hoot, Pinkie Pie!” said Applejack as she clutched her sides.

Pinkie then noticed Chrysalis dressed as Chrysalis and ran right up to her. “Wow! We both had the same idea!” She kneeled in front of her. “I am at your command, my queen.”

“I’m sure you will be a valuable contribution to my kingdom,” she said sarcastically, fighting the temptation to ram the pony’s head through the floor.

“Alright. That’s enough fooling around, girls,” Twilight interjected after she controlled herself. “The night won’t last forever and there’s a lot to do.”

“So what are we doing tonight?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“We’re going to play some of the games in town and see if we can win any candy. Princess Luna will also be dropping by, so we should go see her. Hopefully this year will go better than the last.” Chrysalis’s ears perked up upon hearing about the princess. She recognized Luna as being much more interesting to be around then the other ponies. She hadn’t had company with her in a while and figured it would be much more fun to be with her than these little kids. If she really worked on it, she could possibly retrieve inner knowledge of the alicorns that could help her take Equestria.

“Sorry, Twilight,” said Spike, “but I’m going Trick-or-Treating with the Crusaders this year.”

Twilight gave her assistant a worried look. “I don’t think it’s wise to leave you alone with those three. You had nightmares for weeks about the Cutie Mark Crusader Taxidermists the last time I left you in their care.”

The dragon shuddered as he recalled the repressed memory and Rarity calmed him down by wrapping him in a hug. “Not to worry, dear. I will be sure to look after him while they’re together and we’ll be done before Luna arrives.”

“I’m only going to stay for a little bit, but then I’ll be busy scaring the daylights out of ponies for the night,” said Dash as she rubbed her hooves together deviously.

For once, Chrysalis agreed with the pegasus. “That does sound like fun. Mind if I join you?”

She shook her head. “Sorry, but this girl is a one pony show.”

“Alright girls, let’s get going,” Twilight spoke.

As they all exited the shop, Pinkie was next to Chrysalis, bouncing as she moved. “Are you excited for your first Nightmare Night in Ponyville, Cherub?”

“Every day is a nightmare when I’m with you, Pinkie Pie.”

“Hey!” shouted Pinkie as her boss and her friends laughed.

For a holiday that was all about scaring, Chrysalis didn't see much of that and she was not surprised in the least. Ponyville mostly had corny things like fake spiders, fog machines, and other things that were far from scary. Of course the puny ponies would have more kiddie fun than some actual horror. She tried playing some of their games to get into the holiday spirit, but it was to no avail. When she returned to her kingdom, she was going to give this holiday the scare it deserved. She just stood nearby, feeling bored while the rest of the ponies were out having fun. Pinkie took noticed of her and ran over. "Aren’t you having fun?” she asked with concern.

“Sure.” This was the fifth time Pinkie had asked her in the night, obviously noticing her disdain. Chrysalis wished that Dash had taken her for the pony scaring because it sounded much more fun, but she had a better idea. She didn’t need her, she was already scary and she could just do it herself. Unfortunately, Pinkie hadn’t left her alone all night, so she had no choice but to let her in on the fun. “Pinkie, my royal subject, I have an assignment for you.”

The pony dressed as a changeling bowed before her. “I am at your command, your highness.”

That time, the real changeling actually smiled, nostalgic of her days as a ruler. She leaned towards Pinkie and whispered, “You and I are going to scare some ponies.”

“That sounds like fun! Everypony loves a good scare.”

Chrysalis felt moderate satisfaction that she was up to the idea. “Excellent. Follow me.” They both left the fairgrounds and hid behind some bushes in the outskirts of town. “Now, ponies are still terrified of changelings, so scaring them shouldn’t be too difficult. Just act like one and they will be running for the hills.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got this whole changeling thing down.” Pinkie smiled and brought her box next to her, ready for use.

“I hope you do.” She looked out from the bushes and noticed some children approaching, who would have made great practice. “Here come some now. Just stay quiet and wait for my cue.” They both waited silently, with the exception of Pinkie giggling. When the group was close enough, Chrysalis jumped out and towered over them. “It is I, Queen Chrysalis! Give me all of your love!” The children screamed in terror and cowered in front of her.

Pinkie was next, leaping out of the bushes. “Be afraid by our amazing changeling powers as we turn into something completely different! Now I’m a changeling,” she jumped into her cardboard box and reappeared, wearing a clown costume, “and now I’m a clown!” She honked her clown horn. The children stopped screaming and were now laughing.

“Wow, Pinkie,” one of them said, “you really scared us!” They all stood up and walked past them. “Happy Nightmare Night, Pinkie Pie!” he called while waving to her.

“You too!” she said, waving back. When she turned back, she could see that Chrysalis was very annoyed.

“A clown?” she asked in extreme frustration. “That’s your idea of scary?”

“Hey, clowns can be scary,” the pony argued. “Like how do they all fit in that tiny car?”

Chrysalis tore the wig off her head and tossed it into the box. “Take off that ridiculous outfit and hide.” They both returned to their hiding spot and sat in silence while waiting for their next victims until Pinkie spoke.

“Cherub?”

“What?”

“Are you unhappy?” she asked, sounding uneasy.

Chrysalis just shrugged. “Because you messed up one scare? A little, but not really. Just try harder next time.”

“No, I mean are you unhappy about everything?”

Her boss gave her a confused look. “What are you talking about?”

“Are you still upset about your fiancé?”

Chrysalis let out a loud, annoyed sigh. The made up backstory was a great excuse for her behavior, but Pinkie could never mind her own business. “I am. Why are you bringing this up now?”

“Well I was wondering if you would be interested in finding another one now. I know plenty of ponies you might like!”

Chrysalis turned away from her. “No thanks.”

“But-”

“Are you done bothering me?”

Pinkie frowned. “I just want to help.”

“If you want to help me, then you need to just keep helping me find other ponies that need help with love. I promise you that will make me happy.”

“You got it!” Silence had fallen over them until Pinkie broke it once again. “Cherub?”

“What now?”

“I just want you to know that I will always try to make you happy.”

Chrysalis looked at her funny. “Yeah…thanks.”

They remained perched behind the bushes as they continued waiting. Chrysalis began wondering how long Pinkie would be concerned about her wellbeing. The thought of actually talking to her about her issues was tempting as she kept so many problems and fears to herself, but it was Pinkie Pie, so her advice wouldn’t exactly be the greatest. She was also curious why she was bringing this up so suddenly. She just hoped Pinkie wouldn’t end up setting her up with a blind date.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Pinkie tapped her and pointed towards an approaching group. Chrysalis could see that it was Rarity, Spike, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders coming towards them. She was looking forward to scaring the little trio since they broke her window two weeks ago trying to earn their demolition cutie marks. Sweetie Belle was dressed like her sister, Scootaloo was a skeleton, and Apple Bloom was a devil, which she found to be very appropriate after what they did. Once they were close enough, Chrysalis jumped out and caused the four children to fall onto their backs. “Give me your love or suffer my wrath!”

The four screamed loudly from her sudden appearance. “Please don’t eat us!” Apple Bloom pleaded.

Sweetie Belle took cover under her sister and put her hooves over her eyes. “Make her go away, Rarity!”

Pinkie appeared from behind the changeling. “You cannot fight us! Especially when we can turn into…” she went back into the bushes and came out, “a dragon!” She then did a fake roar.

Chrysalis smiled as she stared down at them, until they burst out laughing. She had a feeling of what had gone wrong and turned around. While Pinkie was dressed as a dragon, which was an improvement, she was wearing the dumbest looking costume she had ever seen. “Pinkie, what is that supposed to be?” she asked, agitated.

“I’m supposed to be a dragon, silly!”

“So that’s where my old costume went,” said Spike as he picked himself up.

Sweetie Belle came out from her hiding place. “You two were really scary. I almost thought you were actually changelings!” she exclaimed excitedly.

“Yeah, until Pinkie came out,” remarked Scootaloo. All of the crusaders giggled at them and Chrysalis could feel the burning shame wash all over her.

“Now come on. Let’s leave them to their fun. We need to get back to town,” addressed Rarity. Spike and the Crusaders waved goodbye as they ran ahead. “Don’t stay out here too long. There’s much more to this holiday than trying to scare ponies like Rainbow Dash does.” She then walked ahead to the busier part of Ponyville.

Once she was out of sight, Chrysalis looked over at Pinkie. “Is that costume supposed to be scary?” she questioned with one of her eyes visibly twitching.

“I think so. Have you ever seen a dragon as goofy looking as this?”

“Take it off. Now.” Pinkie complied with her demand. “No more stupid costumes. You will just simply be a changeling, which is something all ponies should fear. Now get behind the bushes and try not to screw up again.”

For over half an hour, they both continued trying to scare any pony that had come by. Pinkie eventually got the hang of things, ceasing her costume changes and spooking the ponies with her changeling appearance. They scared off a few groups before Chrysalis thought she had enough fun and began heading back.

“That was so much fun, Cherub!” Pinkie cheered.

Chrysalis gave a light smile, satisfied that Pinkie took into her taste. “It could have went better, but I suppose you did a decent job. I find that surprising since you’re probably the least scariest pony I know besides Fluttershy.”

“I can be scary!” Pinkie looked around and saw a young colt with a white coat and brown spots dressed as a royal night guard. “Watch!” She ran ahead and jumped in front of him. “Blarg! Give me your love and stuff!”

The colt laughed at her feeble attempt. “That is a nice costume,” he said through his thick accent, “but I don’t think changelings are scary.”

Chrysalis couldn’t believe her ears and approached the little pony. “Oh really? So what do you think is scary, child?”

“Nightmare Moon, of course! She’s the scariest pony ever! Neither the changelings or Chrysalis come close.”

The former changeling queen scoffed at his words. “Oh please. Chrysalis is far scarier than stupid Nightmare Moon.”

“DO YOU WANT TO SAY THAT TO MY FACE!?”

Chrysalis and Pinkie jumped and whirled around, finding Nightmare Moon herself right behind them with her eyes glowing brightly and staring angrily at them. They both screamed at the sight of her and Pinkie jumped into Chrysalis’s forelegs, shaking in fright as they looked at the alicorn. Pinkie saw how Nightmare Moon was growling at them, showing her sharp teeth. “She’s going to gobble us up!” she shrieked.

“I’m too beautiful to die!” Chrysalis cried.

Suddenly, Nightmare Moon dissolved into mist and in her place was Princess Luna, who was laughing hysterically. “Gotcha!”

“P-Princess Luna.” Chrysalis realized who she was holding and dropped her onto the ground. “I hate to admit it, but that was the best scare of all night. Better than my attempts.”

Pinkie got up from the ground and started bouncing in front of the princess. “When did you get here? I wanted to show you how scary I was!”

“I have been in town for some time. Twilight didn’t know where you had run off to and I figured you would turn up eventually.” She turned her head towards the colt. “I was accompanying young Pipsqueak here until you two came. Your costumes are quite impressive.”

Pipsqueak looked at Luna excitedly. “Did you see how brave I was, Princess? I wasn’t scared at all!”

She smiled at the child and rubbed his head. “You were indeed very brave. Maybe I should enlist you into the royal guard when you’re older.” She then looked back at them while Pip was jumping around. “So have you two been out here scaring ponies this whole time?”

“I know it seems childish, but yeah. I think we’ve done a decent job, though.”

“Well I’m going to spend a little more time with Pipsqueak. If you’re still in the mood after, I can show you how to really scare.”

Chrysalis gave a small grin. “Please do.”

Pinkie brought out her candy bucket from her box. “I want to scare too, but I’m far behind on my candy collecting and I need to catch up!”

“Very well, Pinkie. I hope you enjoy this wondrous night.”

“I will! Bye, Luna and Cherub!” shouted Pinkie as she ran into Ponyville.

“Walk with me, Cherub,” Luna requested. Chrysalis followed Luna and Pip as they headed into town. “I hope you are enjoying tonight as much as she is.”

“I think so. It’s definitely gotten better when you arrived and Pinkie left. She just isn’t really the type to strike fear into the heart of anypony.”

Luna gave a light giggle. “So I saw.”

“It should be a lot more fun with you around. That scare you just did is what I’ve been aiming for all night. But if you don’t mind me asking, why are you hanging out with a young child?”

“I try to spend as much time as possible with all of my subjects. Pipsqueak here is a very sweet colt I met last year and I wanted to see him again.”

The earth pony hopped onto the alicorn’s back and hugged her neck. “I love Nightmare Night and Princess Luna is the best princess ever! Don’t you think so too?”

Chrysalis gave off a quick laugh. “She indeed is, but don’t let her sister know you said that.”

Pipsqueak felt nervous by what she told him and Luna could feel him shake. “W-why? Am I going to get arrested?”

Both of the mares began laughing uncontrollably.

Chrysalis and Luna spent hours scaring ponies together and the changeling was surprised by how much fun she was having with one of her biggest enemies. After Luna received her candy tribute from the children, something which Chrysalis thought about doing for her own holiday, they rested nearby the Nightmare Moon statue and began splitting the pile, admiring their large amounts of treats. “Thank you for spending time with me, Cherub. I think you’ve helped make this night much scarier than last year.”

Chrysalis laughed as she sorted through the mountain of sweets. “I do believe I do a good impression of the former changeling queen.”

“A few times I was convinced you were really her, and that would have actually been scary.”

They both gave out a giggle. Chrysalis found it amusing that Luna was completely unaware who she was talking to. The irony was just delicious. However, she was a little curious about something. “Speaking of changelings, how is it going with Nymph and her people?”

Luna just shrugged. “Same as usual. It’s just a stalemate between Celestia and I when it comes to Nymph. As for the rest of the ponies, their opinions just keep changing. Nymph is certainly a persuasive changeling.”

Chrysalis scoffed as she grabbed some chocolate. “Of course she is. Her kind is all about lies. You’re the only one who is keeping Equestria from falling into their hooves.”

“Not all changelings are bad, Cherub. I’ve seen them for myself and I don’t see them as much as a threat. I truly wish to help them.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” muttered the false unicorn under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. If you ‘care’ for the changelings, then why are you still having conflicting opinions with Celestia?”

“It’s only because I’m concerned about Nymph. She does not seem entirely trustworthy and I’m even more suspicious now that she has been asking about her sister.”

The sister mentioned looked up at her. “She has?”

“Yes. She has claimed that neither she nor the changelings are aware of her current whereabouts since her banishment.”

“And why would she even want to find her? She was the one who had banished her in the first place.”

“I don’t know, but she seems to be really worried about her. It’s hard for me to imagine that Chrysalis would have completely disappeared without a trace and not try to make some contact with her.”

Chrysalis thought deeply about what she had told her. It was weird how Nymph would show her the door and then want to know where she was, especially after their rough history. Had she found her, the only thing that would happen would be her being sent to the moon or something similar. She then realized something. “I know what she’s doing. She wants to use her as a bargaining chip.”

The alicorn tilted her head. “Bargaining chip?”

“She wants to find her sister so she can trade her in for changeling citizenship.”

The princess gasped. “That’s horrible! Chrysalis may be a fugitive, but I can’t believe her own sister would do that to her.”

The changeling shrugged as she kept taking more candy. “Well what do you expect from Nymph? She’s no different from her sister.”

“Did you know that Queen Nymph actually said she hoped that we found her first?”

Chrysalis became confused. “Huh? Why?”

“She said that if we were to find Chrysalis first, we were permitted to punish her under reasonable means.”

Her mouth hung open. “She said what!?”

“That was both Celestia’s and my reaction. We asked if she was sure and she was. Nymph even said that we should let Cadance and Shining Armor decide what to do with her, just as long as it wasn’t something like torture or execution. She felt that some justice would be necessary to ease the tension between ponies and changelings.”

Chrysalis could not believe what she had just heard. It was one thing to have her banished, but to hope that the ponies would punish her was going too far. She was going to make Nymph suffer the next time they met. “That is just horrible of her.”

The alicorn firmly nodded. “Indeed, and I’ll be very sure to inform Celestia about this ‘bargaining chip’ business. I think even she would be disgusted by this. Though, sometimes she can be just insufferable and doesn’t listen to me about that queen.”

“I know what that’s like. Sisters can be such a pain,” she said gloomily.

She had unintentionally caught Luna’s curiosity. “I did not even realize you had one, Cherub.”

Chrysalis became very mad at herself as she realized that she had let it slip. “I do. It’s just we don’t get along anymore.”

“Why is that?”

She looked away from her, actually feeling uncomfortable. “I don’t want to talk about it. We had a falling out and we haven’t even seen each other in months.”

The princess moved a little closer to her. “Have you tried to patch things up with her?”

“I think I prefer never seeing her again for the rest of my life. I hate her,” she said coldly.

Luna was shocked. “That’s an awful thing to say, Cherub.”

“Sorry, but we all can’t have an amazing sister like you do.”

“What is she like?”

“I don’t want to talk about her anymore. She’s no longer in my life and it’s going to stay that way.” She hoped Luna would drop the subject since she could not think of a story about her alter ego so suddenly. There was also the fact that it would bring up a lot of bitter memories.

Both of them sat in silence. Luna looked at the unicorn, who was currently flicking a tall blade of grass in annoyance. “Cherub, I’m beginning to worry about you.”

Chrysalis loudly groaned. “Why?”

“Pinkie often speaks about you through her letters,” she informed the outcast.

Chrysalis suddenly glared at her. “And what does she say?”

Luna slightly shrunk. “Try not to get mad at her.”

“What does she say about me?” she asked angrily. She never liked the thought of ponies talking about her behind her back, whether it about Chrysalis or Cherub.

The alicorn took a deep breath before speaking. “She says that you tend to get mad very easily, like right now for instance.”

The changeling dressed as a changeling rolled her eyes. “I have a temper, so what?”

“Being angry all the time isn’t a good thing. I know you are still upset about your previous fiancé and apparently your sister, but you need to try to move on. Another thing is that Pinkie Pie knows a lot about everypony in this town, even if she hasn’t met with them often, and yet you two almost spend every day together and she knows next to nothing about you.”

Chrysalis huffed. “I like to keep things to myself. Pinkie just needs to mind her own business.”

“You really shouldn’t bottle yourself up. It isn’t healthy.”

The false unicorn growled with annoyance. “I don’t get why you’re lecturing me, Luna. What do you want from me?”

“You’re a friend of mine as well as Pinkie’s. I just want to make sure you’re alright.”

“I don’t recall me being friends with that idiot,” she quickly responded in a harsh tone.

Luna slightly flinched. “Then who are your friends, Cherub? Pinkie and her friends have never seen you with anypony else.”

Chrysalis remained silent. Nymph was actually her only real friend when she was a child. As she grew, she managed to associate herself with other changelings. She did actually befriend many and was very well loved like her sister. But of course, that changed. And when she returned from her failed invasion, the little friends she had left turned against her as she endangered them all. For the moment, she was truly alone.

“Cherub?” Chrysalis was brought back to reality. “Do you not have any friends?”

“No,” she answered hesitantly. She felt the weight of the world pushing down on her now that she had said it out loud. She never gave it much consideration before, but being left without friends was awful.

Luna could see her gloom and got even closer to her. “You just need to open yourself up more. I’m sure you will find some if you do.”

Chrysalis rested her head on the grass. “I wish it was that easy.”

“It is easy,” said the alicorn encouragingly. “You just have to try.”

“I can’t do it, Luna.”

“Why not? Just try telling me more about yourself and we’ll figure something out.”

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” she responded through clenched fangs.

“Please talk to me. I just want to know you better,” Luna pleaded. “Maybe it will help you stop from being such a grouch all the time,” she added with a smile.

Being made fun of by the princess pushed her over the edge. Chrysalis shot up, furious. “You want to know more about me? Fine! I’m a pony who tried to do something great for others and ended up becoming a complete failure! Everypony I have ever known now hates me and I went here to get away from it all and hopefully make something of myself! I have no friends and the only family I have is a sister who I cannot stand! There! Are you satisfied, princess!?” She took rapid deep breathes as she stared down her company.

Luna looked at her in surprise. “There’s no need to be so hard on yourself. I really doubt that they all hate you.”

“Trust me, they do. They will likely never forgive me for what I did.” Saying that had immediately filled her with dread. She at least knew that her people couldn’t resist having an entire town filled with love to themselves, so she wasn’t completely hopeless.

“Cherub, sit down and take a breather.” The changeling reluctantly obeyed and got back down. “You need to stop worrying about the past so much. You just need to focus on the present.”

“That’s all I have been doing. I really need them to get over my mistake. It means more to me than anything but sometimes I worry that they never will,” she confessed.

“They will. No pony can stay mad forever, so just relax.” Luna placed a hoof on hers. “Just tell me what you did and we can talk about it.”

Chrysalis quickly pulled her hoof away. “That is none of your business, Princess!”

The princess’s patience was beginning to run short. “You really need to calm down. I’m sure whatever it is that you have done can easily be forgiven and forgotten.”

“I hope you’re right. Oh, and thanks for being such a 'good' friend. I don’t think I have ever felt this awful before in my life,” she spat.

Luna briefly flinched. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to help you.”

Chrysalis still felt angry, but deep down, she actually felt a little touched that both her and Pinkie were so concerned about her. She wished she could confide with them and tell them everything in hopes for some actual reassurance, but that would have been a death sentence. What also surprised her was how Luna was being tolerant of her rude behavior and she felt a little thankful that the princess had not punished her for anything she did as she was more focused on trying to help her. One thing she had said to her earlier was however bugging her. “Luna?” she asked shyly.

“Yes, Cherub?”

“Are you really my…friend?” She didn’t know why, but she felt slightly embarrassed for asking.

Luna smiled at her. “Of course I am. Did you think otherwise?”

Chrysalis swore she could feel her face warm up. “Well I didn’t think you would consider me being your friend because I’ve been a jerk to you on more than one occasion and we have only met once.”

“And you were sorry every time you were rude and that one time was a lot of fun. I enjoy your company and I wish to know you better. I want us to be good friends, Cherub.”

The changeling smiled. “I will gladly accept your offer for your friendship.”

“And you may have it under one condition.”

“Which is?”

Luna cleared her throat and used a more authoritative tone. “I want you to try to act nicer from now on. I know you have problems, but lashing out at others will not bring you any comfort. If you truly wish to make friends or even attract ponies to your business, you must try to be a more likable pony.”

Chrysalis decided not to argue with her and sighed. “Very well, I will try.”

“And I think you should become actual friends with Pinkie,” the alicorn added.

“Hey now, one step at a time.” They both chuckled. “But I guess I am a little hard on her. Her heart’s in the right place, but sometimes she can really test my patience. The girl tries so very hard to impress and she certainly delivers. I will try my hardest to be her friend.”

“It’s not difficult to be friends with Pinkie. She already admires you greatly and desires your friendship badly,” informed Luna.

“I've noticed. Also, I just wanted to apologize for me snapping at you. My personal problems have really soured my mood as you can tell.”

The princess nodded in agreement. “I understand what it’s like to have your past affect you so much. I just want you to know that if you ever need anything, you can always ask me. I will try to be as supportive as I can.”

“That’s the other thing I want to talk about. While I get why you like Twilight or Pinkie, why are you interested in me? I’m just a moody mare.”

“As I’ve said before: I try to spend time with all of my subjects. I guess you stand out since you’re well associated with Pinkie. There’s also the fact that you thought I was still Nightmare Moon and I just wanted you to see that it was no longer the case.”

“You’ve certainly proved me wrong.”

“Good," Luna said happily. "You are also very fun to talk with, Cherub. We can relate to about anything and we mostly have a good time.”

“I apologize for ruining the good moments before. I know you didn’t mean any harm during those times.”

“And I as well. When we talk to each other, it’s like we’re equals, rather than princess and subject. And while I do enjoy Twilight’s and her friends’ company, I also want friends who are a little more…mature.”

“Are you calling them childish?” she teased.

“N-no!” Luna shot a slightly angry look as Chrysalis laughed at her. “They are fun to be with, but they always want to do things like parties or studying or other activities I am not interested in. I just want friends who I can get into serious discussions with or do something more grown up with once in a while.”

“How funny, but I think I see your point. I guess I should come visit sometimes to keep you company.” Having Luna as somepony to socialize with would likely make her feel overall better. Even if she couldn’t retrieve any vital information from her, she would at least have an adult pony to speak with instead of the company of herself.

“It might be better if I come here as Canterlot has lost its charm for a while.”

“I see.” Since things were going so well, she decided to push her luck. “By the way, do you want me to find a pony for you to date? I’m sure Pinkie and I can find you a very likeable stallion.”

The princess laughed and shook her head. “I appreciate the offer, but I must once again decline. I need more time. But when the time comes, I will leave everything to your hooves. I trust your judgment.”

Chrysalis felt a tingle of excitement. The moment Luna was ready was the moment she really made things happen for her business. “Thanks. I think this might be my favorite Nightmare Night yet.” It was her only Nightmare Night. “It must be so nice to have a holiday dedicated to you, or at least something that was you. I’d love to have a day when all ponies are supposed to respect me.”

Luna chuckled as she ate part of a caramel apple she found in the pile. “This night isn’t about forcing them to respect me. It’s about fun.”

“And we’ve definitely had some of that,” she said, recalling how she and Luna brought terror onto the public. “But does it bother you how it’s more about Nightmare Moon than you?”

Luna waved a hoof as she resumed her search through the candy pile. “She was a part of me, but it’s ancient history now. I’m just regular Luna again.”

“You’re very lucky that everypony has forgiven you after what happened,” Chrysalis said with a hint of envy in her voice.

“The reason I have been forgiven is because what had happened was not completely my fault. My body was consumed by some sort of force that fed on my jealousy. I was not in control of my actions.”

“And yet you were still sent up to the moon for a thousand years,” Chrysalis added.

“It was necessary,” Luna stated in a serious tone. “Nightmare Moon’s eternal night would have been the death of everything.”

Chrysalis looked up at the moon, which was currently full for the night. “What was it like, being isolated up there for a millennium?”

The princess joined her at looking up at the night sky. “The entire time I was imprisoned, I was in a slumber. I hadn’t even noticed such a long time had passed, but I still knew what had occurred. The banishment was actually much harder for my sister.”

“I still can’t believe she sent you up there. It must have been heartbreaking for her to lose you like that.”

Luna nodded while maintaining her gaze on the moon. “It was. She had apparently fallen into severe depression for a long time. I worry that the incident may have scarred her deeply for life. I don’t like to think about it, either. A thousand years of being with my sister and watching our world grow was taken from me and nothing I can do will ever change that.”

Her words stung Chrysalis. “I’m sorry to hear that. How are things between you two now?”

The princess finally broke away from the object in the sky and looked at her friend. “Things are going very well. Although we are awake during different times of the day, we still make time for each other. Sometimes she stays up the whole night just to be with me, despite me telling her not to.” A warm smile grew on her lips. “She’s not very productive during the day after.”

“She sounds a little clingy.”

“Not the word I would use. She feels partially responsible for what happened and is scared of losing me again. She just wants to make up for lost time, which there is a lot of, and we cherish every second.”

“So what do the royal princesses do when they bond?” she asked curiously.

“Nothing that special, I’m afraid. We like to play chess, do each other’s hair, or hike through any of the beautiful forests in Equestria. Mostly we just talk about stuff while relaxing in our rooms.”

Chrysalis felt slightly disappointed. “That’s all? I was expecting something a lot more exciting from you two since you’re both powerful alicorns.”

From seeing her expression, Luna decided to have some fun. “Also in our spare time, we go fly into space where we meet alien life forms or go create galaxies for fun, but we only do this when we’re not busy with time traveling,” she said jokingly.

They both shared a laugh. “Somehow I think I would have believed you if you told me that in a serious tone.”

A grin appeared on the blue pony’s face. “Really? Maybe I should tell other ponies this and see if they buy it. I could even change history books and make up amazing things we’ve done in the past to shock the nation. I’m sure Celestia wouldn’t approve, but it would be certainly amusing. I bet I could even have Twilight believe all of it and blow her mind. We may even have to give her therapy for making her think she was wrong about so many things.”

Chrysalis laughed hard and kicked her hooves against the ground. “I am just having the time of my life! I wish this night would never end!” As she continued laughing, she took notice of Luna’s hurt look. She wondered what was wrong with her until she realized that she had unintentionally referenced Nightmare Moon. “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to say it like that.”

“It’s all right,” she said with extreme discomfort. “I know you didn’t mean to say it like that, but those words still fill me with guilt. They will be burned into my mind forever.”

“Why? Those were Nightmare Moon’s words, not yours. She took advantage of you by possessing you when you were vulnerable. It’s not like you wanted to become her on purpose.” Luna flinched and quickly looked away from her. Chrysalis could feel chill run down her spine as she realized what the alicorn was implying. “Did…did you want to become her?”

There was a tense silence between them and the changeling actually feared what her answer would be. Finally, Luna looked back into her eyes and opened her mouth. “Y…yes.”

Chrysalis was taken aback by what she heard. “Goodness, Luna. Why would you ever do a thing like that?”

“I was just so angry. My night was something of beauty and no pony appreciated it back then. I just wanted them all to love it like I did. I wanted to become strong enough to overpower my sister, so I agreed to let her have my body. At first I was happy, but when she wanted to make the night last forever, I knew things were going too far. I just wanted to demand respect from Celestia and the ponies, not hurt them. I was so scared of thinking that I couldn’t be stopped, especially when I returned. I am so grateful Twilight and her friends succeeded in preventing the nightmare from coming true. If they hadn’t, I…I…”

If there was one thing Chrysalis never thought she would ever live to see, it was to see one of the mighty alicorn sisters cry. While this would have normally pleased her, she actually felt upset to see her like this as they were getting along so well. She never really had to comfort any pony or changeling before, aside from Nymph, but she thought it would have been better than sitting there and looking uncaring as Luna quietly wept. She actually wished Pinkie was around since she was more of the supporting kind. Chrysalis sighed as she got up and laid next to Luna. “I’m sorry, Luna. I didn’t mean for this to happen. Please stop crying.”

“It’s all my fault. I am to blame for everything.” Luna didn’t even notice her talking.

While she could see ponies telling her that it wasn’t her fault and how everything was going to be okay, Chrysalis was a little more realistic. “Not entirely, just mostly.”

Luna looked at her with moist eyes. “What?”

“I know you don’t want to hear this, but I do think you are at fault for the whole incident and you should feel bad for what you did.”

A surprised gasp came out of the alicorn’s mouth. “Why would you say that to me!? You’re supposed to be my friend!”

“Just hear me out! You yourself admitted that you let her become one with you, so there’s no excuse for that. You did it because you worried for your own selfish needs, but I want you to listen to me. You think you’re terrible because of what happened, but the truth is you’re not. If you were, you would feel no remorse for your actions and would probably still try to rid of Celestia.”

Luna sniffed. “I suppose.”

“My point is that you were terrible in the past, but you’re not anymore. You are now a very loving princess who loves her subjects and will do anything for the good of her country. Why should anypony define you because you made one mistake? I mean, sure it didn’t go as planned, but why can’t they appreciate the hard work their ruler has given them before? Why suddenly shun her for when she fails at doing something right just one time? Your subjects are just ungrateful for forgetting about everything else you have done for them before.”

The princess slowly nodded. “I think you’re right. There are still many ponies who think otherwise and I’m not sure how to change their opinions. I just want them to see who I am now so I can put this all behind me.”

“Well you know what? Buck ‘em.”

Luna gasped. “Cherub!”

“I’m serious, Luna. Why should you care about their opinions? They don’t know you like I do. The only pony whose opinion you should care about is Celestia, seeing how she was the one most affected by what happened as well as being your sister. Well, I guess there are also Cadance and Twilight, but you get my point. And if Celestia forgives you and loves you, what more do you need? Why care about ponies who won’t give you a chance? They’re just lesser peons you can just ignore. It’s not like they can ever do anything to you.”

It took a moment for Luna to stop herself from crying. “You’re absolutely right. I was guilty for allowing such a thing to occur, but I can’t change that now. What I can do instead is good deeds now and in the future. As long as my sister is at my side, I feel whole. And if ponies still wish to not accept that I have changed, then they are no concern of mine.”

“That’s the spirit. Do you feel better now?”

“Much. I actually feel much more relieved about the whole thing than before I came here tonight. You’ve actually helped me more than anypony and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

“Really? What about Celestia?”

“I’ve tried bringing up the past with her before, but it is something she tends to avoid. It was all very painful for her too and she just wants to move on. Twilight and the others also brush aside the issue, unfortunately. You, however, are different. I’m really glad I’ve met you, Cherub.”

“Me too. I haven’t enjoyed myself like this in a long time.”

“I’m happy to hear that.” Luna stood up. “As much as I would love to stay, I’m afraid that I must be going now. It is getting late and I have a busy day tomorrow.”

“I see.” Chrysalis was surprised she felt unhappy that she was leaving. “When will you come visit again?”

“I don’t know. I may not come by for a while as I have a lot of political duties that must be dealt with.” She could see the disappointment on the red unicorn’s face. “Do not feel sad, we can still communicate. I will have a magic mailbox made just for you. Just place a letter inside and it will be magically sent to me and vice versa.”

A smile appeared on Chrysalis’s lips. “Thank you, Luna. For everything.”

“And thank you as well. It is always a pleasure speaking with you. Twilight and her friends should also be able to provide you with emotional support if you need it.” She knew this was something she would never consider doing, but Chrysalis nodded anyway. “Now I must say goodbye to the people and be on my way.” She levitated her portion of the candy and made it disappear with magic, sending it somewhere else. “Just remember what we’ve talked about and I guarantee things will get better for you.”

“I will. Happy Nightmare Night, Luna.”

“Happy Nightmare Night, Cherub.” Luna then turned and left the changeling behind.

Chrysalis watched the princess walk towards town until she was out of sight. She gathered her candy and began her long walk home. Her mind was all over the place. The one thing she was sure about was that she was glad to be friends with Luna. She wasn’t sure what, but there was just something appealing to her about the alicorn. While this could be a tactical advantage in the future, she was just glad to find some comfort with her. Being isolated from her kind for such a long time and pretending to be somepony else was certainly very stressful on her. She constantly had days where she would develop doubts about her plan, worrying that it wouldn’t be good enough for them to accept her once again or that something would end up ruining it. She dealt with constant stress on a daily basis and could not open up to anypony about her real problems because of who she was, which often made her resort to turning toward the bottle. Chrysalis supposed that she could somehow try to make up similar problems to talk about with Luna.

Luna also seemed to know what she was talking about since she was still co-ruler of Equestria and not still on the moon, but being nice wasn’t how Chrysalis became queen in the first place. But she wasn’t queen anymore, just a fugitive in hiding after her catastrophic failure. Despite her trying to hunt her down and being a pony, she was actually happy to be around the Princess of the Night. She felt that Luna would help her give insight on what she should do when she returned to the changeling kingdom. Maybe things would go better if she didn’t control everything with an iron hoof. She was even wondering if the invasion during the royal wedding was a big mistake from the start like Nymph had tried to warn her.

Chrysalis wasn’t sure of what she was going to do with her sister. She was curious of why she was so desperate to locate her, especially after exiling her. She didn’t really think Nymph as the type who would give her up to Celestia, but after what Luna had told her, she just wasn’t sure anymore. She wondered if Nymph would have done the same thing had they made amends upon her return. Nymph had tried before but after all that had happened between them, Chrysalis would have none of it. Nymph might no longer be as easily forgiving like her employee, Pinkie.

She then remembered Pinkie and grinned evilly. The future was going to have to wait since for the moment, she was only going to focus on the present.

Pinkie Pie was exhausted from her many activities. She played many games, ate tons of candy, and even screamed a lot from being scared. She was happy that she was able to reach her candy quota and had a feeling that Cherub had a lot of fun with Luna. Right as she reached the door of Sugarcube Corner, something caught her eye. There was a piece of candy on the ground, which she picked up. “Ooo, free candy!” She then noticed there was a second piece of candy and gasped. “Wow, another one! How lucky is that?” She looked at the ground ahead of her and discovered there was a trail of candy. Pinkie got excited and followed it, taking every piece she saw.

She had followed the trail for several minutes and it had led her into the Everfree Forest. She wondered how much more there was, but then she got her answer. In a clearing, there was a bucket of candy sitting there, unguarded. “Oh my gosh! This is the best Nightmare Night ever!” She ran over and claimed her prize, hugging it lovingly.

Her moment of joy was cut short when she noticed something moving through the trees and couldn’t help but feel afraid. “H-hello? Is somepony there?” She slowly walked towards the entrance of the forest, but was suddenly surrounded by green fire. Pinkie looked around, panicking. “W-what’s going on!?”

A shadow fell over her and she could feel her blood turn to ice. She slowly turned around, scared of what was there. When she looked, her worst fears came true. Standing there was a menacing and familiar figure. “C-Cherub?” She hoped that it was only a prank, but she noticed something. This Chrysalis had glowing green eyes and actually had holes in her legs. She then realized that this was the real one standing before her. Pinkie’s body flooded with terror as she looked into the monster’s eyes.

“PINKIE PIE,” her voice boomed, “FOR YOUR GREAT INSULT AGAINST THE CHANGELINGS, I WILL COMPLETELY DRAIN YOU OF YOUR LOVE AND DEVOUR YOUR SOUL.”

The pink pony dropped her candy, screamed at the top of her lungs, and ran faster than she had ever had in her life. She bolted out of the forest and ran towards the safest place she knew, crying in fright and praying that the monster wouldn’t catch her.

Chrysalis was on the ground, trying to catch her breath as she laughed incredibly hard. She decided that Luna wasn’t completely right about everything. Being mean got things done and was a lot more fun. She gathered all the candy that Pinkie had dropped and made her way home with a skip in her step, happy that she had easily outperformed Luna on her own holiday. She took one of the lollipops and put it in her mouth.

Revenge had never tasted so sweet.

“And then she said she was going to devour my soul! It was the scariest thing ever!”

Fluttershy trembled while hiding her eyes with her hooves. “T-t-that’s really s-scary, Pinkie. Y-you sure she didn’t f-follow you here?”

Pinkie gulped and got closer to her friend. “I don’t know, but I’m too scared to look.”

Both of them were huddled together under Fluttershy’s bed. This was the closest building Pinkie could run to and she hoped that she had ditched the changeling back in the woods. “What should we do?” asked Fluttershy. “Should we get Twilight or Princess Celestia?”

“You’re right! We have to tell them immediately!” Pinkie sprang from under the bed, but then immediately went back under. “W-well, I’m sure it can wait until tomorrow, when it’s not so dark.”

Both of them laid silently under the bed. The room was dark like the rest of the house with the exception of moonlight coming through the crack of the closed window curtain and they hoped that Chrysalis would think no pony was home. Even the animals knew not to make a sound as they were told of what was lurking in the forest. “Pinkie?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really scared. What if she comes here? Is she going to eat my soul, too?”

Pinkie could see in the faint moonlight that Fluttershy was absolutely terrified to the point of tears. She reached her hoof over her friend and brought her closer to her. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from Queenie Meanie. She will never lay a hoof on you as long as I’m around.”

“Promise?”

The earth pony nuzzled against her friend. “Promise.”

Fluttershy smiled and gave Pinkie a peck on the cheek. “Thank you, Pinkie. I’m really happy that you’re here.”

Pinkie laid against her while stroking her mane. “I am too.”

While she ran her hoof through her friend’s hair, Pinkie had a weird feeling within her. For some reason, she felt very happy being with Fluttershy. While she was always happy and was happier when she was with her friends, she somehow felt really happy being with Fluttershy. She took another look at the peagsus, who was now sleeping soundly while breathing softly. Pinkie could feel her heart go light as she looked into Fluttershy's peaceful expression. She even felt warm when she got next to her, feeling her soft coat and taking in the light scent of her mane. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to be with her friend and protect her. She had done so many fun things that night, but somehow, this was her favorite moment.

The Greatest Discovery Ever

It took several days for their friends to convince Pinkie and Fluttershy that they weren’t being hunted by Chrysalis as they believed it was only a Nightmare Night prank, which was only half the truth. While Chrysalis found amusement in their renowned fear of her, she began to regret it when Pinkie stopped showing up to work for a while. She was glad to have her working again, but she noticed something was off with the girl. She figured that she was still nervous about her encounter during Nightmare Night, so she didn’t ask her about it.

Chrysalis decided to follow Luna’s advice and tried acting nicer towards Pinkie. However, the problem was that Pinkie liked Cherub, not Chrysalis, so their friendship wasn't exactly real. Pinkie kept trying to dig into her fake personal life, so Chrysalis made up a few things about it while keeping as vague as possible. Besides this occasional annoyance, she took some satisfaction in the pony’s company, which was something she had never thought would happen in her lifetime. Pinkie knew how to make things lively and sometimes the pranks she performed on the local ponies were something that Chrysalis had found to be funny. She sometimes even went out for dinner with her after work so they could talk and hang out, which she preferred over her nights alone.

Chrysalis decided to take her social activity further by communicating with Luna. Every night after closing, she would write to the princess. When they weren’t discussing the current issues with the changelings, they talked about their personal lives along with other topics of interest. Whenever Luna wasn’t busy with politics, she tried to learn more about the modern world, taking a great interest in history and modern technology. As much as Chrysalis enjoyed talking to her, she had to avoid anything concerning her false backstory and would only talk about anything interesting that happened during work. She even discovered about Luna’s ability to enter dreams, which caused her to absolutely panic and force Luna into promising that she would stay out of her mind for personal reasons. Just a couple weeks after Nightmare Night, the princess came for a visit and they talked over a cup of tea at Chrysalis’s workplace. As much as she enjoyed her company, like Pinkie, Luna was only interested in Cherub, not Chrysalis. Still, she did enjoy having her around as she tried to learn more about Luna’s life after the Nightmare Moon incident in interest of seeing how she managed to keep her title despite what happened.

As far as her master plan was going, progress was finally beginning to show. The love channeling from the town reached a point where she could simply feed from the comfort of her own bed, which was a luxury that she wished she could bestow upon all her subjects. Chrysalis even noticed that she was a little curvier in appearance from being around the fuel constantly and was glad she didn’t look like she was carapace and bone anymore, admiring her fuller figure. She made a serious mental note to ensure she didn’t gain any more weight when the love further increased.

Today, the changeling was busy violating the privacy of her lone employee’s desk. She had a few minutes to spare and became curious of what Pinkie had kept in there. She opened one of the drawers and found a large stash of candy inside, which she took a hoofful for herself before she closed it. She opened the drawer under it and was greeted by loud party streamers and confetti shooting out, nearly causing her to fall out of her chair. Pinkie seemed to be ready for a party wherever and whenever.

She looked into the large bottom drawer and saw another stash. Inside were small model toys of Pinkie, her friends, the princesses, and one that reminded her of Spike’s Nightmare Night costume, which she assumed to be Discord. Chrysalis wasn’t sure whether Pinkie had made these or had bought them. The pony would usually play with the ones that looked like her friends and sometimes even talk to them as if there were really there. She rummaged through the toys, wondering where or how Pinkie acquired all of them. There seemed to have a great amount of effort put into them and captured every detail precisely.

Then she saw something on the bottom and pulled it out, gasping when she held it. In her hoof was a model of herself as Queen Chrysalis. She examined it in fascination, admiring how it was almost exactly like her. It even had the holes in her legs placed correctly. She was so tempted to keep it for herself, but she was sure Pinkie would notice it missing.

Chrysalis then had an idea. She looked over at the windows and made sure the blinds were closed. She reached back into the drawer and pulled out the Celestia and Twilight models. “Hi, I’m big butt Celestia,” she said in a mocking voice as she held the Sun Princess, “and I am the stupid princess who runs the land filled with stupid ponies!”

She brought over the Twilight model. “And I’m her favorite flank kissing student, Toilet Sprinkle!” She brought the Twilight model’s face towards and away from Celestia’s butt, imitating kissing sounds. “By my calculations, your butt is big enough to cause a total solar eclipse! I know this because I is smart!”

Chrysalis then laughed evilly as she brought her own toy over. “Tremble, puny ponies, for I have returned!”

“Oh no!” cried Celestia in Chrysalis’s voice. “Twilight, go get the elements of whatever, for I am too weak and useless to defeat the almighty Queen Chrysalis by myself!”

“Do not even bother, Twilight. Your friends have realized how much of a loser you really are and have left you. As for me, I actually made a new friend!” She then brought out the Nightmare Moon model.

“Luna, why?” Twilight cried pathetically.

“Fools! Chrysalis helped me realize my true potential and I don’t need either of you anymore! Now bow before our might!”

She made a zapping sound as she knocked over Celestia and Twilight. “I now claim Equestria in the name of the changelings!” she said as she held her figure over them. The real Chrysalis squealed in delight from all the fun she was having and wished this was actually happening.

Twilight got back up. “I’m not done yet, not while I still have my kung-hoof skills!”

Chrysalis laughed. “Try all you want! Resistance is…wait a minute.” She realized that she had neither picked the Twilight toy back up or had said what she had heard. She saw that the model was being held by somepony else and when she looked at the face of the pony, she flew out of the chair. “Pinkie, what are you doing here!?”

Pinkie giggled loudly. “I work here, silly! Do you want to keep playing? This is so much fun!”

“No thanks, I’m done.” Chrysalis quickly walked back to her desk, trying to cover her face with her hair as she was completely embarrassed. She wasn’t sure what was worse: the fact she was caught playing with children’s toys or the fact she was actually enjoying it.

Pinkie sat at her desk and resumed the fight, making fighting sound effects while Chrysalis watched. “It seems we are evenly matched,” said Pinkie imitating Chrysalis.

“Yeah, we need a tie breaker or something,” said Twilight.

Pinkie then brought out Discord. “Greetings, everypony! I have returned to do good stuff like making it rain chocolate milk and…say. What’s your name, pretty lady?”

She faked a giggle. “My name is Chrysalis and all I want is love.” The real Chrysalis stared daggers at the pony.

“Don’t worry. I can give you all the love you want!” Pinkie proceeded to bring the two figures together, making kissing sounds as she rubbed their faces together.

“Pinkie, it’s time to put your toys away,” Chrysalis commanded in a friendly voice.

The pony stopped and looked up at her. “But Ms. Cherub, I still have to do their wedding!”

“PUT THEM AWAY BEFORE I BREAK THEM!”

Pinkie hastily grabbed the toys and shoved them back into their drawer. When she finished, she gave Chrysalis an innocent grin, which only caused her boss to groan. They sat quietly for a minute until Pinkie spoke. “Ms. Cherub?”

Chrysalis let out a sigh. “Yes, Pinkie?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“What’s on your mind?” She worried that Pinkie had listened to too much while she was playing and was getting suspicious. But then again, the pony was not very sharp.

“I’ve been feeling weird around one of my friends.” Pinkie seemed to be both embarrassed and unsure.

Chrysalis arched an eyebrow at her. “Which one and how weird?”

“Fluttershy. It’s just whenever I’m around her, sometimes I feel really warm and sometimes I get nervous."

Chrysalis gave it some thought as even this seemed strange of Pinkie. “You have? When did this start happening?”

Pinkie thought intensely. “It started on Nightmare Night when I ran to Fluttershy’s house after I ran into Chrysalis.”

“For the last time, that was probably somepony pulling your leg,” Chrysalis huffed.

“No, it really was her! And she stole all of my candy!” She could see that her boss was not persuaded. “Anyway, so when I hid with Fluttershy, we kind of cuddled and I liked it and now I keep thinking about her all the time and one of the reasons I didn’t leave her home for a few days was that I just wanted to be with her and the last two weeks I just wanted to keep hanging out with her more and more and I keep thinking of how cute she is!” Pinkie took a few breaths after having just emptying her lungs. “I’m so confused! Why do I like her so much more now!?”

Chrysalis had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but she needed to be sure as she wasn’t getting a clear reading. “How much do you like her exactly?”

“More than my other friends. Please don’t tell them! They might get jealous!”

“I won’t,” Chrysalis promised. “Now Pinkie, we’re going to do a quick exercise.”

“You mean like gymnastics?”

The changeling laughed, loving moments like these with Pinkie. “No, nothing like that. I want you to close your eyes and imagine everything I tell you is happening.”

“That sounds like fun!” Pinkie closed her eyes and excitedly awaited to play along.

Chrysalis cleared her throat and spoke in a soothing voice, “You are in your bedroom and you are lying on your bed, enjoying some peace and quiet after a long day at work. The door opens and there stands Fluttershy.”

“Hi, Fluttershy!” greeted Pinkie while waving her hoof with her eyes remaining closed.

"How do you think she looks?”

The pony shrugged. “She looks normal to me.”

“Does she have a certain attraction on you?” There was no answer. “Pinkie?”

“Yes.”

A certain emotion was being produced from the mare and Chrysalis was very pleased with the fact she was right. She continued to speak as she fed. “She closes the door and approaches you with a seductive look in her eyes.”

“What does seductive mean?”

“Focus. She climbs on top of you and gives you a hug. How do you feel?”

“I like it! Hugs are great!”

Chrysalis chuckled as it was clear the pony had no idea what was coming next. “Now she pulls back a bit and then she does something very surprising.”

“What does she do?" She wiggled around in her chair while keeping her eyes closed. "Give me a birthday present!?”

“She kisses you on the mouth.”

Pinkie stopped moving and crimson appeared on her face. “W-wha?”

“She rubs against your body as she puts her tongue in your mouth to play with yours and you both lay there for quite some time. Do you like this?” She could see the pony biting her lip. “Do you like this?”

“Y-yes.”

“Do you want to be with Fluttershy?”

“Yes.”

“How badly?”

“More than anything.”

“Open your eyes.” Pinkie opened her eyes and Chrysalis clapped her hooves. “Congratulations, Pinkie. You’re in love!” The Element of Laughter produced a very long gasp and then grew a gigantic smile. Chrysalis knew that this might have been very strange for the pony to have these feelings for the pegasus, but Pinkie could handle this easily. Pinkie already was very close to Fluttershy and she would let nature take its course, reaping the reward in the end all for herself.

“With who?”

Chrysalis immediately froze. “I-I’m sorry?” she asked through clenched teeth.

“Who am I in love with, Cherub? I need to know!”

“Isn’t it obvious!?”

Pinkie shook her head. “Which stallion is it? I can’t think of who it is!”

“Maybe it’s a girl you should be thinking about.”

The pony scratched the back of her head with a confused look on her face. “Why would it be a girl? That doesn’t make any sense at all!”

Chrysalis dug her face into her hooves, knowing exactly what was wrong. With her magic, she turned the sign on the window to “Closed.”

“Pinkie, we’re going to have a talk.”

Pinkie looked worried. “I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”

The false unicorn just smiled and shook her head. “No, Pinkie. I’m just going to teach you about something important.” She pointed to the seat in front of her, which Pinkie eagerly sat in. “But while we’re on the subject, you seriously need to stop going around and telling ponies that for our jobs, you and I like to make love.”

“But isn’t that what we do?”

“Technically yes, but pick a better choice of words. Anyway, we’re going to talk about homosexuality.”

Pinkie looked at her with extreme curiosity. “What’s that?”

“It’s when one pony of one gender is physically attracted to another pony of the same gender.” She noticed Pinkie had stopped bouncing, likely trying to process the information. “You see, I think you are a lesbian.”

“Lesbian?” the pony asked while tilting her head.

“It means that you are a mare who falls in love with other mares. The reason you've been feeling strange around your friend is that you’re in love with Fluttershy.” Chrysalis watched Pinkie sitting there, completely still. She was wondering if she broke her brain or something as she wasn’t doing anything. Suddenly, Pinkie started laughing. “Is there something funny?”

“Yeah, mares can’t love other mares! That’s just silly!”

“Yes they can. Remember when we had those costumers that wanted a special somepony that was the same gender as them? I lied when I said they just wanted to be friends. They’re actually gay.”

The pony suddenly ceased. “But-”

“Pinkie, Lyra and Bon-Bon are actually lovers. I’m surprised you haven’t caught on after all this time.”

“No, they’re just kissing friends!” she protested.

Chrysalis chuckled at her, amused by how dumb she could be sometimes. “Believe me when I say that they do a lot more together than just kiss. I heard they’re getting married in a couple of months.”

Pinkie was dumbfounded. “So I like…girls?”

“Yes, Pinkie. You do.”

“And stallions can like stallions?”

“That is also correct.” She saw Pinkie once again remain still, wondering what could have possibly been going through the pony’s mind for her to not react at all. Suddenly, Pinkie’s entire body started to quake and Chrysalis took cover under the desk, expecting the worst.

“This. Is.” Pinkie launched herself into the air. “The greatest discovery ever!”

Chrysalis came out and sighed with relief, grateful that she didn’t have to take her to the hospital for emergency brain surgery. “I’m glad to see that you are so accepting of the news.”

Pinkie was jumping across the entire room, shrieking with joy. “This is amazing! I always thought stallions and mares always had to be together. Why haven’t I heard about this before!?”

The changeling let out a friendly laugh. “You probably weren’t paying as much attention as you should have. But now that we’re done, why don’t you-"

“This is the most exciting news ever! I need to tell everypony that I’m a lesbian!” She immediately dashed towards the door.

“What!? No, Pinkie, you can’t-” She had already disappeared. “…leave.” Chrysalis shrugged and decided to get to work while she waited for her to return, wondering what she had just unleashed onto Ponyville.

Twilight placed a massive stack of papers on the table and wiped the sweat off her brow. “Okay, Spike, I think that’s the last of it.”

“Great. Now excuse me while I go catch up on sleep.” He yawned as he reached for his bed, but was pulled away by Twilight’s magic.

“Not so fast. I need you to write a quick letter.”

“But Twilight, that report took all night and I’m really tired,” the dragon whined.

“Just one quick letter, Spike, and then you can go to bed.”

Spike huffed, knowing he had no choice. “Fine.” He took out a piece of paper and a quill. “Let’s hear it.”

Twilight cleared her throat. “Dear Mom and Dad, I-”

She was interrupted by the sound of the library’s front door being flung open. Pinkie barged in and yelled, “Guess what? I’m a lesbian, Twilight!” She then vanished as quickly as she came.

Twilight stood in silence, completely bewildered by what had just happened. “That was…interesting. Anyway, back to the letter.” She noticed Spike’s hands were empty while he was walking away. “Where’s the letter?”

“I sent it. I made sure I got the lesbian thing down, too.” He didn’t look at her when he spoke, desperate to go count sheep.

Before he reached his destination, Twilight pinned him to the floor in complete panic. “Why did you do that!?”

“I-I thought you were finished! Did you want to say something else? And what’s a lesbian anyway?”

“Spike, get another letter. NOW.”

“And that’s how glue is made, children,” Cheerilee said cheerfully. “Now please open your books to page-”

She was cut off by Pinkie’s sudden entrance, which caught everypony by surprise. “I just found out I’m a lesbian! Isn’t that great!?” Pinkie then ran out, heading to her next destination.

Cheerilee stood in complete confusion, unsure by what had just happened. She then saw one of her students raising her hoof. “Yes, Sweetie Belle?”

The unicorn filly looked completely confused as well as the rest of the class. “Ms. Cheerilee, what’s a lesbian?” The whole class murmured in agreement with her, all curious of the meaning of the word. Cheerilee laughed nervously, knowing that she might be getting a few interesting letters from their parents.

Bon-Bon laid on the grass next to Lyra. She had her eyes closed and was enjoying the pleasant music that the unicorn played from her harp. They had been making many preparations for their upcoming wedding and right now she wanted to some time off of work to relax with her fiancée. With Caramel in a relationship with Applejack, she now trusted him enough to run the store and not give away anything like before.

She swore she could hear hoof steps rapidly coming towards them. Her eyes shot open when a pony screamed at her, “Guess what? I just found I’m a lesbian like you girls! Maybe later we could do lesbian things together! Won’t that be fun!?” Pinkie ran off from the confused couple and then shouted, “By the way, congratulations on the wedding!”

Lyra and Bon-Bon just stared in silence as the pink pony vanished. After a minute of trying to understand what had just occurred, Lyra asked, “Do you think we should still invite her to the wedding?”

“No.”

“Do you think a box of chocolates will work?”

Chrysalis stared at him in total disbelief. “You think candy is going to make up you ditching her play just so you can go bowling?”

The earth pony stallion thought some more. “What about flowers and candy?”

“If that’s your idea of an apology after sending your twin brother to your marefriend’s play just so you can hang out with your friends, then I think she should dump your sorry flank and get somepony better.” Chrysalis looked behind him when the bell above the door rang as her employee returned. Pinkie had been gone for about an hour and she had been just dispensing dating advice to the customers who came in. “If you want to keep her, apologize, do whatever she asks, and never pull a stunt like that again. Otherwise, I’ll be expecting you here again very soon.” She followed Pinkie into the kitchen, who was drinking water as she was completely exhausted. “Welcome back. Are you done now?” she asked while hiding her annoyance.

Pinkie crawled to the kitchen table and sat, panting heavily. “Yep. Everypony I know now knows about me being a lesbian. Thank you for telling me all about this, Ms. Cherub.”

“No problem. Do you have any more questions about being gay?” She thought that now was as good as any other time to satisfy any of her remaining curiosity as Pinkie would not be too useful if her mind was elsewhere.

She pondered for a moment. “Can gay ponies have babies?”

Chrysalis smirked, amused by her lack of biological knowledge. “No. Well, except for lesbian couples, and that’s only if one is a unicorn since, you know, magic.”

Pinkie cocked her head. “Why does one have to be a unicorn for the stork to come?”

The red unicorn stared in disbelief, realizing that she was probably going to have to give her another talk. How was the pony this old and knew none of the things she was learning today? “Do you honestly believe that’s where baby ponies come from?”

Pinkie nodded. “Well duh! Where else do they come from?”

“Do you really think that ponies come from eggs that are laid by a mythical bird?”

“Spike came from an egg,” she argued.

“He’s a dragon, that’s different. And besides, weren’t you there when Mrs. Cake had her kids?”

“Yes, but I didn’t get to see the stork.”

“You’re saying he goes to the hospital?” Chrysalis could never understand the pony’s logic for anything.

“Of course. Why do you think all those babies are there? He has to drop them off somewhere!”

Chrysalis sat at the table, frustrated, and dug her face into her hooves again. “Why don’t you tell me how you think babies are made?”

Pinkie ran into the main room and returned with the Discord and Chrysalis models. “When a mommy and daddy want a baby, they-” She was startled as a bolt of magic shot by her head and left a smoldering crater on the wall behind her.

“Try again without the toys,” the changeling requested threateningly.

Pinkie placed them on the floor, freaked by her threat. “When a mommy and daddy want a baby, they make a wish. They keep wishing until the stork hears their wish and prepares them a beautiful baby, which takes around eleven months. When the ponies find out the stork is making them a baby, the mare eats a lot of food.”

The royal changeling was already lost. “Now why in the world would she do that?”

“I’m getting to that part! So after eleven months, the stork lays an egg and it hatches into the baby pony. When the couple hears about it, they rush to the hospital and meet the stork. He’s supposed to give them the baby, but he wants to be given food in return for all his hard work. So like a momma bird, the mare throws up the food she had been storing into his mouth to feed him and then they have a new addition to the family. The end!” concluded the party pony with a large grin on her face.

Chrysalis’s mouth was hung open as she tried to understand the words that came out of her employee. “Pinkie, that is absolutely the most disgusting and dumbest thing I have ever heard! Where did you even come up with this?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Well no pony said baby making was pretty. Plus it makes so much sense. Mrs. Cake got really fat and when she had her babies, she was thin again!”

The fugitive gave up. “You know what? Why don’t you go see Twilight for a book on how babies are made? I’m sure you will be surprised. Anyway, let’s get back to the task at hand. Fluttershy is one of your closet friends, but-”

Pinkie sprung up. “Oh no, I forgot about her! I need to tell her right now!” Pinkie rushed out of the kitchen and went towards the open door, but Chrysalis anticipated this and slammed it shut with her magic, causing her to collide into it. The five ponies in the main room watched as Chrysalis dragged her back into the kitchen.

“That’s not a good idea,” said Chrysalis when they went back in. “If she were to know, she would catch on much faster to you making moves on her and would probably get scared off. Besides, we don’t even know if she likes mares the way you do.”

Pinkie rubbed her sore nose. “So what should I do?”

“Since you two are already so close, this should be much easier. But just so you know, Pinkie, it is very possible she will never feel the same way about you.” Pinkie’s face shattered into an incredibly sad look. “That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Maybe we could give her a change in opinion since she already likes you so much.” That made Pinkie smile and Chrysalis couldn’t help but do the same. “Now, what you want to do is spend some quality time with her. It will be much better if it is only the two of you so you can connect more. Just do what she likes doing and try to make her happy whenever you can. Flirt a little if you get the chance, but try not to look too obvious. If we’re lucky, she’ll love you too. Now I need to know, how close are you two?”

“We’re the bestest of friends!”

“Does she think you as one too?”

Pinkie happily nodded. “She sure does! We always love doing stuff together since we’ve been friends forever. Even though she’s shy, she always loves coming to my parties and I always love to play with her animals.”

“Sounds like you two are as close as you can be, but tell me about what you both did for the few days you two hid together.”

“It was so scary! We kept thinking that Chrysalis was trying to get us and our friends kept trying to make us leave. Fluttershy was so terrified the entire time and she always wanted to be near me. She even wanted me to sleep in her bed.”

“So she felt safe around you.”

“Of course! I promised that I would protect her and she even kissed me on the cheek once.”

“My, my, Pinkie Pie. You are quite a ladies’ mare,” Chrysalis complemented. “If she really clung onto you like that, then I really have a feeling you might be successful in winning her love.”

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go right now!” She was ready to leave, but Chrysalis had grabbed her by the back of her neck.

“We’re not going anywhere. We are still on the job,” she reminded her sternly.

“But…but…”

Chrysalis looked at Pinkie’s face and could see the incredible sadness on it. Surprisingly, it hurt her to see it. “Look, I know you’re so eager to run over to her and do whatever, but you want to be subtle, right?”

Pinkie nodded. “Right!”

“And wouldn’t she be suspicious if you were to turn up today when you’re supposed to be working for me?”

The pony gasped. “You’re right, she would totally get suspicious! Gosh, Ms. Cherub, you’re so smart!”

Chrysalis laughed at the comment. “Thank you. Now if you want to do this right, you have to follow my instructions very carefully. But until then, let’s focus on helping these other ponies.”

On Saturday, Pinkie bounced her way to the end of Ponyville, ready to spend another day with a certain pegasus. Cherub had been advising her on how to spend the day with her after work. Pinkie was to take Fluttershy out, do anything fun that would make them both happy, and when the mood felt right, confess her feelings. She wished she had Cherub with her to provide addition help, but she was busy meeting with Luna today. Soon she was at the outskirts of town and the cottage was in sight. She became really excited upon seeing her destination and sprinted all the way there. She was about to pound on the door in frenzy, but she caught herself. She remembered that Cherub told her not to look too desperate to spend time with her, otherwise Fluttershy would catch on to her and that could be a problem. She lightly knocked on the door instead.

The pegasus soon opened it and smiled at her presence. “Hi, Pinkie! How are you doing today?”

The way she spoke always made her heart flutter. “I’m doing super!” Pinkie immediately panicked as she gave out too much emotion. “I mean, I’m doing fine,” she said as she played it off cool.

Fluttershy giggled as she noticed what Pinkie did. “That’s nice. Was there something you wanted?”

“I just came by to see if you wanted to do something fun today!”

“That sounds lovely, Pinkie. I always like it when you come over.” She moved from the doorway to allow her friend entry. Once she closed the front door, she asked, “So what do you want to do?”

“Well what do you want to do? Play checkers? Bake a cake? Invite Discord and play rabbit astronaut again?” They could hear Angel let out a high pitched scream as he ran away.

The yellow mare was indecisive. “I…uh…I want to do whatever you want to do, Pinkie.”

“But I want to do you want to do!”

Fluttershy was slightly confused by her loud response. “…Why?”

Pinkie started stammering. “Because…uh…everypony else is busy and you’re the only one available. Plus you’re my friend and I just want you to have fun! Now let’s see.” She continued thinking about what they could possibly do. She was actually hoping that Fluttershy would come up with something first since she would have a lot of interest in it.

After several minutes of silence, the pegasus asked, “Why don’t we go to town and think of something together?”

“Okay!” They left the house and walked along the path to town. Every now and then Pinkie took a quick glance at her. It was still strange to her that she was actually in love with one of her own friends and she still needed to figure out how she was going to get Fluttershy to love her. She wanted to tell her how she felt so badly, but she just needed to wait for the right moment.

She noticed her friend being silent during their entire walk and knew it was time to get to work. “So…what’s new, Fluttershy?” she asked in hopes of starting a conversation.

“Umm…Soarin was here yesterday.”

Pinkie gasped. “He was? Dashie didn’t tell me!”

“It was only for a short bit. He’s just so busy training all of those ponies in becoming Wonderbolts and Spitfire’s got him on a short leash. I feel bad that he and Rainbow Dash have such a long distance relationship.”

“I know. Maybe it’ll be better when she becomes a Wonderbolt.”

“Maybe, but that means she might go live with him,” Fluttershy added with some sorrow.

“No! She is too loyal to leave Ponyville. She’ll make Soarin live here and we’ll all be friends forever!”

“That would be nice, but that’s so long from now. She still has a few more years until she becomes an official Wonderbolt. It must be so much work for her.”

“At least she has Soarin with her,” added Pinkie.

The pegasus nodded with a smile on her face. “She just gets so excited whenever he comes by or when she gets a letter. They always like to fly around doing stunts or prank ponies. Anything they do brings them so much joy. They are so…perfect together.”

“I know, right? I’m so glad they’re dating, even if Spitfire got mad at them when she found out. They’re totally meant to be!”

“A perfect couple,” murmured Fluttershy, no longer aware of her friend.

“Fluttershy?”

She noticed Pinkie addressing her and lightly blushed. “Sorry, I just feel a little jealous. I want a perfect relation like that, but I get really nervous about meeting ponies.”

Pinkie then had an idea. “You do? Then you should come visit Cupid’s Arrow sometime! We could totally help you out!” she suggested with extreme excitement.

Fluttershy’s smile immediately died. “Oh, I would love to. I’m sure you two are great and everything, but it’s just…you know…” She moved her hair in front of her face and whimpered.

“What?”

“Cherub,” Fluttershy squeaked shyly.

Pinkie tilted her head. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She’s really scary. She likes to yell a lot and I saw what she did to those poor ponies who asked her out. I’m sorry, but I don’t like her at all.”

Pinkie thought that bringing Fluttershy to a pony she was scared of was now a very bad idea, regretting ever mentioning the things Cherub had done in the past to her friends. “I see your point. I try helping her find a new coltfriend, but she just keeps refusing. Whatever happened with her old one must have been really bad.”

“Is she still just as mean?”

“She’s been a lot nicer lately. I don’t know what got her in a better mood, but I hope it stays that way. She actually laughs at some of my pranks now!”

“I’m glad to hear that. I just hope I never get mean like her if I ever get dumped by a…special somepony…” Fluttershy hid her face again to hide her blushing.

Pinkie was slightly upset by hearing that and through a supportive hoof around her. “Don’t worry. I’m sure nothing like that will ever happen to you. You’re so sweet and pretty, no pony would want to hurt you.”

Her words clearly cheered her up from her expression and the blush she was producing. Her friend let her go and they continued down the busy street. “Pinkie, can I ask you something?”

“Yes?”

“Since you’ve been working in Cupid’s Arrow for a long time, I was wondering…”

The pink pony’s heart rate began to increase. “Yes?”

“Do you know any ponies that are perfect for me?”

The truth was she actually did know some stallions. In her spare time, she had curiously matched her single friends to possible stallion candidates and recently each other when she found out about homosexuality. Fluttershy did have some possible matches, but she didn’t want to lose her to a stranger. Fluttershy looked at her with pleading eyes, which made Pinkie hurt more because of the only choice she had left. She had to lie. “No, I can’t say I have.”

The pegasus looked very upset by what she heard. “O-oh. I see. I guess I’m just not meant to be in a relationship.”

“Now don’t say that. You just have to give it time. And who knows? Love can always come from the unlikeliest places,” she hinted. “So cheer up, I promise you one day you will find a pony that will love you with all their heart.”

Fluttershy hugged her, which made Pinkie blush. “Thanks, Pinkie. I feel so much better now.”

While Pinkie patted her on the back, she noticed one of the nearby buildings and got an idea. “Hey, there’s a pet store over there! Why don’t we go check it out and look at the cute animals?”

Fluttershy broke away and bolted inside. Pinkie entered the store after her and saw her friend examining all of the animals. Fluttershy went over to a pen that housed several puppies of various breeds. “Oh look how cute they are! I just want to adopt them all!”

Pinkie smiled as she watched her play with the young animals. “I don’t think Angel will like you putting all your attention on them.”

“I know, but just look at them,” she emphasized.

Pinkie looked down into the pen. All of the puppies were pawing on the side, eager to be played with. She bent down and stuck a hoof in, causing them to crowd around it to sniff and lick her. “Aw, they’re so cute. But don’t you have enough animals already?” She did not receive an answer and looked around. “Fluttershy?”

The pegasus was over at the front counter. “Excuse me, but how much they cost all together?”

Pinkie panicked and grabbed Fluttershy, dragging her outside. Her friend already had enough animals and didn’t want her to spend so much money to get more. “No, I can’t let you take all of them.”

Fluttershy tried to break free from her grip and return to the shop. “But why not? They’re so cute!”

Pinkie almost couldn’t resist the incredibly sad eyes she received. “But it wouldn’t be fair to the ponies who want to adopt them, right?”

The pegasus sighed. “You’re right. It would be selfish. I’m sure they will all find good owners,” she said, smiling.

“That’s the spirit! Now let’s go find something else to do. I think your house has enough cute animals.” They continued wandering through Ponyville. Since Fluttershy was in a good mood, Pinkie decided to take a little risk. “They were really adorable, weren’t they?”

The pegasus happily nodded. “They were. I just love puppies so much.”

“You know what’s also adorable?”

“What?”

Pinkie grabbed her by the cheek and pulled on it. “You are!”

Fluttershy put her hair over her face to hide all the red that had appeared. “T-t-t-thanks, Pinkie.”

As they continued on their trek through the town, Pinkie could see that her friend was lost in thought about something and even she could guess what it was. Her thoughts were interrupted by the growling that came from her stomach. “Hey, Fluttershy?” The pegasus didn’t take notice of her. “Flutters?”

Fluttershy looked at her. “Oh. Yes, Pinkie?”

“Can we get some food? I’m really hungry!”

“I am too, but where should we go?”

Pinkie jumped up. “We should get the best food there is for lunch!”

“A well balanced meal?” suggested the yellow pony.

“Pff, no. I don’t even know what that means. I meant ice cream!”

“Ice cream? For lunch?”

“Of course! I’ll pay for it, too!”

Fluttershy smiled at her. “You’re a really funny pony sometimes, Pinkie.”

Pinkie led her to an ice cream parlor across town while they spoke some more. After buying, they sat outside at a table while enjoying their cold treats. While Fluttershy had only a cone of mint ice cream, Pinkie had a towering pile of ice cream as she wanted one scoop of all their twenty-three flavors. “Hey, Fluttershy, where does ice cream come from?”

The yellow mare shrugged. “There’s milk and that’s all I know.”

“Milk? But then why is it called ice cream?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s false advertisement! Now I know why it came out yucky when I tried making it from ice cubes and cream.”

“You’re so silly.” Fluttershy licked her ice cream while looking at Pinkie’s pile. The way it overshadowed her was incredibly intimidating and she feared it would fall on her. “Um…how can you possibly eat that much, Pinkie?”

“Like this!” She stuck her tongue out and swiped the bottom scoop, bringing the stack down one level. Fluttershy giggled and her friend joined her. As they continued eating, Pinkie tried to think up of something else they could discuss. “Hey, Fluttershy, do you think Cherub would want a pet?”

The shy pony shrugged at her. “I guess that would make her happy. Any idea what kind of animal she wants?”

“No, not really.” Pinkie leaned back and thought some more. “Come to think of it, I don’t know that much about her. She doesn’t like to talk about herself much and she gets mad if I ask too much.”

“Why do you like her? She seems to be really mean.”

“You know why she’s like that. I can’t stand seeing her angry all the time and I just want her to feel better. I wonder what her fiancé did to her to make her so angry all the time.”

“He must have broken her heart,” Fluttershy suggested.

“Probably, but that doesn’t explain why she never says anything about herself. Did you know she had a sister?”

“She does? Is she scary like her?”

“I don’t know. Luna told me that the only thing she said was that they got into a fight and haven’t seen each other in a long time.”

A look of horror appeared on the pegasus’s face. “Oh goodness.”

“What?”

“What if…her fiancé cheated on her with her sister?”

Pinkie gasped. “That would be horrible! It’d be no wonder why she’s so upset.”

Fluttershy nodded. “I would be upset, too. She must have been so hurt by them.”

“Now do you see why I stay? Cherub needs a friend more than anything. I don’t care how long it takes; I’m going to stay by her side until she’s all smiles!”

“But it doesn’t seem to be working. You’ve tried everything but she just gets mad. Maybe you should give up.”

Pinkie banged her free hoof on the table, scaring her friend. “No! I will never give up on her! No pony deserves to be sad. I can’t just ignore her if she is in pain. As her friend, it is my duty to bring her joy. She’s already been acting much nicer to me and has even been writing to Luna, so she is getting better. Eventually, she will open up and we will be true friends forever!”

Fluttershy was frightened by her outburst, but then smiled warmly. “All you want to do is bring happiness to everypony, no matter what. That’s what I like about you, Pinkie.”

“Really?” Pinkie got up and sat right next to her. “Well how much do you like me?” she asked while leaning in close.

The pegasus’s cheeks grew a tint of pink. “A lot,” she said incredibly quietly.

“Aw, you’re sweet.” Pinkie threw her free foreleg around her. “I like you a lot too, Flutters. You’re always so kind and gentle and caring and attractive.”

Fluttershy’s body temperature shot up and her ice cream suddenly melted. “W-w-what was that last one?”

“Caring, like how you care for all of your animal friends and us,” she said playfully, enjoying her friend’s reaction.

“Oh. Well thanks for the complements.”

“You’re welcome!” Pinkie could feel how warm she was and she was happy. Cherub told her that making her blush like that was usually a good sign and Pinkie just wanted to do it more as Fluttershy looked extremely cute when embarrassed. She even noticed her looking back a few times.

After Pinkie quickly finished her treat because it started melting, they remained seated and shared some more laughs. After sitting for almost an hour, they decided to head elsewhere. “Any idea what you wanna do now?” asked Pinkie.

“If it’s all right with you, can we go somewhere nice and private? I just feel like talking more.”

Pinkie had to resist the urge to let out a huge gasp. “You got it, Flutters.” A party was starting in her head. Several Pinkies were jumping around, throwing confetti and placing a banner that said, “Congratulations!” The party would not officially start until she and Fluttershy were together, which could be very soon if she did everything right.

From the parlor, they traversed the busy streets and soon exited the busier parts of town. After about ten minutes, the two mares were at the outskirts of town and lied on the grass, looking up at the clouds with no other pony around. “Hey, that one looks like a butterfly,” said Pinkie.

“Aw, how cute.”

The earth pony kept pointing at more. “And that looks like a boot. And a candy cane and four-leaf clover.”

“I guess Rainbow Dash is really busy today.”

“Remember that one time when Dash made all those naughty words in the clouds?”

Fluttershy started laughing. “That was pretty funny. I’m surprised they never caught her for that.”

“I know! And then all of the kids in town started saying them and all the adults started freaking out! I can’t believe they had to call in Princess Celestia!”

Both of the ponies were in stitches. “What about that song you made that day?”

“Hey! How was I supposed to know you weren’t supposed to say those words? Twilight went a little too far when she washed my mouth with a bar of soap,” complained the pink mare.

“Remember the newspaper article about that? They called it the Saturday of Swearing!”

They both rolled in the grass as they were laughing hard, recalling every hilarious moment of that day. “Oh those were good times,” said Pinkie as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “Too bad no pony has ever told Cherub about how bad those words are.”

Once they calmed down, they resumed gazing at the blue sky above. “Hey, Pinkie?”

The mare quickly turned towards her. “Yeah?”

“Do you think the changelings are going to be allowed in Equestria?” she asked worriedly.

Pinkie sighed and rolled onto her back, staring at the sky. “I guess. Princess Celestia and Luna have been working on it for a long time and they usually get what they want.”

Fluttershy turned her head towards her and Pinkie could see she seemed worried. “Are we going to be safe? Remember what Cherub said about them. I don’t think I can trust them at all.”

She scooted closer to her friend. “I’m scared too, but maybe they deserve a chance. I’m sure the princesses know what they’re doing. They would never do this if they thought they were evil.”

“But what are we going to do if they are evil? They were so scary last time and they tried to hurt us. And then you saw Chrysalis in the forest. Why hasn’t the princess sent anypony to investigate?”

“Because they thought it was just a prank because it was during Nightmare Night, but I am one hundred percent sure that was the real Chrysalis.”

Fluttershy whimpered. “I’m so scared, Pinkie. If she’s in the forest, then that means she’s going to do something to Ponyville! She might hurt somepony!”

Pinkie went over and held her friend, who buried her face into her chest. “Don’t be scared, Flutters. I’ll just convince Twilight to have Celestia send some ponies to go investigate.”

“I don’t know if I want to go home. She could be right outside my house.”

“Don’t be scared, Fluttershy. That was a long time ago, so she should be long gone. But if you’re still scared, you can always stay with me if you want. I will make sure that you are safe.”

“Thank you, Pinkie.” Fluttershy nuzzled against her, causing the earth pony to warm up. They laid in silence until she asked, “Can I ask you something personal, if that’s okay?”

“What is it?”

“I just kind of noticed something, but I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“Yes?”

Fluttershy looked away for a moment, but then returned her gaze. “We’ve been hanging out an awfully lot lately, haven’t we?”

Pinkie gulped as she was sure she was onto her. “Well what’s wrong with that? That’s what friends do.”

“I didn’t say there was, it’s just something I noticed. We’ve been together almost every day ever since Nightmare Night.”

Pinkie started to sweat heavily. “But our other friends were there! Like remember when we went to the spa with Spike and Rarity? It wasn’t just us!”

“I guess. But now that I think about it, every time you want to hang out with us, you want me to be there.”

Pinkie’s heart pounded like a thunder storm. “F-Fluttershy, you're really overthinking things!”

The pegasus noticed how she was acting. “No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are!”

Fluttershy immediately shrunk. “Oh. Nevermind then.”

Pinkie immediately hated herself for snapping at her as she could feel her shaking. Fluttershy was a delicate flower and raising her voice clearly intimidated the poor thing. “I’m sorry for yelling, but you’re right,” she admitted.

Fluttershy lifted her head, completely surprised. “I am?”

“Yeah…” The pony trailed off with her eyes looking all over. She knew this was going to happen, but never realized how difficult it truly was. She wished that her friends or at least Cherub were around to support her. “The thing is, Fluttershy,” she began slowly, “it’s because…”

The pegasus's eyes grew with wonder. “What?”

As Pinkie looked into her eyes, she could feel herself sweat more. Given how well everything had gone so far, it seemed like this would be the perfect moment to tell her the truth.

“Pinkie?”

She finally opened her mouth, with her confession on the tip of her tongue.

“You’re my best friend.”

“Oh...” Fluttershy replied. “I already knew that. I thought it was something else important.”

“No, I mean you’re my best friend,” Pinkie said calmly, which contradicted with the screaming agony the Pinkies in her brain were going through. “Don’t tell the others, but I kind of like you better than them.”

“I won’t." She gave out a heavy sigh. "So why do you like me so much?”

“How can anypony not like you, Flutters? You’re a really great pony. You’re always so kind and caring, not to mention really good looking. There’s nothing about you that a pony wouldn’t like. You’re just so perfect.” The inner Pinkies were ballistic. The party was destroyed as all the balloons deflated and the cake was knocked onto the ground. There was even a patch of fire, which most of the Pinkies were desperately trying to put off while one was sitting and crying in a corner.

The yellow mare had a small smile on her face. “Well thanks, Pinkie, but you didn’t need to be so secretive about it. I’m sure our friends won’t mind.”

The earth pony gave out a forced but nervous laugh. “You’re absolutely right. What was I thinking?”

“I mean, it’s okay to care about their feelings. And maybe we don’t need to tell them since it’s not a big deal. We don’t want to risk giving them the wrong idea about how you feel.” Fluttershy stood up. “Do you mind if we go back now? I sort of feel like sitting at home, if you don’t mind.”

“S-sure. No problem.” While she followed her friend, the subconscious Pinkies had finally cleaned up the destruction she had brought upon them. They were all looking angrily at her and the banner now said, “YOU BLEW IT!” Pinkie sighed as she realized they were completely right. She had the perfect moment and she chickened out at the very last moment. She wasn’t sure how she was going to tell her now, but at least Fluttershy was completely comfortable with her and had not caught on to her lie, so not all hope was lost. Pinkie couldn’t stand thinking how badly she handled the opportunity, wondering if she was ever going to win her heart.

While Pinkie’s day took a turn for the worse, Chrysalis was enjoying herself very much. She was currently in Canterlot along with Luna and they had been spending the day in the shopping district. Most of the day Chrysalis thought about how she was going to redesign the city after her second invasion pulled through. She decided to make it her secondary capital with her home being the primary as she did not plan on relocating because she held many cherished memories of her birthplace. As she thought about using the mines for where she would keep the slumbering ponies, Luna looked into an electronic store through the window.

“You know you can just buy whatever has you so interested,” said Chrysalis.

Luna pulled away. “I’m sorry. I just get so fascinated by all the things ponies have invented over the years.”

“It must have been a whole other world for you when you came back from the moon.”

“It truly was. I simply find new discoveries almost every day and I’m always just as surprised. I guess you can say electronics are kind of my weakness.”

“Seeing how drawn you were, I’d have to agree,” Chrysalis said with a smirk. After some consideration, she decided to try something. “So what would you say is Celestia’s weakness?”

That caused Luna to laugh. “I’d say cake.”

“Cake?” Chrysalis asked with some surprise. “Go on...”

“She sometimes has urges and simply cannot control herself. There was even a story about it in the newspaper in Ponyville many months ago, much to her embarrassment. I have noticed that her backside has increased in size in recent months. Promise me you won’t tell anypony about this.”

“My lips are sealed.” It wasn’t exactly the answer she wanted, but she still found great amusement in it. Once she defeated Celestia, she would remove her self-control with her magic and leave her in a room filled with many pastries. She knew that no pony or changeling would ever again dare say the Princess of the Sun was more beautiful than the Queen of the Changelings when Celestia was as big as her own sun.

Luna noticed her friend giggling to herself. “What’s so funny, Cherub?”

“Oh nothing,” she teased.

“Come on. Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours.”

“I find it funny that you have been constantly looking at your sister’s butt. You should have told me you held such taboo feelings for her.”

That was enough to fluster Luna to the point where she kept fumbling her words and the changeling just giggled some more. But Chrysalis’s fun was cut short when something flashed in her mind and she suddenly felt incredibly annoyed. “Cherub, I want you to know that I do not think of my sister like that!” She noticed that Chrysalis did not answer as she was suddenly looking off into space. “Cherub?”

Chrysalis broke out of it. “Oh, y-yes, I believe you. Why don’t we head over there? There’s something I need that I can’t get legally in Ponyville.” As they resumed their trek, the changeling couldn’t help but think something bad happened.

If she didn’t know any better, she believed that Pinkie just did something stupid.

The long walk back to Fluttershy’s home was an uncomfortable one for Pinkie. She didn’t try to make any conversation with her friend as she just kept thinking over her mistake. All she wanted to do was lie in her bed and sulk, lacking any of her usual enthusiasm. Her only hope was that Cherub would help her undo her wrong tomorrow. They reached the pegasus’ home and Pinkie felt slightly relieved that their time together was going to end for the day. “That was a really fun day,” said Pinkie with little joy.

“It was. Thank you for coming over and taking me out. I enjoyed it so very much.”

Pinke smiled weakly. “Anything for you, Fluttershy. I always love spending time with you.”

“Me too.” Fluttershy stood by her door and looked around for a bit. “You know, I’ve never had a good friend like you before.”

Pinkie’s ears perked up. “What about our other friends? Don’t you like them?”

“I don’t mean that they are bad friends, I mean that you are a really good friend. You really care for how I feel and know how to make me smile. I know I can be difficult sometimes, but that never stops you. I think I can say with all honesty that you are…”

Pinkie’s eyes grew wide. “Yes?”

“My best friend, too.” Fluttershy leaned over and gave her a peck on a cheek.

Pinkie’s entire body warmed. “Fluttershy…” she said in amazement.

“Goodbye, Pinkie.”

Pinkie watched as she closed the door. She was remained still for about a minute before she started walking home. But after taking several steps, she couldn’t contain herself any longer. She began to hop at an incredible height, only thinking about the kiss that she had received. Even though it was only a friend kiss, she just felt great. Tomorrow, she would tell Cherub the good news so she could ask her what to do next. At last, things were looking up for her.

The next day, Pinkie ran to Cupid’s Arrow to tell her boss what happened and Chrysalis was impressed. However, Pinkie was still completely devastated by the fact she had chickened out during the perfect moment, despite being kissed later on. While Chrysalis would have normally fallen onto the floor and laughed at her or yelled at her for messing up, she strangely felt very sympathetic to her. Since the outcast had nothing better to do and knew Pinkie would be no good if she was distracted, she decided to spend the day helping Pinkie in setting everything right.

They strolled together through the streets of Ponyville. As Pinkie bounced around, she noticed her boss was actually smiling. “Hey, you’re smiling, Cherub!”

“Oh, I’m just in a good mood today.”

“Well you should smile more. You look really pretty when you do.”

Chrysalis mildly blushed. “Maybe I should then if you think so.”

“So what are you happy about?”

“Well, Luna came by yesterday and we went to Canterlot for some shopping and even a quick stop at the spa. She really knows how to treat royalty.”

“You’re royalty?”

The changeling quickly panicked. “N-n-no! Don’t be ridiculous! I meant that as a figure of speech. I'm saying that she treated me very well and we had so much fun. I can easily say that I am happy to have met her.”

“I think it’s great you both get along so well. You’ve been less grumpy lately.”

Chrysalis briefly glared at her. “I’ll let that slide. I will admit that spending time with her has relieved much of my stress, as well as being with you. Luna was really curious about your situation with Fluttershy and wished she was there when you confessed.”

The pony immediately faced the dirt road beneath her. “But I didn’t…”

“It’s not the end of the world, Pinkie. That kiss means there’s still a good chance of things ending the way we want them to. Just take her out for more fun and just give it another go when you’re ready. And I won’t let you leave her until you say it.”

“Okie-dokie-lokie! I’ll be sure to do it this time.”

“Somehow, I don’t believe you,” Chrysalis remarked.

“Oh yeah? Well I’ll Pinkie promise to do it today!” she stated.

“You’ll what?”

“I’ll Pinkie promise!”

“I remember you said something like this before. What is it exactly?”

“It’s like a promise, but a Pinkie promise means that you never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever break it, no matter what.”

“Really? How interesting,” spoke Chrysalis with devious intentions behind her smile.

“So I Pinkie promise that I will tell Fluttershy how I feel today! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Chrysalis thought it was cute how Pinkie had thought that up and liked the rhyming. She wondered what sort of absurd things she could trick the pony into promising in the future. Chrysalis and Pinkie soon arrived at the lone cottage. As Chrysalis hid around the side of the house, the pony excitedly banged on the door and began jumping as she waited for the reply. While she was waiting, Chrysalis noticed that something was wrong.

The door slowly creaked open as the shy pony appeared. “Oh…hi, Pinkie…” She didn’t show any joy about seeing her friend.

“Hi, Fluttershy!” Pinkie yelled, completely oblivious of her friend’s dread. “Are you ready for another day of super exciting fun!?”

The yellow pony slowly backed into her house. “Um…that sounds really fun…but…I…am really busy today…”

Pinkie stopped jumping. “Oh. Want to do something next week?”

Chrysalis noticed that Fluttershy seemed to be more distraught. “I’m sorry, but I’m really busy with stuff for about…a while. Bye, Pinkie.” She slammed the door on her face and locked it.

Pinkie stood silently, completely confused. “But how long is a while!?”

“Pinkie, come here.” She reluctantly went over to where Chrysalis was hiding. “I think there’s something going on with her.”

“What?”

“I’m not sure, but she seems to be really upset about something. I think we should keep an eye on her and see if we can find out.”

“You mean,” she gulped, “spy on her?”

“Exactly. I have the feeling that she is hiding something from us and we have to find out what.” The both of them hid behind some bushes outside the house as they waited for her. Chrysalis thought more about the strange encounter. She knew something was amiss because of her gift to sense the emotions of others. For some reason, Fluttershy seemed to be incredibly distressed. But what could have been troubling that girl? Was she unhappy with Pinkie Pie? Pinkie said things went incredibly well the day before, not counting that one moment. Her train of thought was interrupted when she heard the front door open. Fluttershy looked around before exiting and began trotting towards town.

They gave chase while trying to remain unseen. Chrysalis and Pinkie had been doing a lot of this kind of thing with their jobs and the changeling always felt like a creepy stalker. They followed her for some time, wondering of where she was going. Fluttershy’s destination turned out to be one of the most unexpected places they thought she would go.

“Pinkie,” the outcast asked in complete confusion, “why is she outside my home?”

“Um…I don’t know.” Fluttershy knocked on the door. “Aren’t you going to go see her?”

“If she is looking for somepony to talk about her problems with, it’s probably better if she doesn’t see me. I know that girl is terrified of me and I really can’t think of any reasons why she’d want my input in anything. Besides, if she has a problem, she should be telling you about it since you’re her friend.”

Fluttershy knocked again and still no response. Knowing she wasn’t home, the pegasus hung her head and left. “Where is she going now? Her house is the other way,” Pinkie pointed out.

“Let’s find out.” Chrysalis could feel the overwhelming sorrow within Fluttershy. Why was she so desperate to see her? Fluttershy was afraid of her as far as she knew. And why would she want to distance herself from Pinkie? She was doing the completely opposite of what was considered normal for her.

They followed Fluttershy for a while and ended up at Twilight’s home. She knocked on the door and Twilight answered while the other two hid nearby. “Hi, Fluttershy! How are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” she responded quietly. “Do you mind if I stay here for a while?”

“Sure, but why?”

“No reason. You haven’t seen Pinkie around, have you?”

“I can’t say that I have,” said Twilight as she eyed her friend.

“That’s good.” Twilight stepped aside and gave entry to her friend. As soon as she entered, Fluttershy closed the door. “And if it’s alright…if she does come by, please don’t tell her I’m here.” Pinkie’s jaw dropped.

The purple unicorn became incredibly concerned. “Why? Is something going on?”

Fluttershy was now nervous and avoided eye contact. “Well…I…um…”

“Oh, I get it! You’re playing hide and seek, aren’t you?”

“Y-yes! That’s what I’m doing.” Pinkie pulled on her own mane and Chrysalis had to put a hoof over her mouth so they couldn’t hear her screaming. “So is Spike here?”

“He’s right upstairs,” she answered while motioning a hoof behind her. “Was there something you needed from him?”

“N-no. I just needed a certain book, that’s all.”

Chrysalis and Pinkie watched through the window as she went into the other room. “I don’t believe it!” Pinkie cried. “Fluttershy is being a total Fibberlie!”

“It’s really troubling to see that she’s trying to avoid you.”

“But why!? I’m her friend!” The pony rapidly poured tears from her eyes. “I just wanted her to like me! Why does she suddenly hate me!?” Suddenly, Pinkie’s hair started to lose its curl as her body darkened in color. The changeling was taken by surprise by her transformation.

Pinkie rushed in and hugged her, mildly sobbing. As much as Chrysalis hated her invading her personal space, she decided to let it go since the poor pony was going through a tough time and did not want to make the problem worse. “I don’t know, but we will get to the bottom of this, I promise. She said she wanted to see Spike. Do you have any idea why?” Pinkie shook her head. “I guess we better go find out.” They made their way to the other window and saw them. Fluttershy was helping Spike organize books and they were talking. The window was closed, so they couldn’t hear what they were speaking about.

Pinkie was taking deep breaths as she watched, changing from sad to angry. “Why does she want to hang out with him instead of me? Is she in love with him!?”

“I don’t think so. Let’s just see what happens.” Chrysalis couldn’t sense any love in her, just mild relief. What was going on in the head of that girl? Spike and Fluttershy were talking for a moment and then the pegasus was suddenly blushing, causing their worry to grow. Chrysalis saw Pinkie become extremely angry while grinding her teeth “Time for a new plan. I think we should just calmly ask her what is-” The party pony suddenly bolted towards the front door of the tree. “Pinkie, get back here!”

Inside the room of the tree, the door flew open, startling Spike and Fluttershy. “You!” Pinkie called out while pointing a hoof at the yellow pony.

Fluttershy’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest. “P-P-Pinkie!? W-what are y-you-“

She slowly stomped towards her and the pegasus backed away. “Why are you avoiding me? Why did you lie to Twilight about what you’re doing? Why is seeing you and Spike together suddenly adorable? I want answers!” Pinkie pressed her face against hers while angrily huffing.

Fluttershy trembled on the spot as she looked into her eyes. “W-well…I…” She suddenly ran towards one of the windows. She stopped in front of it, gently opened it, and escaped from the library.

“Get back here!” Pinkie commanded as she charged towards the front door.

“Pinkie, you need to stop and-” Chrysalis was thrown by the speeding mare and crashed into a shelf, causing several books to fall on her.

Twilight and Spike ran over to her. “Cherub, are you all right?” asked Spike as he began pulling books off of her.

She stood up while rubbing her head. “I’m fine, but I’m going strangle Pinkie for that.”

“What’s going on? I’ve never seen Pinkie get mad like that before!” said Twilight in distress.

“It’s a long story, but we better follow them before she does something she regrets.” Chrysalis sprinted out the door while Twilight ran with her assistant on her back.

Fluttershy galloped across town with Pinkie hot on her tail. She kept politely brushing ponies aside while Pinkie just knocked over anyone who came too close. Seeing that her pursuer was gaining, she flapped her wings and took off into the sky, hoping that her natural ability would allow her to escape pursuit. She set herself onto a nearby cloud and tried to catch her breath. Her break was over when she suddenly heard a strange sound from below. A few seconds later, Pinkie Pie appeared in a strange helicopter. Fluttershy gasped and took off once again. She could hear the whirling propellers behind her and headed back towards her home. Once she landed, she bolted inside and slammed the door shut. She closed all the blinds on her windows and hid under her bed. She could hear loud pounding on her front door and whimpered, praying Pinkie would just go away.

“Come on out, Fluttershy!” Pinkie ordered as she kicked against the door.

Pinkie heard voices and looked behind her. Twilight, Spike, and Chrysalis appeared and the pony and changeling were exhausted from trying to catch up. “Pinkie, you need to calm down!” Twilight pleaded.

“I am calm! I just really want to know what her problem is!” She gave the door another hard kick.

“Maybe she realized how much of a lunatic you are. It’s no wonder she’s so scared of you,” remarked Chrysalis.

Pinkie gave the door another kick and broke it off its hinges. She stomped her way up the stairs while her friends called her, telling her to stop. She threw the door to the bedroom open and looked around. She didn’t even need to guess where Fluttershy was. She grabbed onto the bed and flipped it over, slamming it against the wall. Underneath was a terrified Fluttershy, laying on the floor while trembling.

“I got you now!” Pinkie leapt into the air in an attempt to tackle her as Fluttershy screamed and covered her eyes. Pinkie was then pulled back by both unicorns and began struggling. “Let me go!”

“Pinkie, you have to stop!” Twilight ordered. “You’re scaring her!”

“No! I want her to tell the truth!”

“I…I…I…” stuttered Fluttershy.

“I know she’s been a bad friend, but you need to cut it out! You are seriously out of control!” shouted Chrysalis.

“You hear that, Fluttershy? Cherub also thinks you’re a bad friend!”

“I’m sorry, Pinkie! It’s just…it’s just…”

“What!? You don’t like me? You like Spike better than me? Tell me the truth! Why are you avoiding me!?”

“Because I love you!”

Pinkie stopped moving and the room was filled with dead silence. Twilight and Chrysalis let go of her as they stared at Fluttershy in shock. “You…love me?”

Fluttershy slowly stood up and faced Pinkie with a face as red as a tomato. “I know it’s sudden, but it’s true,” she spoke in a very quiet and nervous voice. “You’ve been a better friend to me than anypony I have ever met. The truth is I never really had a…thing for boys. When you started spending a lot more time with me and always trying to make me smile, I began falling in love with you. I didn’t want you to find out because I wasn’t sure how you would react. You see, I actually used to have a crush on…Rainbow Dash.”

Her friends gasped. “You did?” asked Pinkie.

She nodded. “She is such a great friend and is always so courageous and charismatic. I just felt like I could do more with her around because she was always giving me her support. It’s just that I was never sure how to tell her how I felt. I waited for a long time trying to find a way, but then she got together with Soarin. I was so upset, but I thought of something. What if I told her before? How would she feel about me after? I even thought she would stop being my friend if she knew, so I never told her or anypony else.

“And then yesterday, I began to have the idea that you actually liked me like that. But when you said you just liked me as a friend, I just felt let down as I was so wrong about you, but you had still left an impression on me. I wanted to avoid you until I knew what to do with my feelings. I wanted to ask Cherub about what to do about my problem, but she wasn’t home. I even tried going to the library to find some books about this sort of stuff. I’m sorry for everything, but I can’t control how I feel about you, Pinkie.”

Pinkie ran over to her and embraced her. “It’s okay, Fluttershy! I actually like girls too!”

“You…you do?”

“I found out a few days ago. I told everypony I knew except you.”

“But why not?”

Pinkie’s hair and color suddenly restored. “Because I love you too!” Pinkie then brought her friend towards her and kissed her. Fluttershy’s eyes were wide with shock but then closed as she returned the kiss. When they broke, they looked at each other. “Do you feel any better?”

Fluttershy’s face was red as she smiled. “A lot better.”

“I’m sorry I got all mad earlier. I thought you hated me and you were in love with Spike.”

“Oh Pinkie, I could never hate you. And I’m not in love with Spike. He’s cute, but not my type.” She looked over at her three other friends, all of whom were staring at them with surprise. “Oh! I forgot you were all here.”

Twilight smiled warmly. “I’m so happy for you both. I’m sure you two will make a wonderful couple. And just so you know, I’m pretty sure Dash will be flattered by how you feel about her.”

Spike was still stunned by what he witnessed. “That was…awesome.” Twilight gave him a quick whack on the head.

Fluttershy smiled from the fact her friends were accepting. “I’m so glad you fell the same way about me, Pinkie,” she said as she nuzzled her. “I just wish you told me this sooner.”

“You hear that, Cherub? If I didn’t forget to tell her, we would’ve not needed to do any of this! That is just so funny!” They all laughed out loud until they heard a thump. “Cherub?”

“I wish I was there to have seen that spectacle. I never imagined Pinkie could harbor such rage.”

“I wish I wasn’t,” the changeling complained. “I’m still sore from her rushing me.”

Luna chuckled and massaged Chrysalis’s back. “Well at least it worked out. She and Fluttershy get along so well and I think it’s adorable now that they’re dating. Young love is so sweet.”

“Yeah, but I really wish Pinkie didn’t forget about telling the one pony she had feelings for that she was gay.” She wanted to blame Pinkie for not telling her so they could have avoided all of the work, but she had also instructed Pinkie to not tell her, so she was also at fault. She was at least glad that it was over and could just move on.

“True, but you really helped Pinkie win her over. You should feel proud.”

“I suppose, but I should’ve helped her figure out on how she should have confessed. I never thought she was going to have that much trouble.”

Luna moved up to her shoulders. “You know, I just realized you’ve helped four of the Elements find love.”

“I’m surprised at that as well. I didn’t think they would ever need my assistance with such a thing. And what a surprise, Twilight is the only one left,” she added with incredible amusement. She decided that she would try to avoid helping the unicorn and try to rub this in whenever she could.

“Oh haha. And because of your efforts, Cadance and my sister have become very interested in meeting you.”

Chrysalis’s eye twitched in annoyance. “I look forward to it.”

“Young Cadance has been very happy to hear of how you helped Twilight’s friends, but she asks that you let her find somepony for Twilight.”

A smirk could be heard from the outcast. “Is she jealous that I’ve been doing a better job than the Princess of Love?”

Luna giggled. “I think she just wants to do it since they’re both so close. I imagine she has been thinking about this for some time. I just hope she has an idea of how to get Twilight interested in the subject.”

Chrysalis gave out a quiet moan as the alicorn moved lower on her body. “You have no idea how good this feels right now.”

“Glad to see you’re enjoying yourself. I’m sure many stallions would give up everything to experience something like this with me or my sister.”

“I feel so lucky to have you all to myself. Where did you learn to do this, anyway?”

“Celestia taught me,” Luna answered.

“Oh?”

“She learned a long time ago so she could relax previous lovers. They were always so tense around her because of her royal status.”

“She must be a good teacher like Twilight says. This feels divine.”

Luna chuckled as she continued. “Am I the best you’ve ever had?”

“Only if you give happy endings like the spa ponies here,” the fugitive joked.

The alicorn slowed down as she searched her memory. “I don’t think I’ve heard of that technique. Maybe I should ask my sister about it.”

Chrysalis laughed loudly, confusing Luna. “It might be better if I teach you myself, but maybe another time. I need to focus on work today.”

While Luna continued to relieve her pain, they saw Pinkie and Fluttershy outside. They talked for a bit, kissed, and then the pegasus left while Pinkie came in. Everypony who knew Pinkie, which was everypony in town, noticed that the party pony was filled with much more cheer since her new relationship. The party she threw to announce it was definitely one of the biggest they have ever seen. “Hello, Pinkie,” the princess greeted. “How are you doing with your new marefriend?”

“I’m doing super, Luna! Me and Flutters do all kinds of stuff like hug and kiss! She even lets me sleep over sometimes!”

“I’m glad to hear things are going so well between you two,” said Chrysalis. Surprisingly, she meant it. Chrysalis actually felt happy for Pinkie finding love, though she wasn’t sure why she suddenly had taken an interest in her happiness, but a happy Pinkie was better than an unhappy one.

The pink pony sat at her desk. “So what are you doing here, Luna? Are you looking for a coltfriend now?”

Luna stopped rubbing the changeling’s back and sat on her haunches. “No, I’m just visiting my friend again. I wish to see her do business myself as I would need an idea of what kind of service I may hire in the future.”

“She should visit more often,” purred the changeling.

“I didn’t know you liked Luna that much, Cherub.”

“Of course I do. She’s free advertisement with her presence alone and makes a better masseuse than princess.” Luna punched her shoulder, causing her to grunt in pain.

“I’d tell you more about me and Flutters, but right now I need to write my letter.” She took out paper from a drawer in her desk and began writing.

The two older mares looked at each other. “A letter to whom about what?” asked the alicorn.

“A letter to Celestia about what I’ve learned about myself and some ideas I just had about love. I was so caught up with everything, I forgot to write her one. And won’t she be excited when she hears I’m a lesbian? I’m going to tell her all the great things about it!”

Chrysalis and Luna put their hooves over their mouths, trying to hide their snickering. “I’m sure it will be totally unexpected,” remarked Chrysalis.

While Pinkie started writing, Chrysalis and her friend whispered to each other while trying very hard to contain their own laughter. “I think we should help Pinkie write this letter,” Luna suggested playfully.

“Maybe she should give some explicit details and make it a letter Celestia will never forget.” Both of them giggled like little fillies. Chrysalis thought over what to have Pinkie write that would shock Celestia the most. She no longer felt bitter about what happened earlier with Pinkie and Fluttershy, enjoying her moment of fun with her friends.

Chrysalis just realized what she had thought and became extremely alarmed. What was she thinking? Why should she even consider either of these ponies to be her friends? Granted that she did find plenty of amusement with them, they were still ponies: her prey. The main reason she did not consider herself to be really their friends despite the amount of time they spent together, was that they were friends of Cherub, not Chrysalis. The things they did together were of no real significance. Pinkie was also a friend of Twilight Sparkle, her nemesis, and Luna was a ruler of Equestria, which she wanted to rule. Because of these reasons, they were her enemies…right?

They then noticed Pinkie waving at them. “Is there something else you needed?” asked Chrysalis.

“How do you spell polygamy?”

A Change in Opinion

A Change of Opinion

Pinkie jumped nonstop, causing the carriage to bounce as it flew through the air. “Are we there yet? Are we!? Are we!?”

Princess Celestia found amusement in her excitement. “Patience, Pinkie Pie. We will be there in a moment.”

Applejack looked out the window and saw they were heading straight towards a large mountain with smoke coming from the top. “Ya tellin’ me they live at that volcano?”

“It only appears to be one. And yes, they live within it.”

As the group came closer, they noticed a small settlement on the ground below. There were several buildings under construction by several changelings and there was also a group of children playing while being monitored by several guards. “Then what about down there?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“They live there, too. Now that their existence has become known, they have no reason to stay underground and many wish to live outside. They are beginning to establish some settlements on the surface within their territory. There are still some who will remain underground as they do not think it is safe until they are granted Equestrian citizenship.”

Earlier that week, Celestia finally got a day off and went to go visit her favorite student, Twilight. When they began discussing changelings, she discovered something very troubling. Twilight and her friends all had extreme resentment of the changeling race and were reluctant to allow them to live in Equestria. She understood that they had reasons to have doubts and concerns, but they had heard some rather horrible lies about them, making it even harder for them to accept them. She had tried before to have them give the changelings a chance and assumed their trust would gradually come, but this was not the case. As a desperate attempt to help them understand them better, she requested them all to accompany her during her visit so they could learn about the changelings. They were shocked and outraged by her suggestion, but she managed to convince them that they were safe.

They saw a large cave opening at the base of the mountain and the carriage entered. They went through a long tunnel that was filled with changelings passing through, who were all looking and waving at them. They then entered an opening and the ponies awed at the sight.

“Welcome,” said Celestia, “to Bugartha, capital city of the Changeling Kingdom.”

They stared at the city in wonder. Bugartha was built inside of a large opening in the hollow mountain where fungi and moss covered most of the walls, which many changelings were currently gathering for food. They could see some other large tunnels below, likely leading deeper underground toward other colonies. There were many buildings built against the walls high above and some small buildings also cluttered the ground below, with changelings walking and flying through the streets.

The city was illuminated by both torches and some of the large fungi that glowed with greenish light. Some light came from the opening above, allowing ventilation for the smoke. Right under the opening was the castle itself, which was built with glimmering black and green stone and towards the back of the cavern. It wasn’t as large as Celestia’s palace, but it still overshadowed the other buildings.

“Now girls,” started the alicorn, “I expect you all to be on your best behavior while we are here. The changelings are just as nervous as you are by our visit and I do not wish to cause any trouble.”

Twilight was still slightly shaken for being in the enemy territory. “Do we have to meet the queen?”

“Yes, but you will not have much time to see her today as she is incredibly busy. We will be able to sit down with her tomorrow for breakfast and you can get to know her then. Now here are a few rules you all need to follow. You must be respectful to the changeling culture, you must try not to talk about the wedding, and do not cause any trouble. These negotiations are delicate and I want them to feel welcomed by our kind. They have never trusted another race before, so they are very nervous about coming to Equestria.”

“Okay, Celestia,” said Twilight.

“One last thing and this is the most important. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT mention Chrysalis in the presence of Nymph. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Princess,” they all said at once.

The carriage descended into the castle’s courtyard, where many changeling guards stood. Once it came to a complete stop, a pony guard came around and opened the door, allowing Celestia and the rest to exit. Twilight and her friends looked in wonder and fear of the large castle. “Come on, the queen is expecting us,” said Celestia.

As Celestia walked ahead, the others trailed behind and whispered amongst each other. “This place is really scary. Are we going to be okay?” Fluttershy asked while quaking with fear.

“Princess Celestia would never have brought us here if she didn’t think it was safe. I already checked her for mind control twelve times before we left,” Twilight reassured.

“So what do ya think Nymph is like?” asked Applejack.

“Celestia speaks highly of her, but Luna, Cadance, and Shining Armor have their doubts about her. I don’t blame them as nothing good could come out of anyone related to Chrysalis.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice. I remember perfectly well how evil Chrysalis was. Nymph is probably just like her.” Rarity shuddered at the memory of their first encounter with the changelings.

“I still don’t trust this whole citizenship thing one bit,” spoke Spike “It’s just too shady how they attack us one day and then ask for help the next. I bet they’re all up to something.”

Twilight nodded at him. “Just be ready for whatever Nymph has in store for us. I doubt she’s going to be happy to see any of us.”

Rainbow Dash pounded her hooves together. “We’ve got your back, Twilight. Queen Nymph might want payback for foiling Chrysalis’s plot, but we’ll stop whatever she has planned.”

They stopped walking as the large doors of the palace opened and a figure approached them, who all of the guards saluted. She was slightly taller than Luna and just as slim as Celestia. Her horn was long and jagged, intimidating the ponies who stood before her. Her tattered hair was a jade color and it had an incredibly long length, hanging only a few inches from the ground. It was smooth in appearance and it shined from the sunlight that fell upon it. On her front legs were two golden bracers, each with an emerald embedded into them. On each of her hooves, she wore emerald footwear that resembled Celestia’s. She wore a green robe on her back, matching the color of her mane and it was covered in golden stitches. On top of her head was a small, black crown that they were very familiar with. The expression on her face, however, was not what the ponies were expecting.

“Princess Celestia, I'm so glad you could come!” Nymph took her hoof and kissed it.

“Hello again, Nymph. You seem to be doing well,” the alicorn replied warmly.

“Only because you’re here now; you certainly liven up the place.” She finally took notice of the ponies behind her. “Are these the ones you have told me about?”

“Yes. I have brought them here so they could learn about the changeling civilization and possibly speed things up with the negotiations. As the Elements of Harmony, their opinions on this issue can affect the opinions of other ponies and help them accept the changelings.”

“How delightful.” She scanned her eyes across the group and fixated on one of them, gasping. “You hair is magnificent!”

Rarity smiled and ran a hoof threw her mane. “Why thank you. I spent all morning-”

Nymph walked past her and approached Rainbow Dash. “I have never seen a mane as unique looking as yours aside from Celestia and Luna. It’s so colorful!”

The pegasus was surprised that she immediately went up to her and not Twilight. When she saw Rarity’s horrified expression, she couldn’t help but play along. “Impressed? It’s totally my thing.”

“And now mine too!” Nymph’s hair flashed green and was now a rainbow color like Dash’s.

“Hey!”

The queen flicked her hair. “I think I might keep this. Maybe I can turn even more heads now.” She looked back at the pegasus. “I assume you’re Rainbow Dash.”

“You got it! Top Equestrian flyer and future Wonderbolt!”

“That sounds wonderful.” Her smile shifted into an expression of confusion. “What’s a Wonderbolt?”

“They are the best fliers in the world. They do all sorts of stunts for their shows and go on dangerous missions! It’s been my life’s dream to become one. They’re going to be better than ever with me and my sonic rainboom on their team.”

“How nice. I’m sure you will be the best there is. Maybe I’ll even see one of your shows in the future.” She turned towards Rarity, but her attention was immediately set on the dragon she was carrying. “Hmm, I didn’t think you would have brought your pet dragon.”

“I’m not a pet! I’m Twilight’s friend and assistant!” shouted Spike.

Nymph gave him a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry. You must be Spike. I apologize for my earlier comment. I am still amazed that Celestia had managed to make you so civilized. All of the dragons I have encountered have been rather nasty.”

“They were nasty to me, too. I don’t like dragons either and I just prefer being with ponies, who are much friendlier.”

“Good to hear. Celestia has always told me of what a nice dragon you are and I have been interested in meeting you for some time.” Nymph then started blushing. “Do you mind if I…pet you?” she requested shyly.

Spike expected many things from the sister of Chrysalis, but this was not one of them. “W-what?”

“Well you are kind of adorable.” The dragon blushed as the ponies and even some of the changelings snickered at him.

“I-I am not!” he protested. “I’m handsome and tough!”

The queen loudly giggled, completely emasculating him. “Of course you are. So can I?”

He wasn’t sure how to answer her, so he shot a look to Celestia, who gave him a nod. Knowing what he had to do, he gulped. “I guess.”

As Nymph began to reach over towards him, Rarity got in front of her face. “I swear if you harm one scale on the head of my Spikey-Wikey…”

“Spikey-Wikey!?” Nymph and her guards broke into hysterics. Spike’s face turned red and he looked angrily at Rarity, but then the queen pulled on his cheeks. “Well he is certainly a wittle adorwable cutie, isn’t he?” She gave him a quick hug before talking to Rarity. He felt total embarrassment and it only became worse when he saw Celestia put a hoof over her mouth to hide her chuckling.

“Now what is your name, unicorn? I am ever so curious to know more about you as I can sense a certain emotion between you and Spike.”

“My name is Rarity. Spike and I are not in a relationship right now as he is too young, but I still love him to death.”

“Ah yes. You are the dress making pony of generosity. You are as beautiful as Celestia told me.”

Rarity gasped, mood brightened by the compliment. “Really?”

“Yes, you’re the fifth most beautiful person I know!”

The seamstress's smile immediately became an expression of horror. “F-F-FIFTH!?”

“Well there’s you, then Luna, then Cadance, then Celestia, and then the best one of all, me!” Rarity’s eye twitched as Nymph looked at her strangely. Not knowing what was wrong, the changeling shrugged and moved on to the next pony.

Applejack was next of the six ponies and she felt pretty good about speaking with her after seeing how she played around with Spike and unintentionally offended Rarity, finding it pretty funny that she took it so seriously. “Now what is your name?” asked the queen.

“Name’s Applejack. Ah’m a farm pony and apples are my specialty.”

“Of course. I should have known that from you cutie mark. I don’t think I have had apples before. Fruits are a bit rare here since we barely have any fruit crops within the kingdom.”

“Well Ah happen to have some on me, so help yarself.” She took an apple from her bag and held it out towards her.

“Why thank you. That is very kind.” Nymph took the fruit and bit into it, but then she scrunched her face upon tasting its contents and spat it out. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I do not find them to be as appealing as you ponies do.”

If there was one thing anypony in Applejack’s family did not tolerate, it was having their family crop insulted. “At least Chrysalis tried to be polite,” she sneered.

The apple fell onto the ground and was instantly obliterated under the hoof of the queen, causing a thunderclap that made everyone else in the area jump. As Nymph approached Fluttershy, the other ponies examined the spot where the fruit fell. All that remained was several chunks of the apple and even cracks on the stone ground. Applejack looked at the alicorn and she was as nervous as they were.

Fluttershy was ready to faint, completely afraid that she was going have to speak to Queen Nymph right after her flash of anger. The royal changeling stood in front of her and Fluttershy hid her face behind her hair, whimpering. She found her to be extremely intimidating from her large height and how she bore strong resemblance to Chrysalis. “Is there something wrong?” the queen asked her.

“N-n-n-n-no, nothing at all.”

“You’re shaking an awful lot.”

“Nymph," Celestia intervened, "this is Fluttershy. She gets nervous around strangers, so please be gentle.”

“Oh, that’s right. I remember you mentioning her now.” Nymph leaned around and looked at her cutie mark. “Ooooh. Fluttershy is like butterfly and she’s even shy! That’s just cute!”

Fluttershy was beginning to calm down, but she still could not look her in the eyes. “Thanks.”

Nymph noticed how uncomfortable she was by how quietly she spoke. “Are you frightened of me?”

“N-n-n-no! Not at all.” Nymph just stared at her and she quickly caved in. “Maybe a little,” she squeaked, making all of her friends gulp.

The royal changeling knelt down in front of her. “There’s no need to be afraid of me, Fluttershy. I don’t bite.”

Fluttershy slowly looked at her. “O-ok.”

“Can you give me a smile?”

“Huh?”

“Come on. Just a nice little smile for me,” requested Nymph as she batted her eyelashes.

The pony felt more comfortable and produced one. “Like this?”

Nymph happily nodded. “Yes. Do you feel any better?”

“I do, actually.”

“Excellent. Just keep smiling and everything will be fine. You are safe here, Fluttershy.” Nymph stood and approached the next pony as Fluttershy produced a relieved sigh.

Pinkie was hoping in place as the changeling queen moved to her. “Hi! My name is-”

“Wait, let me guess!” The queen put a hoof on her chin and examined her. “Is it Redie?”

Pinkie shook her head. “No.”

“Blueie?”

“No!”

Nymph pondered for a moment. “I got it! You’re Purplie!”

“No! No! No!” Pinkie shouted with some anger. She wanted Nymph to guess her name and not think she was somepony else.

The changeling thought some more, but then shrugged. “I’m sorry, but I cannot possibly think of what your name is. I guess you just won’t have one!”

Pinkie’s jaw dropped. Not having a name would have been horrible, much worse than being mistaken for somepony else. With incredible rage, she screamed, “MY NAME IS-”

Nymph put a hoof over her mouth and was laughing hard. “I’m only messing with you. I know your name is Pinkie.”

“Ooooh.” Pinkie started laughing along. “You really had me going.”

“Celestia told me that you loved jokes, so I thought you wouldn’t have minded if I played one on you.” Nymph took a look at her cutie mark. “I like the design of your cutie mark. I have heard that your parties are like no other.”

“You bet! Speaking of parties, can we have a party now? We can throw ourselves our own welcoming party!”

She sighed and shook her head. “Another day. I cannot afford to stray from my duties and I do not feel like partying at the moment.”

“Aw.” Pinkie examined her and held some of her mane, admiring it. “Wow, I really like how long your hair is!”

Nymph smiled at the complement. “Thank you. You can only imagine the styles that are possible. I just have to keep track of the length, otherwise I might trip over it again.”

The pony looked up at her head. “And I like how big your horn is!”

“It is big, isn’t it? The crooked appearance makes ponies uneasy, I’m afraid.”

“And Nymph, what huge eyes you have!”

Nymph was taken aback. “D-d-do you really think they’re that big?”

“They’re totally ginormous! They’re bigger than my hoof! Is that where the term ‘bug-eyed’ comes from?”

Nymph placed her own hoof close to her eye. When she saw that there was truth to her statement, green flashed on her face and she turned away. “Pinkie, I think you might be making her uncomfortable,” addressed Celestia.

“Speaking of uncomfortable, does it hurt to have those holes in your legs? But then again, why do you have such goofy looking legs in the first place?” Every changeling guard was now looking at their own hooves, feeling insecure of their own appearance.

The queen quickly left Pinkie, only to go from one uncomfortable situation to another. “And you must be…”

“Twilight Sparkle,” she responded harshly.

Nymph visibly winced, knowing full well of who she was. Even her guards knew her and just looked away or whistled innocently. “Yes…the princess has always spoken of you. Glad we could meet.” She extended a hoof towards her and Twilight reluctantly took it. “I can clearly tell that you are not happy to be here.”

“You’re absolutely right. I am not happy to be here at all.”

“Twilight!” snapped Celestia.

“No, it’s all right.” Nymph looked Twilight in the eyes. “I know everything that Chrysalis has put you through and I wish I could have stopped her back then. Just the thought of her stealing your brother and turning him and your friends against you is just sickening. I am so glad you had exposed her before it was too late.”

All of the ponies were confused. “You…are?” asked Twilight.

“Of course. Chrysalis would have conquered all of Equestria and imprisoned everypony were it not for you. Such a horrifying event should never come to pass. There would also be the other races, who would become afraid by Equestria’s fall and wage a war on us that we could not win. Because of you, we have avoided such a conflict. You are a hero in my eyes, Twilight.”

“…Thanks?”

“I know you still have your doubts about our kind, but I hope that your stay here will change that. We are not the monsters you saw us as on that fateful day. A lot of ponies in Equestria still fear us and continue to spread lies, reducing any chances of us becoming accepted into the world above. They must learn that the changelings are just like any other race in the world, only that we were given a rather unique method of survival.

“As such influential individuals, I hope you all can see and accept us for who we are and to spread the word across Equestria. As long as the ponies and the other races fear us, we have to remain here in order to prevent conflicts. For many generations, we have been isolated here, living in the dark, but as soon as all these fears are put to rest, we plan on exploring the world. I always did want to go see Prance.”

“We’ll do the best we can,” Twilight replied, unsure of her own words.

Celestia stepped forward and looked at her student with a reassuring smile. “I am confident you will succeed. Now, Queen Nymph and I have important political and economic matters to attend to, so you may all explore Bugartha by yourselves.”

“But one thing before you go,” added Nymph. She pointed at Spike and Rarity. “You two,” she then pointed at Pinkie and Fluttershy, “and you two should remain separated.”

“Huh? Why?” Pinkie asked as she suddenly hugged Fluttershy tightly.

“I can sense the love between you, so all the other changelings will as well. Food is a little scarce right now, so I’m sure that they will want a little of it, but when twenty or so changelings want to try just a little of your love, you’re going to be tuckered out rather fast.”

“Oh. Thanks for the warning,” said Spike.

“Just remember to return by six for supper,” the queen reminded. Celestia and Nymph turned and headed back towards her palace with their guards following. “Bye, girls! Enjoy the town!”

Before they were out of sight, they could hear Celestia talking. “I think your eyes are fine, Nymph. No, I’m not just saying that to make you feel better.”

The group just stood there as they were left alone in the courtyard. From their encounter, the whole group was left entirely confused. “Are ya tellin’ me that’s Chrysalis’s sister?” asked Applejack.

“Are they even sisters? They seem like total opposites!” remarked Dash.

“She seems really nice. What do you think, Rarity?” Fluttershy saw that her friend was whimpering. “Rarity?”

“I’m not as pretty as her? I’m not as pretty as a bug!?” Rarity then wailed with sorrow as she fell onto the floor.

Spike tried comforting her by holding her hoof. “I don’t like her either. She completely embarrassed me in front of everyone!”

“But she’s so apologetic and friendly!” said Pinkie. “She is totally not like Chrysalis at all!”

“It’s just a load of bunk.”

All of her friends looked at her. “Twilight?” asked Pinkie.

The purple unicorn stood in front of her friends with a stern look on her face. “She may act all nice and friendly, but don’t forget that she is Chrysalis’s sister, so she is probably just as bad. Not to mention she's a changeling: a race who grew up learning how to trick others.”

“There’s no way that’s true. It seems so unlike her,” argued the pink mare.

“Just remember that Chrysalis fooled you all before. Nymph is probably much craftier to have Celestia fooled for this long. We cannot let our guard down for even a second while we’re here. She could be planning anything.”

“So what should we do?” asked Applejack. “Princess Celestia wants us to go explore the city.”

“And that’s what we’re going to do. We’ll split up and study the changeling culture. Know your enemy, right? But while we’re out there, we should ask the locals of what they know of the royal sisters. Somehow, I don’t think Nymph really sent Chrysalis packing.”

Fluttershy began to tremble and hid under Pinkie. “Y-y-y-you mean she could still be here?”

This was a question that made them all afraid, filling the air with tense silence. “It is very possible,” answered Twilight. “Just remember to stick together and to stay on the lookout. Come back before six and we’ll see if we find anything. Pinkie, Spike, you two will be with me while the rest of you go elsewhere.”

“But I don’t wanna leave Fluttershy!” cried Pinkie as she tightly hugged her once more.

Twilight went over to pry the pony off Fluttershy. “We don’t have a choice. Nymph’s warning is something we need to consider and we cannot afford any mistakes. It will only be for a few hours.”

Pinkie reluctantly let go. “Promise you’ll protect her.”

Applejack nodded. “Course we will. Ya just keep an eye on yarselves since it’d be Twi they want.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ve been practicing magic for a moment like this for a long time. I am prepared for anything.”

“Ah hope ya are. Come on, girls.” Applejack led her group towards the gates.

Rarity stopped for a moment and ran back to the others so she could plant a kiss on Spike’s forehead. “Please be careful, Spikey.” She then ran to catch up with her friends.

Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy explored the busy streets of Bugartha. As they moved through the crowds, many changelings stared at them and muttered between themselves. “Why are they all staring?” Fluttershy asked nervously.

“Well we do sort of stand out,” answered Rarity. “We are certainly much more colorful than any of them, not to mention probably the only ponies ever allowed to see their city.”

“Ah keep feelin’ like they’re gonna jump us at any moment,” Applejack said while keeping her eyes on them. As they continued, more changelings continued to stare and their voices became louder.

“Those are the ponies with Princess Celestia?”

“Look at that one. She’s gorgeous!”

“I have never seen anypony like her.”

“Do you think she’ll let me take a picture with her?”

Rarity stopped walking and her friends noticed. “You are all so very sweet. I work so hard to-” She was shocked when all the changelings suddenly gathered around Rainbow Dash.

“It’s like a rainbow!”

“What does her cutie mark mean?”

“Rainbow colored lightning? Does that even exist?”

Rainbow Dash felt her ego swell by the sudden praise she was receiving from the crowd and was smirking as Rarity glared at her. “Come on, we’ve got more of the city to look at,” said Applejack as she dragged Dash away.

After moving from the crowd, they took notice of many changelings going in and out of a tunnel and most were accompanied by infants. A small changeling girl took notice of them and tapped on her father. “Daddy, what are those?”

“Those are ponies, sweetie. They are here along with Princess Celestia.”

“They’re so pretty and colorful!” She looked up at him. “I want a pony, Daddy!”

“I don’t think you can own one.”

“DADDY, I WANT A PONY RIGHT NOW!”

They watched as the father dragged away his screaming child, clearly embarrassed as many changelings stared. “What a little cutie,” said Applejack with a smirk on her face. “Might as well see what’s over here.”

They entered the cave and were hit by a slightly cold draft. “Awfully chilly in here, isn’t it?” commented Rarity.

Rainbow Dash mildly shivered. “No kidding. What’s down here?”

They entered a large cavern filled with the sound of chirping. The area was cluttered with many changelings, most of them handling infants or eggs. There were several green eggs covered in slime against the walls and they could hear a female scream that sounded as if she was going into labor. “I think this is a hatchery,” said Fluttershy in awe.

“That is correct, pony.” They turned around to see a female changeling approach them. “Changelings bring their eggs here and we care for them until they hatch.”

“Why is it so cold in here?” questioned Dash, lightly shivering.

“This area is constantly kept at the optimal temperature for the eggs. We are used to the cold after living here for so very long.”

They looked over the many hatchlings in the area. The infant changelings were very small and had not grown in their wings yet. They did not give off any intimidation like the ones they met a long time ago and watching them play was adorable to them. “They’re so cute. Can I see one?” pleaded Fluttershy.

“Of course. I have one whose parents are currently not here, so they shouldn’t mind as long as I keep an eye on him. Just mind your hooves.” The nurse brought over an infant in a bundle. The baby looked at the ponies and began giggling happily. He moved his hooves out of the bundle and reached out for them. “It seems he has taken a liking to you pony folk.”

Fluttershy took the bundle and gently rocked him. “Hi there, baby! You’re so adorable!” The baby took some of her hair and began playing with it, enthralled by it.

“I thought that the queen had all the children,” spoke Rainbow Dash. "Isn't that how it works with all bugs?"

The nurse looked at her with annoyance. “Of course not. Where did you even hear of such a stupid thing?”

Dash blushed and chuckled nervously. “Never mind. So does Queen Nymph have any children at all?”

“No, she doesn’t. With everything going on, I’m sure it will be some time until she wishes to expand the royal family. I really hope I live to see it. The birth of a royal changeling is always such a historic moment. The entire kingdom celebrates every birth for a week.”

“When was the last one?” asked Rarity.

“Over three-hundred and fifty years ago, when Queen Nymph herself was hatched.”

“That long ago?” asked Applejack with surprise.

“Strange, right? There are actually not many royal changelings as our ancient history tells about how larger families competed for the throne, so the amount of royal changelings is kept small to prevent conflict.”

“So what do you think of the queen?” questioned the white unicorn.

“Seeing how we aren’t starving so much and not at war with Equestria, Queen Nymph has my full support. She even comes by here sometimes and it is always a blessing to see her.”

“Why does she come here?” queried Dash.

“Queen Nymph absolutely adores children and they adore her. She is such a sweet, motherly queen. She wants some of her own, but she simply does not have the time to go out and find a mate. I’m sure she will make a better parent than Chrysalis would have.”

“So ya don’t like Chrysalis?” asked the farmer.

“Not at all. Other than some of the controversial things she has done during her reign, her plan ended in disaster and we were all scared of war. I don’t understand how she could have possibly failed after beating Celestia. It should have been a sure thing.”

Dash got in front of her, confronting the nurse. “So you’re saying you would have been happy if she won?”

The changeling felt annoyed by the tone she was using. “Don’t talk to me like that. Before Celestia came and helped, acquiring love was a long and difficult process and it only fed some of us. I was just glad Chrysalis was doing something to help us.”

“But what about all the ponies that would be drained?” asked Fluttershy.

“They would have been hypnotized into believing they were with the love of their life. Not that bad of a fate, in my opinion.”

“But it’s wrong!” Rarity covered her mouth when she heard some of the infants becoming upset from her shouting.

“I’m sorry, but we were desperate. Our minds were more focused on our stomachs rather than right and wrong. I didn’t want us to starve.” The nurse looked at the infant that was being held by Fluttershy. “I want you to imagine that this child here is hungry and screaming for food, but you have none to give. Even worse, there are many more like him in the kingdom. It is one of the most horrible experiences I have ever been through and we all just wanted it to end.”

They looked back to the child, who giggled as he was being nuzzled by Fluttershy. Imagining such a thing was very hard for them to do. “I guess I can see where you’re coming from,” said Rarity. “Are you at least glad about how things are now?”

“I am. I really do wish to see the world and meet ponies, which is something I never thought I’d be saying. My husband and I have been saving up money for months so we can go on a long vacation.”

Fluttershy turned toward her friends. “Do any of you want to hold him? He's really friendly.”

“I might as well.” Rarity took the bundle and hugged him. “It’s hard to think that changelings start out so adorable. I’m sure Pinkie would have loved to see them.”

She then handed him to Applejack. “Quite a happy little fella. Ya want him, Rainbow?”

“No thanks. I don’t like babies.” The child whimpered as it reached out for her, desperate for her attention. Dash sighed and scratched his chin. “But maybe they’re not that bad. He is pretty cute for a big bug.”

The changeling took her hoof and put it in his mouth, causing Rainbow Dash to yelp and pull away. “What’s wrong? Afraid of a little slobber?” taunted the farmer.

“He bit me!”

“That’s why I said to mind your hooves. Changelings get their fangs really early and they tend to chew on things. I’ll go get some bandages.” The nurse left them behind. The baby, unaware of what he had just done, laughed and smiled, showing the only four sharp teeth in his mouth.

Dash rubbed her hoof while grumbling. “Aw, do you want me to kiss it and make it all better, Dashie?” teased Rarity while Applejack and Fluttershy laughed.

The assaulted pegasus groaned. “I hate kids.”

The rest of the group had been exploring the far side of the city. While Twilight and Spike kept to themselves, Pinkie was going around introducing herself to any changeling they came across. Twilight was not sure of what she could do as she felt unsafe around them. Another thing she had noticed was that several of them were wearing jewelry with green gems, wondering if they were of any significance. After walking for twenty minutes, something caught her eye and her mood took a turn for the better. “Hey, there’s a library over there. Let’s go check it out,” she said happily. Learning about the species through a book instead of directly dealing with them was much more pleasing to her.

As she made her way to the building, she could feel someone tugging on her tail. “But didn’t Princess Celestia say for us to explore rather than just read?” reminded Spike.

The mare brushed him off. “We’ll just be in there for a quick bit. It’ll be fine.”

They left the street and entered the library. The shelves were cluttered with many books and the unicorn wondered what kind of knowledge she would obtain from here, eager to start with their history. The librarian looked up from her book and saw them entering. “Twilight Sparkle!” she greeted. “I have been expecting you!”

The group looked at each other in confusion. “You have?” she asked nervously.

“Yes. I have been ordered to give you this.” The librarian reached into her desk and pulled out an envelope addressed to her. “Please read this as soon as you can.”

Twilight was now very afraid. The fact she knew who she was and was even waiting for her made her worry of a trap. After taking it, she scanned it with her magic, checking for any curses. Once she finished and found nothing, she slowly opened the fold and emptied its contents. What was inside was not what any of them had expected. The item inside was a large photo of Queen Nymph herself, blowing a kiss to the camera. On the back, there was some writing.

You need to stay out of the library, Twilight Sparkle. There are some things in life that you need to experience instead of just reading about.

XOXO

Queen Nymph

Twilight placed the photo down in total disbelief that she had somehow known she would be at that library. “I’m not that predictable, am I?” The changeling librarian reached inside her desk and pulled out a second envelope. “Oh Celestia no.” Twilight took it and slowly pulled out another photo. When Twilight looked at it, they all gasped.

“What the!?”

It was Nymph again, who was winking while sticking out her rear towards them. She turned it over to read the message.

Yes you are predictable, you silly filly. Princess Celestia has told me much about you and it wasn’t hard to guess the first place you would go. Now go out there and learn. If you don’t, I can have Celestia force you to write a fifty page essay about changelings.

XOXO

Queen Nymph

Twilight stomped her way towards the exit of the library, scowling as Pinkie, Spike, and the librarian laughed at her. Pinkie ran after her and Spike followed after collecting the two photos. On her way out, the unicorn glanced at one of the shelves near the entrance and halted. “Hey, I know these books. What are they doing here?”

“Oh, changelings usually bring back things from your people as we are always curious of the other races. Those are just some we snatched over the years”

Twilight turned and marched back to the desk. “So changelings steal from us?” she asked in an accusing tone.

“We prefer to call it scavenging. The other civilizations have so much to offer and we would never get enough for the kingdom if we tried buying everything using their currency.”

“So what else do changelings ‘scavenge?’” questioned the unicorn aggressively.

“Food, films, clothes, any new technology, whatever we can get our hooves on.”

“Can’t you just make your own stuff?” asked Spike.

“A little difficult, considering we are mostly underground and worry about our survival more than anything else. At least Princess Chrysalis helped speed things along during her rule.”

“What do you mean?” asked Pinkie.

“Shortly after her crowning, she sent masses of changelings to do scavenging and technology research of races all over the world. Our technology rapidly expanded in a short number of years.”

Twilight remembered there were some books that were yet to be returned to her and wondered if this had something to do with it. “So she made you all steal?”

“For the greater good, Twilight. Our people became more intelligent because of it. We had more books to read, new ways of running schools and hospitals, and even a stronger military to protect our homes. We just discovered radio a few years ago and that has helped boost morale during the harder times.”

“Do changelings still take stuff?” asked Pinkie.

“No, Queen Nymph had to ban that after negotiations started to keep positive relationships. She believed that the other races would not think kindly if we continued to collect things that do not belong to us. She has been recently investing in technology to make up for the loss of scavenging and I am curious to see what our species can create when food is not longer such a vital issue.”

“Well thanks for talking with us, but we need to get going now.” Twilight still felt uncomfortable with the idea of Nymph knowing where she was and just wanted to leave.

“Very well. Enjoy your stay.”

The trio exited the building and returned to the street. “See how much we learned by going to the library?” asked Twilight with delight.

“I think we could have just as easily learned that from asking Nymph,” remarked Spike.

“Do you want to talk to her?”

He gulped. “On second thought, maybe not.”

“Great. Now let’s try to find another library.” Both of her friends groaned. “Oh come on. We’re here to learn and where else is better than the library? It’s not like Nymph could have possibly predicted I would go to more than one.”

“Can’t we just talk to the other changelings? They seem nice!” pleaded Pinkie.

“You can go do that, Pinkie,” groaned Twilight.

As Pinkie proceeded to introduce herself to more changelings, Spike tapped his friend. “Twilight, I’m hungry. Can we get some food now?”

The unicorn sighed. “I guess we could grab a bite, but what do changelings even eat besides love?”

After having Pinkie ask directions for them for about ten minutes, they entered a market area and browsed the stands, finding moss, mushrooms, and some other vegetables on display by various vendors. As they continued searching, they picked up a strange smell. “Something smells good,” said Spike.

“It’s coming from over here!” Pinkie hopped over to the stand where many changelings were standing.

“Can you see what they’re serving?” asked Twilight as she attempted to poke her head over the crowd.

“Let me check!” Pinkie disappeared into the crowd to check on the food being made. Several seconds later, she returned and her face was completely white. “Let’s go somewhere else,” muttered Pinkie as she walked right past them. Twilight and Spike decided not to ask what she saw as they were sure they didn’t want to know. After they left, a changeling left the stand and sat at a table, ready to dine on his centipede spaghetti.

After distancing themselves from the stand, they decided to check the vegetables again as they were sure there might have been things of the changeling diet they were better off not knowing about. Twilight went up to a stand selling mushrooms and examined them. “Twilight, I don’t really like that kind of stuff,” addressed Spike.

“Unless it’s on a pizza!” added Pinkie.

She didn’t look at either of them. “Oh, I’m not eating them. I’m going to buy them so I can study them later.”

“But Twilight, I want to eat now,” complained her assistant.

“Just give me a minute.”

The dragon crossed his arms and grumbled, knowing that she was going to take her sweet time while he starved to death. But as he waited, Spike’s nose picked up something else. He turned away from his friends and followed the trail. He found a stand that had something that made his stomach growl. The merchant was selling green crystals, most in the form of jewelry. What really caught his eye was how cheap they were. He grabbed a large crystal and went to the merchant. “I’ll take this, please.”

The changeling just eyed him. “Now what would you want to do with that?”

“Eat it. It looks so good!” Spike licked his lips.

The merchant gasped and swiped it. “You will do no such thing! These crystals are too vital!”

“But they are just gems,” said Spike.

“They are not! These are magical storage crystals.”

“They’re what?”

“Storage crystals, an essential part of changeling society. They are used to store the emotions we extract from the other races. Each changeling has their own in order to keep themselves sustained without the need to always hunt. A crystal of this size could keep an adult changeling satisfied for a month.”

“A whole month? If such a little thing can hold that much, then why are you all starving?” asked the dragon.

“Because that’s a lot of love. Normally, it takes two very affectionate ponies to fill one. However, if a pony has powerful enough feelings for somepony, then they could fill one by themselves, maybe even more.”

“Wow. So how long do you think Shining Armor’s love would have lasted? You know, the groom from the royal wedding?”

“According to the previous queen, there was enough in him to keep her hunger away for months. That one pony had enough to fill up half a crate of crystals. I can only imagine what his honeymoon must have been like,” he said with a perverted grin.

Spike suddenly remembered about the changeling they were on the lookout for. “So…what do you think about Chrysalis and Nymph?”

The merchant sat on his stool, looking displeased with the subject. “Probably the most vicious of mortal enemies. I always expected a bloodbath to happen between them.”

“They hated each other?”

“Hate is not a strong enough word to describe the bad blood between them. You couldn’t believe the things that Chrysalis did to poor Nymph. Perhaps it was for the best she did not succeed in her invasion if she was truly as horrible as they say she was.”

“Chrysalis bullied her own sister?”

“It was dreadful. It was so hard to believe too, considering how they used to be so friendly to each other.”

“Why did they stop being friends?”

The merchant shrugged. “I have my suspicions, but I’m afraid I do not have the answer. Politics is not really my thing and I’d rather not talk about such issues. I'm here for business, not chit-chat.”

“Oh, okay then.” Spike looked backed at the counter. “So can I have the crystal now?”

The changeling grabbed it and put it away. “Go away. You’re scaring the customers.”

“Fine,” Spike huffed. He turned back toward where Twilight and Pinkie were. When he got back, he noticed that they were missing, causing him to panic. He looked around the area, but neither of them was there. He was completely alone and helpless in a large street filled with changelings. He ran around and looked for them, hoping they weren’t captured or something while he was gone.

“Twilight!? Pinkie!? Where are you!?” He kept calling out their names while running, attracting the attention of the many changelings around him. He continued searching for minutes until he heard a voice of distress.

“Look out! There’s a dragon in the street!” Spike stopped and saw all of them panic and distancing themselves from him.

“Why is there one here? Where are the guards!?”

“I saw him with Princess Celestia! Why is he running around without anyone watching him? He could be dangerous!”

Spike could clearly see that they were all terrified of him, which he found to be very strange as he had always feared them since the invasion. He held up his hands in attempts to reassure them. “Let’s all calm down. I’m just looking for my friends. I have no intention of-” Spike was cut off as he suddenly belched out a scroll.

The changelings saw the fire and broke into panic. They were all screaming and trying to get away by flying or running. “Run for your lives! He’s attacking!”

“The wrath of the Princess is upon us! This is the end of us all!”

“This stuff never happened when Chrysalis was the queen!”

Within a minute, the entire street was deserted and Spike just stood there in surprise. He was sure that both Celestia and Nymph were going to be very mad at him for starting a panic, but it wasn’t entirely his fault. He looked at the scroll in his hand and unrolled it, learning that it was from Luna and it was addressed to her sister. It seemed that she was worried about Cherub, who had recently cut off contact with her and declined her offer of visiting. The alicorn seemed to be very distraught about what was going on with her friend and reading her letter made Spike feel bad for her.

“Spike!” He quickly turned around, only to be tackled by Twilight. The unicorn held him in a very tight hug and had a few tears in her eyes. “Where did you go? I was so worried!”

Spike returned her embrace, thankful they found each other. “I’m sorry, I just left for a minute and I couldn’t find you.”

Twilight lifted her head and noticed the empty street. “I heard screaming from here. Where is everyone?”

“Uh…there was a misunderstanding.” Spike held up the letter to her. “I got this from Luna and I think we should give it to Celestia right now.”

“Is it about Chrysalis?” she queried, hoping that she had been finally caught.

“No, it’s about Cherub.”

“Cherub?” Twilight asked, disappointed. “What about her?”

Spike handed her the letter, which she and Pinkie quickly read. “Oh no!” exclaimed Pinkie. “Why is she avoiding Luna?”

Twilight rolled it up and stashed it into her bag. “Why are you asking us? You’re the one who works for her.”

Pinkie sat on the ground and sighed dejectedly. “She’s been acting weird lately. She’s totally not herself. She’s being mean again, but now she is also really sad.”

Spike and Twilight gave each other worried looks. “She is? About what?” questioned the dragon.

“I don’t know! She doesn’t like talking to me anymore and she just seems sadder every day! We have to go back right now!”

“We can’t. We have important things to do here and we can’t go home until tomorrow,” reminded the unicorn.

“But Cherub needs me!”

“She can wait a day. Maybe we can give the princess this letter. I’m sure Celestia will help Luna in dealing with her.”

Pinkie swiped the letter. “You’re right! Let’s go right now!” She was ready to bolt, but Twilight stood in front of her.

“Celestia’s busy until six, so we have to stay here and learn more about the changelings. I know you care about Cherub and Luna like we do, but we can’t do anything until later.”

“Okay…” After several seconds, Pinkie sprung up. “That means there’s more time to meet changelings!”

She hurried off while her friends followed. When she was out of earshot, Twilight looked at the dragon. “Do not ever run off like that. You had me scared to death.”

He looked away, ashamed. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I just wanted to get some food while you were busy.”

“Well we’ll go look for something for you to eat. Just promise you won’t do something like that again. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”

“I promise I won’t.” When Pinkie wasn’t looking, Twilight lowered her head and kissed him on the cheek, causing both of them to blush.

The other group of ponies was strolling through a shopping district, wanting to take a break from research and see what was being sold. So far, they haven’t learned anything too interesting about Nymph or Chrysalis and had been barely asking any changelings since it would look suspicious if they asked too many about them. As for the changelings themselves, they were very polite and some were even nervous about meeting them. They certainly did not resemble any of the changelings they fought against during the wedding. The ponies kept looking through the windows and browsed the various shops. Rarity was going on a spending spree as the changelings carried many rare materials for her craft at a low price and she was eager to try some new designs. Even though the incident occurred hours before, Rainbow Dash kept looking at her bandaged hoof. “Ya need to let it go, Rainbow,” spoke Applejack, amused by how worried her friend was.

“I know, I know. But do you think changelings are like vampires?”

“What do ya mean?”

“Like a bite could turn me into…” she gulped, “a changeling?”

Fluttershy gasped fearfully. “Maybe we should get Celestia!”

“Now just hold yar horses. Ah don’t think ya’re gonna turn into a changelin’ on account of ya bein’ bit by one.”

“But they’re so like vampires! They have sharp fangs and they drain ponies by sucking the life out of them!” argued Rainbow Dash. “They even remind me of bats since they live in caves.”

“They’re more like big bugs,” countered Applejack.

“Same thing.” Dash took a look behind herself to see several changelings still following her, which she was sick of. Her brutal encounter with the infant gave her a negative opinion about the race as well as the fear of becoming one. All she wanted was to be alone and not get harassed.

“I’m going to ask for her autograph!”

“I wonder if she’s single.”

Dash turned around, having enough of them. “Look, guys, do you mind just leaving me alone? I’m not having a good day.” Much to her surprise, that caused the crowd to come even closer, all of them eager to please her. She tried flying above them for some room, but they all flew up with her. “Seriously, back off!” she demanded to no avail. She was scared that they knew of her bite and they wanted to make her one of them. She looked at her friends, who were trying to fight through the crowd and help.

A loud whistle was heard, silencing the mob. “Alright, that’s enough! All of you maggots quit bothering these ponies and scram!” ordered another changeling. The crowd slowly dispersed, all of them intimidated by him.

Once they were gone, the pegasus landed. “Thanks a lot,” said Dash, relieved.

“No problem, pony,” said the changeling. “You must be the ones that Queen Nymph was supposed to meet.”

“That’s us,” Applejack replied.

“Is everything going well with her?” he asked, sounding concerned.

“Yes. She seemed very happy to see us, much to our surprise,” said Rarity.

“That’s a relief. She has been fretting over this visit for a few days.”

“How do you know that?” questioned Fluttershy.

“Oh, I have yet to introduce myself." He briefly bowed in front of them. "I am Hornet, one of her personal guards.”

Rarity shook his hoof. “Pleasure to meet you. So why was Nymph so worried about us coming?”

“She knows a lot about you, Elements of Harmony. You all hold a grudge against our kind because of Chrysalis’s invasion and she was hoping she could convince you all that she wasn’t like her sister.”

Rainbow Dash then realized something and got in his face. “Wait a minute. If you’re part of the guards, does that mean you were there during the invasion?”

Hornet gave a faint smile. “I was one of the changelings that captured you.”

She became furious and raised a hoof threateningly. “You little…”

“Save it, pegasus. I was only following orders. I am loyal to my queen as you are loyal to your princesses.”

“If you actually had a heart, you would have refused them!” shouted Rarity.

“Trust me when I say no one says no to Queen Chrysalis. Defying her is scarier than being locked in a room with a starving hydra. Whether or not you want to, you always end up giving her what she wants.”

“So you didn’t want to invade?” asked Fluttershy, who was hiding behind Applejack.

“Well…the thought of free food was nice.” He could see the looks of anger and even fright he was getting from them. “But at any rate, that was in the past. Queen Nymph's plan will pull through and food will never be of concern again, meaning no more incidents like that one.”

They still felt slightly unnerved by him, but Applejack knew they still had a job to do. “Since ya worked for Chrysalis, what can ya tell us about her?”

“Let me start with the good things. Chrysalis was a darn good queen. She had a sharp wit, a silver tongue, and a heart of gold. Before she came into power, we were a struggling and slightly uneducated race. After the mass scavenging started, she put into place so many programs to get changelings working. She made teachers, construction workers, researchers, and even more soldiers. The best thing she did in my opinion was update our security. We do not exactly have the best military in the world, which you might have noticed since we had no weapons and barely any organization during the invasion, but we did better at home where we could drive off any invader with little to no casualties. Things certainly got better when we started using those handy defense crystals.”

“Defense crystals?” asked Fluttershy.

“Probably one of our best inventions yet. You see, us changelings struggle to use magic, besides Nymph and Chrysalis. We can usually only change our form and can barely use simple magic such as telekinesis or shooting beams. So anyway, these crystals are a massive pile of changeling magic and they play with the mind of any other creature that comes close. Whenever a diamond dog or even a dragon wanders too close to our homes, the crystals do their trick. The intruder’s mind would be altered, giving thoughts like they have something else to do that was urgent or that their worst fear lurks within the cave. We never had any more problems after that.”

“Wow. Chrysalis actually sounds like a great queen,” said Rainbow Dash.

Hornet’s expression then turned into scorn, surprising the ponies. “Now let me tell you why I hate her. Chrysalis was an absolute monster. What a lot of us at the castle knew but could not share with anyone outside was the things Chrysalis did to Nymph.”

The ponies looked at each other, confused by his words. “What things?” questioned Applejack uneasily.

“Horrible things. Chrysalis liked to torment her in every way she could at any moment she could. Insult her, create rumors, and even give her the most demeaning tasks. Nymph tried on more than one occasion to stand up to her sister, but that’s like sending a bunny to fight a manticore: It’s quickly over and often very messy.”

Rarity couldn't help but feel horrible. She didn’t like Nymph, but she had no idea the queen had been through so much from Chrysalis herself. “How could she do that to her own sister?”

“Because Chrysalis has no soul.”

“But I thought you said she had a heart of gold,” reminded Dash, suspicious of any lies.

“Let me rephrase what I said earlier: She had a heart of gold if you didn’t oppose her, you were a changeling, and you weren’t Nymph. I have heard otherwise about her and I find it completely unbelievable.”

“Like what?” questioned the yellow pony.

“One day some years ago, I happened to come across Nymph in a study at the castle, crying her eyes out. I went to her and asked what was wrong and she just said, 'Chrysalis.' I sat with her for a while and we talked for a bit when she calmed down. Eventually, she brought up their past together. Unbelievably, Chrysalis used to love her more than anything.”

Rarity remembered how she used to neglect her own little sister and was glad things never got that bad. When she returned home, she would allow Sweetie Belle to come over with her friends more often. “Why doesn’t she anymore?”

“I’ve heard a lot of rumors, but I really don’t know the absolute truth. Nymph keeps avoiding that topic and whenever she and Chrysalis argued, they did it in private. What I can say with absolute certainty is that Chrysalis turning against her like that was what hurt her the most in her life. She is her only family left and she just wants her back. Even though she had many friends who supported and cared for her like myself, it wasn’t enough to fill the void in her heart.”

Fluttershy wiped some tears from her eyes. “That poor thing.”

“And after Chrysalis returned from the failed invasion, Nymph got even. She pardoned everyone involved in the attack except her, making her carry all of the blame for endangering us. Much of the kingdom still thought Chrysalis would have done a better job in bailing them out of their time of crisis, but Nymph was prepared. The first thing she did was expose to the entire kingdom the cruel things that her sister had done to her and how she treated those who opposed her, painting the image in everyone’s mind of the tyrant that was her sister. A lot of changelings were appalled, but it was not enough to convince them to let Nymph handle things.

“She then started telling them about how much danger there was since Chrysalis failed and convinced us all how her plan was doomed from the start. She went on about how the only way we were going to get through this was to make peace and convince the ponies that we were no threat. She told us that we were too few in strength and in power to stand against Equestria’s forces, maybe even more if the other races got scared enough. Chrysalis tried making her own arguments, but Nymph managed to turn the tables on her, winning over her people’s favor. Once all of the changelings supported Nymph, the decision for punishment came.”

“After hearing all that, I am still surprised she merely threw her out,” stated Dash.

“I was honestly expecting a life sentence or even execution, but like the rest of the kingdom, I was shocked by her decision. I was there when Chrysalis left. None of us made a sound as we watched her go up to the surface and disappear. While most of us felt relieved as tossing her out would help have Celestia forgive us, Nymph was very sad. It must have been very painful to have to make such a decision.”

“Oh goodness. That is just a sad story,” said Rarity.

“So have any of you seen Chrysalis since then?” asked Hornet. “I am very curious of what she’s been up to.”

“We haven’t seen her at all, actually,” answered Rarity.

“A good thing, in my opinion. The less we see of her, the better. With Chrysalis gone, Nymph is doing much better now. After negotiations began, she just felt so alive and optimistic with Celestia’s mercy and without Chrysalis’s bullying. It’s so heartwarming to see her like that after all she had been through. ”

“So is she a good queen?” questioned Applejack.

“She is, but she feels like she is living in Chrysalis’s shadow. A lot of programs and laws that her sister had placed are still in effect, but at least Nymph’s likable. Chrysalis tended to use rather controversial methods to get what she wanted, like intimidation. As for Nymph right now, her approach on foreign policy has really put her up there. If she pulls it off, it will be probably the most historical event in our entire history and Nymph’s name will be forever remembered. Of course, she actually needs to succeed first.”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind if changelings lived with us. You all seem nice enough,” said Fluttershy, who worked up the courage to leave her hiding spot.

Hornet smiled warmly. “Thank you, pony. I won’t lie: it’s going to be a rocky start for us all. Ponies will be wary of us because we invaded and changelings have never really trusted another race before. ”

“I’m sure everything will work out in the end and you changelings will never have to worry about starving again,” said Rarity.

“I really hope so. I’m going to go and enjoy the rest of my day off at the bar. Maybe we’ll see each other again someday, but before I go, I want you all to know that we are not your enemies. The invasion was an act of desperation and fear and we are often a peaceful, neutral nation. You can trust Nymph too, so don’t feel afraid by her.”

The orange mare nodded. “Goodbye, Hornet, and thanks for everythin’.”

“Take care.” He turned around and left them behind. Before he was out of sight, Rainbow Dash flew to him.

“Quick question: If a changeling were to bite a pony, does that pony turn into a changeling?”

“Aren’t those vampires or wereponies?”

“Oh. Y-yeah.”

His eyes caught the bandage on her hoof. “You’re not going to change, kid. That’s just a myth.”

She wiped the sweat off her forehead. “Okay, thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” Once Dash flew back to her friends and was far enough, Hornet muttered, “Idiot.”

Once Rainbow Dash returned, Rarity looked at a nearby clock. “It’s about time we start heading back.”

“Good, cause my hooves are just sore from walkin’,” said Applejack.

“I just hope the others are okay,” said Fluttershy.

“I’m sure they are,” Rarity replied. “I truly believe that the changelings do not intend any harm. They seem to be much different than our previous assumptions.”

“Let’s not forget about Nymph,” added Dash. “If she really wants peace, then we should be safe. I don’t think any changeling would be dumb enough to lay a hoof on us with Nymph trying to make peace. As for Chrysalis, I really don’t think Nymph would want her to keep around if what Hornet said is true.”

“I hope so. I still feel a little scared by her because how mad she got,” added Fluttershy.

“Yeah, but you know what would totally make up for that? Some delicious grub!” said Dash as her mouth moistened.

“Food sounds really good right now,” agreed Rarity. “I just wonder what sort of food she eats, besides our emotions.”

“Might as well find out,” answered the earth pony. “Ah just hope Twilight is stayin’ out of trouble.”

Twilight’s group decided to head back after examining the rest of the city and learning more about the changeling civilization and even about the queens. At the moment, Twilight grew fond of the species and even approached some herself, feeling trustful of them. From learning about their history, she was beginning to see how the invasion came about. As for her other topic of interest, Twilight never expected what she heard about Chrysalis and Nymph from Spike. She had asked several changelings about this and all backed up the claim of Chrysalis abusing Nymph. As for opinions of her reign, they were mixed. A lot did think Chrysalis was good at ruling but were disgusted by how she treated others at times. Most were very satisfied by Nymph’s plan to have them accepted into the world above, bringing a new age to the changeling civilization. However, Twilight held strong disdain for Nymph for another reason. She hoped that Celestia would have some more answers as it would help determine whether or not the queen was worthy of trust.

Back at the courtyard where they first arrived, Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie noticed a cave entrance guarded by two changelings over at the side. They decided to take a quick look since they still had some time before their other friends came back. As they tried to approach, the guards got in front of them. “Sorry, but no one is allowed this way.”

“But we’re special guests of Queen Nymph,” said Twilight.

One of the changelings shook his head. “Even so, none are allowed through here.”

“What’s in there, anyway?” questioned Spike.

“This tunnel leads to the Royal Changeling Garden and no one is allowed in except the queen. Not even Princess Celestia has been granted access.”

“So why is no one allowed through?” queried the unicorn.

“The Royal Garden is property of the royal family, which is just Queen Nymph and Princess Chrysalis at the moment. Only Nymph is allowed in unless she says otherwise. As for why she chooses to keep it closed, I do not have the answer.”

“What’s it like in there?” asked Pinkie.

“It’s a beautiful place filled with many flowers and trees. It has been part of the royal family probably for our entire history, making it such an important part of our kingdom. I’ve seen it before and it is truly a sight to behold.”

Twilight suddenly became extremely interested as she wanted to see some of the history of the changeling race. “When does Nymph usually allow changelings in? I would love to see it.”

“The last time anyone was granted access was over a year ago, when Chrysalis was the queen. Queen Nymph has not yet allowed entrance during her current reign.”

A worried thought began to grow in Twilight’s head. “Why not?”

“Who can say for sure? I never know what goes on in that head of hers. She always does come here most of the days whenever she has time.”

Her fear was steadily rising. “And how often does she go there?”

“About every other day and she’s up there for hours. I can’t imagine what she does in that garden all by herself.”

“I see. Well thanks for everything.” They moved away from the guards and huddled in a circle. “Are you two thinking what I’m thinking?”

Pinkie began to bounce. “What are you thinking, Twilight?”

The unicorn gulped as she shifted her eyes towards the cave. “I think…Chrysalis might be hiding out in the garden.”

Spike panicked. “What do we do!?”

“I’m not sure. I just wish I had more evidence to prove this theory.”

“I know! Let’s ask the guards.” Pinkie shot her head up. “Excuse me, is Chrysalis in there?”

“Pinkie!”

The guards looked confused. “What? No, of course not. Why would you think such a thing?”

“Because you said Nymph has not allowed anyone in during her reign and the fact that Chrysalis hasn’t been seen in months,” the party pony answered happily.

One of the guards rolled his eyes. “That’s the stupidest thing I have ever…hmm.”

The other guard looked at him. “Are you seriously considering that Queen Nymph has her sister here in the kingdom?”

“Well think about it. Chrysalis has not been seen for months and Nymph has yet to allow anyone in. She always comes and goes through here and she just seems so distant from everyone else, not to mention they were so close before. I know that they came here all the time together as children and adults.”

The guard gulped and looked into the tunnel. “Do you really think Princess Chrysalis is in there?”

The five looked at each other, each carrying fear of what was waiting in there. “Do you think we should look?” asked Twilight.

“I’m sorry, pony, but our orders remain. None are allowed through here.”

“But Chrysalis could be back there!” she protested.

“Let me put it this way: If she is indeed back there, then the best thing to do is stay away. I am confident that the queen will handle her with her best judgment.”

“I hope you’re right.” Twilight turned and headed back towards the courtyard with her friends catching up to her.

“What are we going to do, Twilight?” asked the worried dragon. “Should we get the princess?”

“No. Celestia completely trusts Nymph and we would need more evidence to have her investigate. I need you two to not mention this at all for now.”

Pinkie started whispering to ensure no one else heard her. “Why would Nymph keep Chrysalis in a garden if she was mean? Is she like a bee and plays with flowers to make honey?”

“I don’t know. I need to think about this.” When they returned to the front entrance of the palace, they saw their other friends returning.

Spike and Pinkie sprinted to their special someponies. The dragon leapt in the air and Rarity caught him. “I’m glad to see you’re all safe,” she said as she embraced him.

A brief flash of purple washed over them as Twilight checked to ensure none of them were changelings. “Likewise,” she responded with relief.

“So how’s everything going, Twilight? Get anything good?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Maybe. I will have to do some serious thinking first.”

That caused her other friends some concern. “What do you mean?” asked Fluttershy, who was nervous.

“We’ll talk later. Let’s go find the princess and have dinner.”

They entered the palace and maneuvered their way to where Celestia and Nymph were residing with the aid of guards who pointed them in the right direction. The hallways were in a much lighter color than the exterior of the palace. The walls and floor were colored white and green with purple carpet along the floor. Windows filled much of the walls and they could see much of the city from where they were. As they entered deeper into the home of the queen, they found a hall which contained many portraits. Each picture showed a royal changeling and they were surprised by how few there were. As they neared the end, they saw some particular portraits. There was Queen Widow, her daughter Queen Rhopa Locera, who was the mother of Chrysalis and Nymph, and Chrysalis herself. The way she smiled was devious and Twilight shuddered from the sight of her. The next portrait was the current queen, whose smile was much friendlier.

Finally, they found the room where the royals were discussing their issues and the ponies waited for them to finish. After some minutes, the doors opened. The first to come out were five older changelings in robes, who Twilight assumed to be the Changeling Council that she heard about from Celestia. “Waiting for Princess Celestia, I assume?” asked one.

“Is she in there?” asked Fluttershy.

“Yes, she and Queen Nymph are just putting the finishing touches on a few things and will be out shortly.” He studied each of them. “I never expected the Elements of Harmony to be so young.”

“Well I never expected the Council to be so old,” countered Rainbow Dash.

“Touché. I am Councilman Termite, and these are Mantis, Moth, Locust, and Bumble. We are the Changeling Council, elected to represent the interests of the people. We ensure that everything that the queen does is for the better of our kingdom.”

Locust, a rather short changeling, came to Twilight and rapidly shook her hoof. “It is so nice to meet you all! Thank you for gracing us with your presence.”

Feeling trustful of the changeling race, she produced a pleasant smile. “Nice to meet you, too.”

Locust did not stop shaking her hoof. “I mean, you are all so beautiful and smart and talented.”

“Uh…”

“And so kind for sparing our miserable, worthless lives!”

Termite quickly pushed him aside before he could kiss her hoof. “What he meant to say is that we thank you all for giving our kind a chance. We expected the worst when Queen Nymph first left to Canterlot and we’ve been doing our best to keep peace. We’ve never had the luxury of receiving kindness from other species and we do not dare to do anything that would have us lose that.”

Bumble, a very old looking changeling with large glasses and a cane, approached Spike. “Hey look, everyone!” he exclaimed as he picked him up. “My grandson Skipper came to visit me on my birthday!”

Mantis, a female changeling who looked ready to bite his head off, took Spike from him and placed him on the floor. “Bumble, that’s not your grandson, that’s a dragon. And today isn’t your birthday.”

“He sure is a dragon. That young lad has some fire in him.” As the delusional changeling looked at Spike, he suddenly broke into panic. “W-what!? A dragon!? Where’s my grandson, you beast!?”

He charged Spike with his cane raised, but the other changelings held him back. “Bumble, it’s time for supper with a nutritious side of medication,” angrily reminded Locust.

As they carried him away, Bumble yelled, “Someone help me! I’m being taken by changelings!”

“You’re a changeling, you idiot!” shouted Mantis.

Once they were out of sight, Dash went over to Moth, a taller, female changeling who had remained behind. “Why does that geezer work for the council? He should be in a home.”

“Because the queen thinks he’s hilarious to keep around. While he does have his moments of brilliance, it’s mostly like this. We do plan on retiring him very soon, but we’re just waiting for the election. I better make sure he doesn’t do anything extreme.”

“Wait,” called Twilight. “What can you tell us about Chrysalis?”

Moth gulped and looked into the room she just came from. She motioned them closer and whispered, “Good queen, nasty individual. She performed well in her duties and could be sweet like Nymph, but it was her rage that usually got her what she wanted when all else failed, demanding that her subjects respected her royal desires. This only escalated when she was crowned. While a lot of things she has done have helped us, it usually felt like none of us had a say in it. And before you ask, no she did not force us to agree on letting her invade Equestria. We were all on board with her idea at the time and we are very, very, very, very, very sorry.”

“It’s all right,” said Twilight, much to her own surprise. “I’ve learned enough of changeling history to understand your desperation. So what about Nymph?”

“Nicer, but I wish she had the drive Chrysalis possessed. Chrysalis would have had this negotiating all done a long time ago, but I think I prefer having her sister around. She always listens to her people’s concerns and really knows how to compromise. She is doing her best to make her own policies to improve our lives, but she is much too focused on these negotiations. I will also warn you that while Nymph may be friendly, never ever make her angry.”

The farmer gulped. “Too late.”

“Scary, isn’t it? She can get just as mad as her sister, but she has a lot more patience. Just do not ever try her, or else not even Celestia can save you.” Once she finished, she quickly trotted away to meet with the other councilors.

Once the Changeling Council was gone, the princess and the queen appeared. “Hello again, Twilight,” greeted Celestia. “I hope you and your friends found everything well in the city.”

“We have certainly learned a lot,” answered Twilight.

Nymph smiled warmly. “Excellent. You must all be hungry from all of that walking. Come join us in the dining hall and we can discuss what you have learned.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Rainbow Dash as she rubbed her stomach.

While they were walking, Pinkie remembered the letter. “Princess Celestia, I have an urgent letter for you!”

“Urgent?” Celestia took the letter and began reading it while Nymph was peeking over her shoulder. “Oh dear.”

“Is everything alright, Princess?” asked Nymph with worry.

“My sister is just worried about one of her friends. I have noticed Luna’s been a bit down lately, but I did not think it was this serious.”

“Aren’t you going to write back? You have to help Cherub!”

“Calm yourself, Pinkie. I will write to her as soon as I can. I just need to think about what I should do about this.” Pinkie bit her lip, not wanting to wait so long, but reluctantly nodded.

As they approached the dining hall, Nymph asked, “So who is this Cherub?”

“Cherub is a pony that young Pinkie Pie works for,” answered the alicorn. “She runs a dating service and has helped many find love. She is also a very good friend of Luna and they tend to get along very well.”

“My, that sounds interesting. I think the extra love will be very beneficial to my people when they receive citizenship.”

“Cherub doesn’t like changelings at all and I’m sure that she’s not doing this to feed them” added Twilight.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Still, more love would benefit us all, yes?”

“I guess.”

“Speaking of love,” Nymph said as she turned her gaze onto the dragon and the pony he was riding, “I simply must know about this love I am sensing between you both, Spike and Rarity. I never thought ponies and dragons ever got together.”

They all sat at a large table in the dining hall as Spike told the story to her and Pinkie was very eager to go next. Once he finished, Pinkie was about to speak, but was interrupted by Twilight. “So I heard you have a really nice garden, Queen Nymph.”

The changeling happily nodded. “You have heard right. My garden is one of the most beautiful places you can find in the world. Maybe I’m slightly exaggerating since I have yet to see much of the world, but I think I’ve read enough.”

“Can I go see it?”

“No,” she answered bluntly.

Twilight’s suspicion of the queen began to grow. “And why not?”

“Because it is my private garden and I do not wish for it to be disturbed.”

“I won’t disturb it, I promise.”

“I’m sorry, you are not allowed in there. Please just stay out. And that goes for the rest of you ponies.” Before Twilight could ask another question, the pegasi guards came over and brought the food that they had brought from Ponyville. “I see your dinner has arrived,” said Nymph as she stood. “I will leave you to enjoy your meals. We can speak about what you learned after.”

The ponies watched as the queen went over to the council, who were seated at the far end of the table. Suddenly, Dash let out a loud growl. “So wait a minute. Queen Nymph invites us here and then she expects us to sit over here and eat our own food? What kind of host is she?”

“Trust me, Rainbow Dash, it’s better we eat this way. Changeling food is rather…unique,” warned Celestia.

“Well I still want some,” Dash complained as she stared down the changelings.

“If you really want to, you can go over there and ask for some. I just hope your stomach can handle it.”

“Sounds good to me.” Dash left her seat and went towards the changelings.

Rarity got up as well. “I think I shall join her. I am ever so curious to see the royal changeling cuisine.”

“You may go if you wish. Just keep in mind you are entering risky territory.” Rarity left and followed the pegasus. “I think you should all turn you seats this way,” suggested the princess as she magically turned her subjects' seats towards her.

The changelings took notice of the ponies approaching. “Was there something you needed?” asked Nymph.

“We wish to sample some of your delicacies,” requested Rarity. “I am ever so curious of what food royalty such as yourselves dine on.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Bring our honorary guests their dinner.” The servants bowed and left the dining room. “Food is an excellent way of experiencing another culture and I hope you two find everything well.” The servants returned with their dinner platters. Once all were set on the table, the tops were removed. “You may begin.”

While the changelings began eating their food, Rainbow Dash and Rarity exchanged glances. The food was mostly what they had expected. There was a bowl of fresh cave moss and grilled mushrooms, but the soup really stood out. Dash raised a hoof. “Uh, your highness? There are parasprites in our soups.”

Nymph lifted her spoon, holding some soup and a yellow parasprite that smiled and buzzed at her. “Indeed there are.”

“Aren’t you worried, Queen Nymph?” asked Rarity. “Parasprites are known for-”

CHOMP!

Rarity’s ear piercing shriek echoed throughout most of the castle.

Author's Note

Finally, we get to see Queen Nymph after hearing about her for so long. Although she wasn't seen much, she will appear more in the next chapter and more will be learned about her and Chrysalis. As for the changelings, I hoped you like how I described their culture, despite only getting a few bits of it.

In case you don't know, Bugartha is a parody name of Agartha, which is a mythical city that is underground. I thought the name was very fitting as not only because of the pun name, but also that I always thought changelings were the kind to live underground. As for Chrysalis's and Nymph's mother, rhopalocera means butterfly.

I will try to have the next chapter up much quicker than my usual rate, so hang in there.

Lessons in Love and Pain

Chrysalis had spent almost two weeks thinking about her plan’s current progress. She had become bothered upon realizing a major problem and it had been tormenting her mind almost nonstop. As much as she hated to admit it, she now saw Pinkie as a friend. She could not believe such a feat was possible for her. She still remembered the times where Pinkie just ticked her off by simply doing anything. She took Luna’s advice of trying to act nicer towards the girl and she actually started to get to know the earth pony better. Instead of seeing her as hyperactive loudmouth, Chrysalis now saw Pinkie as a pony that tried her best to make others feel better and could be very reliable. She actually felt slightly alone whenever they closed shop as she only had the company of herself. Pinkie provided energy to her private atmosphere and it was better for her psyche to talk to somepony rather than cycle in her own pessimistic thoughts.

And then there was something that was going to inevitably arise. If Chrysalis was to carry out her plot to become queen of the changelings again and conquer Equestria, she would have to do something with her pony friend. A nice private and cozy prison might work, but she couldn’t help but picture Pinkie going ballistic and screaming at her, wanting no more to do with her. There was mind control which would provide no fuss from her, but it just wouldn’t be the same. She couldn’t bear to make Pinkie an obedient zombie. The thought of losing her sort of best friend nearly made her change her mind about the invasion. But with no invasion, how were the changelings going to be fed and earn their superior status among the other races? She would have done all this work for nothing. Her original plan would still have to continue. There was to be no holding back or even attempting to compromise. The idea of living among ponies still left a bad taste in her mouth and she most certainly did not trust Celestia or even Luna.

These worrying thoughts left her in a constant sour mood that only got worse whenever she had to work with her clients. Getting even a short coffee or bathroom break would only leave her mind to retreat to her worries again. Her bedroom desk drawer steadily became filled with letters from Princess Luna that she couldn’t will herself to read or reply to. She could not bring herself to make contact with her as she had the same problem with the princess as she did with her employee. She supposed she could see her taking a liking to Pinkie, but Luna of all ponies? She was the one who was currently trying to hunt Chrysalis down and even ran that changeling lookout group, which was thankfully gone now. As with Pinkie, she did not want to see her get hurt. Chrysalis believed that this feeling had generated from their several encounters and she wanted to know more about her past so she could help herself in the present. She also deeply appreciated how Luna was always so concerned about her and she thought it was nice there was somepony who cared about her, unlike back home. Often after closing for the day, she would sit by the mailbox and debate whether or not to write to her, missing her company deeply.

Another thing that was really bothering her was her alternative ego, Cherub. She spent so much time playing as her that she felt like that Cherub was real while Chrysalis barely existed. Changelings were not meant to live a secret life for such a long time out of the risk of becoming too submerged in a personal relationship and choosing to abandon their original kind. Changelings at most spent a month in the pony realm before abandoning their disguise and returning home. She just wanted to be Queen Chrysalis again. Even though both identities practically acted the same personality-wise, she just missed being herself and having what used to belong to her.

Everything started to become monotonous clockwork to the changeling, slowly counting the days of her banishment and dreading her time away from home. She would wake up, greet Pinkie, work for eight hours, shove Pinkie out of her house, and then just lie on her bed. Her weekends were even less exciting. She had found herself lacking motivation to do anything, not knowing what to do about her situation. Pinkie had obviously noticed her change in mood and had been trying to make her happy, but Chrysalis’s harsh words often put her to a stop. She did want to feel better, but not from that girl’s help. Pinkie provided occasional chuckle worthy antics, but she needed more serious personal guidance.

She could not downplay Pinkie’s efforts in the business, however. She alerted Chrysalis about the magazines talking of Fancy Pants and Photo Finish, who were now officially together in a relationship and the stallion even mentioned her business like he promised. This caused ponies from various magazines to come to Chrysalis, all wanting interviews of her success. She gladly accepted them, knowing that this would bring a surge in her business and have her come home sooner. Pinkie wanted to talk to the ponies as well, but the changeling prohibited her from doing so as she wanted all the credit to herself and because she didn’t have much public relations management skills should Pinkie blurt something absurd in an interview.

Requests stacked and overflowed Chrysalis’s inbox. She and Pinkie had been working overtime to deal with all of their eager customers, who were more than willing to just throw money at her. Chrysalis figured that the huge flux would only last shortly, so she was going to take as much advantage of it as she could. Her mood actually lightened up from her business improving, but she was still very irritable towards others, especially Pinkie Pie.

Her building was currently flooding with ponies and she was doing her best to deal with them. She had to make sure that she and Pinkie wouldn’t be forced to go with a costumer for some additional help too often as she could not let so many rowdy ponies hang near her home while they were gone for possibly hours. Luckily, months of experience allowed her to do plenty of work from home and she could finish helping a pony in short time. What normally took half a day for a client could be done in sixty minutes or less with some exceptions. “Thank you for coming. Next!” A bunch of ponies started calling and waving at her, all wanting her. “One at a time! And get your filthy hooves off my couches!”

Her joy in booming business did not last as she realized she was actually getting too many customers. By the sixth day of her sudden influx of customers, the line to her house stretched for blocks. She had to keep dating profiles archived in multiple filing cabinets and filing away those who already started dating. She eventually took the risk to make Pinkie work overtime to organize their clients and their possible ponies of interest, but it was becoming too overwhelming. She was just one changeling in a house-operated business. All her magic and past experience of listening to citizen requests back at the kingdom weren’t enough to handle what she was given. At lease she had chancellors and several associates back home to help her through busy times like this. She needed a better way of doing her job, but nothing came to mind. What could she do? It seemed like there was an obvious answer, clear as the eager eyes of a client sitting across her desk, but she was too frustrated to find it. She needed to relax when work was over and find it herself to prevent her sanity from running out. It wasn’t like the answer to her problems would suddenly show up at her door.

But then, as Pinkie was trying to control the crowd that infested her home, they were all silenced by a loud horn that came from outside. Chrysalis noticed something appear outside the front window. It was a large mechanical contraption that had stopped right outside her building and was carrying two ponies, who were approaching her door. “Pinkie, what in Equestria is that thing?”

Pinkie took a look and gasped. “I know what that is and I know who they are!”

“Who?”

Suddenly, the door flung open as two twin unicorns entered. “Ta-da!”

The pink earth pony flailed her legs around. “It’s the Flamflim brothers!”

“That’s Flimflam to you!” corrected Flim.

Everypony stared in amazement by their entrance as they walked across the room, greeting everypony they met. Once finished with the crowd, they stood in front of Chrysalis. “Greetings to you, Cherub! I am Flim!”

“And I am Flam!”

“And we have a deal for you!” they said simultaneously.

Chrysalis was still caught by surprise of their appearance. She shook her head and resumed her focus. “Nice to meet you both.” She was honestly unsure how she felt about them having just stormed in all of a sudden, but she felt that she should hear them out. “Pinkie, would you be a dear and go handle the customers while I deal with these two?”

Pinkie saluted her. “You can count on me, Ms. Cherub.”

Once the pony went over to the crowd, she turned back to the brothers. “So what’s this deal you are so eager to share with me?”

The brothers took a seat in front of her. “Word in town is you’re quite the popular girl,” complemented Flam.

“And we know about the recent news with the Canterlot Couple, but that’s not why we’re here. We did some research on you and found something very interesting.” Flim reached into his shirt pocket and brought out a jar, which he placed in front of her. “This is your handy work, is it not?”

Chrysalis recognized the contents of the jar to be her brand of “jelly”. “Ah yes, that…” She started to wish it didn’t get as popular as it did and sometimes regretted marketing it. It was a truly disgusting scientific breakthrough and an even more disgusting treat. “What about it?”

“Well we have a fabulous deal proposition for you; one that will make plenty of bits.”

“More bits than this business!” remarked Flam.

“All you need to do is teach us the secret ingredient to your delicious jelly and you’ll be set for life!”

They both leaned towards her. “So what do you say?” they asked at the same time.

Chrysalis didn’t even need to think of her answer. “No.”

Her answer didn’t even sway them. “Now let’s not be hasty, sweet cheeks,” said Flim. “The profit would be split fairly, twenty-eighty!”

Chrysalis glared at them. “Even if I was the eighty, and I know I’m not, my answer still stands. I have no interest in money.”

The brothers burst out laughing. “That’s rich of you to say you don’t want to be rich!” mocked Flam.

“Tell me, Cherub, what are you interested in if not cash?”

“Creating love, and that’s it,” she answered calmly.

The two unicorns huddled and began whispering to each other. After a moment, they broke away. “So running your business successfully is all you desire?” asked Flim.

“That is correct.”

“Now tell me, do you really think you’re doing a satisfactory job like this?” He pointed to the mob of ponies that Pinkie was trying to control. “A room and a few street blocks cramped with ponies, waiting to be served one at a time in the bright sun? This is simply unacceptable!”

The former queen did not enjoy their criticism. “What’s your point?”

Flam leaned on her desk, grinning. “Think about it: If you had more bits, you could do better! And we can help you pull it off!”

The unicorns had hooked the changeling’s attention. “I’m listening.”

Flim spoke first, eager at the chance of striking a deal with her. “Why use this tiny room with only one pony for such a big job? What you need to do is get bigger!”

“Bigger?”

“Bigger! Bigger building, bigger work force, bigger advertisement, bigger results! And all this can be accomplished with money! If you choose to agree to our deal, you’ll have the money to accomplish all of this, provided you split the profit with us, of course. But in the end, you will be able to create all the love you want. So what do you think about our deal now?”

Chrysalis reconsidered their offer. With the recent news, her workload was starting to overwhelm her. However, this type of popularity was exactly what she needed. They also provided a good point about increasing her employment. She couldn’t simply leave all the costumers alone while she and Pinkie were out on a job, which often took hours. Her business was hitting the ceiling and she needed to expand. Having more ponies working for her and possibly even larger methods of advertisement could really help her out. It should have been obvious to her to have considered something like this earlier, but she was not too good at scheming when she was stressed. However, she faced two problems. The first was that she knew they were obviously trying to rip her off. Something in their voices and their glances were telling her that their co-operation would help them way more than her. However, that could be easily fixed with persuasion and intimidation or maybe some charm if she was desperate enough. The second problem was what concerned her most. There was no way she could tell them her secret and she wasn’t even sure if she could create a suitable substitute that would pass a taste test. But she could not let a deal like this pass. She needed to see where it would go. “I have thought it over and I’ve decided I want to accept.”

The Flimflam brothers clapped. “Oh how splendid!” said Flam happily. “I knew you would come around. Now we-”

“Not so fast,” interrupted the changeling. “I’ve got some conditions I want to lay out. First of all, I will not give you the recipe.”

They both gasped. “But we can’t make money without it!” remarked Flim.

“I will still provide you with the jelly, but you will only receive sixty percent of the production.”

“Sixty percent!?” Flam was just about ready to faint. “Why not all?”

“The other forty percent goes towards the Cakes, who I’ve been dealing with for a long time and I know I can trust them,” she replied coldly.

“You’re saying you don’t trust us?” asked Flim.

“I think you’re both full of manure, but that’s beside the point. Lastly, the profit will be seventy-thirty, with the majority going to me.”

Flim and Flam huddled again and then broke away after some whispering. “Sixty-forty, while giving us all of the produced jelly,” offered Flam.

“No.”

“Now don’t be unreasonable, Cherub!” laughed Flim.

Chrysalis got angry and stood up, no longer able to deal with their smug attitudes. “Me? Unreasonable? Your first offer was to rob me blind!”

“I have an idea!” Pinkie called.

“Well what do you expect? While you sit in the kitchen and cook, we will be out there trying to sell, sell, sell!” exclaimed Flam.

“I have an idea!” Pinkie called out again.

“And what makes you think I need either of you? The Cakes do a fine job selling it.”

“But that’s only in Ponyville. We could have it distributed all over Equestria, where you can grab many more customers!” informed Flim.

“But it wouldn’t do me any good if I don’t make any money from it!” yelled Chrysalis.

“I HAVE AN IDEA!”

The three were heavily startled by Pinkie shouting through a megaphone. “Was that really necessary?” asked Chrysalis as she rubbed her ears.

Pinkie tossed it aside. “Yes, because I have an idea. Why don’t you split the profits fifty-fifty and give them half of your jelly? That’s fair, right?”

Chrysalis shrugged. “Sure, but I don’t think they’re willing to accept.”

The stallions both nodded. “And she’s right. We simply won’t allow it,” said Flim.

“What if we included Cherub’s super special bonus?” asked Pinkie.

Flim and Flam looked at her. “What super special bonus?” they asked at the same time.

“Well isn’t it obvious? Cherub is super good at finding ponies love, so maybe she could help both of you find love! Isn’t that better than making money? You should hire us to find you special someponies and then give her a fair share. Deal?”

The two stallions rubbed their chins, clearly interested in what she was suggesting. Once again, Chrysalis saw why Pinkie was a worthy pony. She was surprised the young mare could think straight under all the pressure they were going through. “I am quite a talented pony when it comes to matchmaking as you can clearly see and I am more than qualified in finding a good pony that you will both want to spend the rest of your lives with. You may not be able to buy love, but you could pay somepony to do it for you, right? So if I find you two love, how about we do fifty-fifty? Not only that, but if you help me pay for the new building, I will give you a good percentage of the profit I make. Also, if you do a good job of selling as you claim, I may consider giving you a larger amount of the product. Does that work for both of you?”

The brothers quickly huddled again and whispered loudly to each other. Pinkie and Chrysalis waited for them to give a response, both hoping they would come to reason. They eventually broke the huddle, smiled, and extended a hoof towards her. “It’s a deal!”

“Excellent!” She took both of their hooves and shook them. “Now I think I can already think of a good match for the both of you. In the spa, there are these twin sisters and I’m sure they would love-” She was cut off when they both laughed. “Was it something I said?”

“We may look the same and even finish each other’s sentences, but some of our interests are completely different,” said Flim. “For example, I want a sweet, simple mare…”

“And I want a nice, rich stallion!” said his brother.

The changeling rolled her eyes, not surprised by the fact things could never be easy for her. “I see. At any rate, we are completely swamped for the week, but since you two are such important ponies, I will be willing to help you on Saturday if that is all right.”

“Very well. Flam and I shall be off until then! We will visit you Saturday in the morning.” They both exited Cupid’s Arrow and got into their car.

“See you Saturday!” called Flam as they drove away.

Once they were gone, Pinkie and Chrysalis looked at each other, both of them grinning. “I can’t believe it! Are we really going to have a bigger building with more ponies?” asked Pinkie.

“Indeed we are,” the changeling replied happily.

“Hooray!”

“Don’t cheer just yet. We still have to help them first before we can get started. If it’s possible, can you come by on Saturday? It would mean so much if you did.”

“You bet!” Pinkie answered excitedly. “I always love helping you!”

“I’m glad to see you’re so reliable. I should make you employee of the month.” While Pinkie acted giddy, Chrysalis got up onto her desk and whistled loudly. “Listen up, everypony!” The crowd of ponies in her home looked at her, falling silent. “I know that this is not the best way of dealing with a crowd of this size and I’m sorry, but I have an announcement. Soon, I will acquire the necessary funds to move to a much larger building. I promise you that when this happens, everything will move along much faster. But until then, this is the best I can do, so please do not make this any more difficult than it already is. So, who’s next?” The crowd immediately uproared as they all tried to get her attention. Chrysalis sat back down, defeated. “For once, I want the weekend to happen already.”

After a long week of hard work, Saturday had arrived. Chrysalis would have loved to take the day off because of all of her excessive workload, but today was way too important. Once she was finished with those slime ball brothers, she would be rolling in the bits and be able to expand her business. Chrysalis felt hopeful as her plan was evolving more towards its goal, currently neglecting the problems that she had earlier. She had noticed a decent of a rise in the love within Ponyville, but there was still much work to be done before it would be ready for her people.

Thankfully, Pinkie was more than willing to come to work today and help. The pony arrived at her usual time and was very excited, which wasn’t new of her. She flew through the door and could not contain herself. “Are they here yet? Are they? Are they?” She bounced around the house and looked in every room and closet.

Chrysalis actually chuckled from her excitement as she felt the same. “Settle down, Pinkie. I’m sure they will be here soon.”

The pony sat at her desk, eager. “This is so great! So what exactly are we going to do with all the money when we finish?”

“Buy a bigger building, of course. I’ve actually been looking for one for quite some time and I managed to find an available building that’s approximately the size of Sugarcube Corner.”

“Wow, your house is gonna be huge!”

The former queen happily nodded. “No kidding. I'm sick of living in this dump. I deserve so much better.”

“You don’t like living here?”

“Goodness no. I need so much more room than this. At any rate, the building I reserved from Short Sale has a little room in the back, which is where you and I will deal with customers in…privacy.” Chrysalis licked her lips. “As for everything else, I am still working out the details. I just hope those two will keep their word. I have also been saving up bits for a while so I could move out and it will certainly help when the Flimflam Brothers give me some money.” She regretted using the clever mind control trick on Short Sale since it would have been better to use it for a more expensive place and she thought it wouldn’t be wise to do it twice. “If they do as good of a job as I hope, I should be able to take a mortgage out on the building and we can get started sooner.”

“I can’t wait!”

The changeling spent the rest of her time waiting by coming up with ideas of how to make her business more efficient with Pinkie. Eventually, they heard the motor of the brothers’ car as they arrived. They turned off the engine and made their way in. “Here we are, the Flimflam Brothers!” announced Flim as he opened the door.

Their entrance always impressed Chrysalis. “Glad you’re here. Now let’s not waste any time. There’s love to be made.” She pointed to the two chairs in front of her and they sat down. “So which one of you is first?”

“Me!” they both said at the same time.

The changeling put a hoof on her face. “Lovely.”

“I know!” Pinkie pulled out a bit. “Heads or tails?”

“Heads!” shouted Flam.

“Tails!” yelled Flim.

Pinkie flipped the bit and caught it as it came down. “It’s tails!”

“Darn.” Flam crossed his forelegs and pouted.

“Oh, splendid! So how do we do this?” asked his brother.

“Take these.” Chrysalis handed them both a sheet. “Just fill these out and we’ll do the rest. And no lying.” The two unicorns took them and began filling them out. Chrysalis and Pinkie waited as the stallions kept looking at each other’s paper and whispering to each other. When they were done, Chrysalis collected them. “Alright, Flim, let’s see what it says. Your occupation says you’re both an inventor and a business stallion.”

“Indeed. That contraption of ours back there is something we built with our own hooves.” Flim pointed behind himself. “Just you wait. One day, everypony will be driving around in cars like this all over Equestria.”

Chrysalis stared at the machine. She had no idea what it was, but it still fascinated her. “That’s very impressive. How successful are you two in the business?”

“We are quite decent. We make our own products and sell them to the public. We’ve hit a bit of hard luck since the cider incident, but I think you will help us out of that.”

The former queen knew all about the incident. She had a bad feeling about these two and recalled that Pinkie said she knew who they were, so she had the pony tell her everything that had happened when they last visited Ponyville. “I hope so. I’m putting a lot of investment in you two. Now, for a mare, you want one that is sweet, simple, loving, and understanding. I can easily help you with a mare like that, though it seems a little generic.”

“Just find me the girl and you can bet she will be drooling all over me! You probably won’t even need to lift a hoof when you see my speaking skills. And as for her being generic, sweet and simple is the best. What more would I ever need?”

“Good point. Ponies usually expect too much from their significant other these days.” The false unicorn was glad his ideal mare was easy. However, there was something about his personality that had her worried. “Alright, Pinkie, we got anypony like that who would be interested in him?”

Pinkie put her hoof on her chin and bit her lip, thinking hard. It was half a minute before she suddenly jumped up. “I know a pony! Carrot Top was looking for a pony like that. She said she wanted a handsome stallion who was nice and had a high paying job.”

“Where can I meet Ms. Top?” asked Flim, already interested.

“She’s Ponyville’s carrot farmer and she tends to work at home, so that’s where we’ll probably find her,” answered the party mare. “We can take you to her right now and make you two fall in love!”

“How kind of you. Very well, let’s make somepony’s dream come true!” The brothers and Pinkie went out the door, heading towards the home of Carrot Top.

“Or make her worst nightmare come to life,” Chrysalis quietly muttered as she followed.

Walking through town wasn’t like it was before for Chrysalis. Ever since her recent fame, everypony on the street wanted to meet with her. If she wasn’t so occupied with the brothers, she would have spent time meeting with them and getting the familiar feeling from the time where all of her subjects loved her. After following Pinkie for almost a half hour, the group saw Carrot Top in her backyard, watering her garden. They hid themselves behind some trees and bushes across the street so she wouldn’t notice them. “Well there she is, Flim. Do you like her?” asked the former queen.

Flim looked at her and whistled. “Hubba hubba! That is quite the gal! She and I must be meant to be!”

Chrysalis groaned from his childish response. “Alright, so let’s plan how we’ll get you two together.”

The stallion walked ahead, laughing at her. “No need to worry. I have this all under control.”

“Get back here!” Chrysalis ordered furiously.

“Go get her, Flim!” shouted his brother with support.

Carrot was watering the flowers around her carrot patch while loudly humming. As she worked, she noticed a shadow being cast over her. She looked up to see the cuase, only to find Flim leaning against the fence while eating a carrot. “Eh, what’s up, Top?” the unicorn greeted.

She saw what he was eating and became agitated. “That wouldn’t happen to be from my garden, would it?” she asked in an unfriendly tone.

“It is, and it is the most delicious carrot I have ever tasted. I think you have quite the green hoof.”

“I’d be happy if it weren’t for the fact you stole it,” she snapped.

“My deepest apologies.” He pulled out some bits and gave them to her. “I hope this will cover it.”

“It will.” She continued working on her garden, but noticed that he was still there and staring at her. “Is there something I can help you with?” she asked aggressively.

Flim cleared his throat. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name-”

“I remember who you are,” she interrupted. “You and your brother had that cider machine by Sweet Apple Acres a while back.”

“What an amazing memory you have there. I’m glad to see you remember me.”

“Kind of hard to forget, especially when you almost had my friend Applejack and her family kicked off their land,” she informed sternly.

His confidence began to sway. “All in the spirit of competition, I’m afraid.”

“There was also the fact your cider tasted absolutely awful. Took me days to get the taste out of my mouth and I don’t think I can drink cider again.”

He wiped the sweat off his forehead while maintaining his smile. “That was simply bad luck. All of the cider the ponies had before tasted just as good as theirs, probably even better!” he argued confidently.

She just glared hatefully at him. “So why are you here? Don’t tell me you invented some sort of carrot juicer and want to run me out of business.”

“No, but I will gladly build you one if you want me to, Ms. Top.”

Carrot Top placed her gardening tools on the ground. “Why are you here, you scoundrel?”

“I’m just trying to make conversation,” he answered innocently.

“Okay, why?”

“Well why not?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re up to something, aren’t you?”

Flim gave her a sly grin. “I might be.”

“Well you better give up whatever you are doing. I am not interested in the least.”

“But do you even know what I am doing?”

“Trying to sell another invention?” she guessed.

“No.”

“Trying to drive me off my home?”

“Not at all.”

Carrot Top sighed in absolute annoyance. “I give up. What’s your big plan?”

“Well why would I stop here and continue speaking with a beautiful mare such as yourself?” he hinted.

“Well obviously since you used the word beautiful, you’re trying to…” Carrot Top trailed off and grew a look of disgust on her face. “Oh Celestia no.”

“Oh yes!” he responded happily. “I just happened to notice you and I can’t pull my eyes away. You have a lovely appearance and an angelic voice.”

She felt an overwhelming sensation to puke from the way he was making moves onto her. “And what would make you think I would be interested in a weasel like you?”

“Because I am a stallion that rolls in the bits, kind of like what you are interested in, Ms. Top.”

She picked up her gardening tools as she was done listening to him and just wanted to get back to work. “I would never even…wait. How do you know what kind of stallion I’m in to? And how do you even know my name?”

Flim gulped and tugged on his shirt collar. “Well…I…”

She held the pointed end of her spade in front of his face in a threatening manner. “You have one minute to get as far away from my house as fast as possible before I contact the authorities.” The mare left behind the frightened stallion and went into the house, slamming the door upon entering.

Once she was gone, Flim hung his head in defeat and returned to where the others were waiting. They didn’t hear what was said, but judging from Carrot Top’s exit, they knew it went badly. “What happened, Flim?” asked Flam.

“She was a friend of the Apple Family and she is still upset at us for winning the competition. Also, I might have accidentally left an impression that I am stalking her,” he admitted.

Chrysalis face-hoofed hard enough to make her think that she may have left a print. It was already obvious to her that he did something wrong, but she did not expect it to be this bad. “There’s a reason I came, you moron. You should have let me tell you what to do instead of winging it. At any rate, Carrot Top is a bust because of that impression you left on her. Pinkie, please tell me there’s another pony we can try that may not be mad at them for the whole cider thing.”

Pinkie thought hard. “Maybe we could go see-”

“Ah-ha!”

The four looked at the source of the voice, only to find Carrot Top approaching. “So you are spying on me! I can’t wait to have you and your brother thrown in jail for-” She suddenly gasped and ran through the brothers, knocking both of them over. Her eyes had grown gigantic as she looked in awe at Chrysalis. “Y-y-y-y-you’re C-C-C-Cherub!”

Chrysalis smiled smugly, always enjoying praise no matter who it came from. “Yes I am.”

“You’re a total celebrity! You were the one who got Fancy Pants and Photo Finish together! I’ve read every article they had about you!” She then pulled something out. “C-can I have your autograph?”

“Of course you can.” Carrot handed her the pen and paper, which Chrysalis signed with her fake name. It had been months since Chrysalis received such respect and she was loving every moment of it.

When she returned it to her, the mare squealed in delight. “My friends are going to be so jealous! Cherub was actually near my house and she even spoke to me!” Carrot Top then realized something, causing her to lose her enthusiasm. “Wait, why are you hiding here with those two?”

Chrysalis gulped, caught off guard from her question. “Well, funny story actually…”

Carrot interrupted her by gasping. “You were trying to hook me up with Flim, weren’t you!?”

She had a nervous grin, worried that her reputation was going to take a hit. “Um…maybe?”

Carrot Top turned away from her and approached the brother who lacked facial hair. She studied him for a moment, but then smiled. “So Flim, I believe you called me beautiful?” she said seductively.

The brothers looked at each other as they were very confused by her sudden change in mood, but Flim decided to go with it. “Why yes! I meant it when I said it.”

She giggled in a friendly manner. “How very kind of you. Flim, since Cherub wants you to get with me, I’ve suddenly taken an interest in you, so how about dinner later? Maybe we could get to know each other.”

He jumped at the chance. “Dinner? Sure!”

“Great. Come by at six. I’ll be waiting.” She turned to Chrysalis and shook her hoof rapidly. “Thank you so very much! I promise I won’t let you down!”

Chrysalis forced herself to smile. “Just doing my job. I hope you enjoy your evening, Carrot Top.”

“Oh, I will! Bye, Cherub! Come visit sometime!” Carrot Top trotted away happily back to her home.

The ponies were at first baffled by her sudden change in attitude, but then they were excited as Flim’s mistakes were undone in an instant. “Did you see that? She’s totally into me now!” exclaimed Flim.

“Good work, Flim! You’re going to really knock her socks off tonight!” complemented Flam.

“But she’s not wearing socks,” Pinkie corrected.

“No matter! This date is going to be spectacular! I must thank you for introducing us, Pinkie and Cherub. You two indeed do a good service to the world,” spoke Flim.

“This is great! One down, one to go! What next, Cherub?” asked Pinkie. “Should we find Flam a date now? It could be a double date!”

Chrysalis hesitated before answering. “Let’s go back and prepare Flim for tonight. I want to make sure everything goes perfectly.”

“Sounds good to us! We can discuss our deal while we’re there,” said Flim.

As they began heading back, Chrysalis addressed the love struck brother. “So Flim, doesn’t it seem odd to you that she suddenly found herself interested in you after driving you away?”

“Nope.”

She gave him an expression of defeat. “So you think you’ve won her over by yourself and not by some other reason all together?”

“Are you blind?” asked Flam. “He totally left an impression on her!”

She could feel serious disdain for both the brothers growing inside her. “Oh, he left an impression alright. And you did as well, Flam,” the changeling sneered.

“How so?”

“I’ll tell you in Cupid’s Arrow. It’s something that we can only discuss in private.” She wanted to make sure they were in private for the nasty surprise she had in store for them. There was a problem with them that required her immediate attention and she was going to remedy it at any costs.

After a long walk with the three ponies happily chatting about what was going to happen tonight, they were back at Cupid’s Arrow. Once they entered, Flam asked, “So what’s the big deal, Cherub? Everything turned out as expected, but you seem bothered by something.” Chrysalis turned around and grabbed both of their heads, which she rammed together. The brothers yelped and rubbed their skulls. “What was that for!?”

“You two are IDIOTS!” she shouted furiously.

“How are we idiots? Everything was a success!” Flim pointed out.

“It is for now, but you still have zero chance with her because you are a stupid fool.”

“Zero chance? Clearly you didn’t see how she was all over me. I bet you that tonight I’m going to plant my carrot in her garden, know what I’m saying?” He held out his hoof and Flam high-hoofed it.

She growled loudly, which caused Pinkie to back away. “And why was she doing that? Was it because of something you did or something I did?”

He just rolled his eyes at her. “What’s your point?”

Chrysalis sat at her desk and the stallions sat in front of her. “There is a point to this and I want you both to listen to me. The only reason Carrot Top has even the slightest interest in you is because she found out I was involved and she worships the ground I walk on.”

“So?”

“So I promise you that when she sees the real you, her interest is going to drop like an anchor and you will be back at square one. The fact is that you are completely unlikable and no mare will ever love you for you.”

He just waved a hoof at her, not taking her seriously. “Pfft, you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Let me guess what your big plan is: You’re going to take her out, compliment her a bunch and maybe wow her with some stories about yourself, and then give her dessert in the bedroom.”

His smug expression immediately vanished. “W-well yes, but what’s your point?”

She stared intently at him. “This would be a good plan if you planned on sneaking out in the morning, but you are actually trying to get in a serious relationship and I don’t think you’re ready for one.”

“Of course he is!” jumped in Flam. “Once he swoons her, everything will be golden! For such a great expert, you don’t seem to know what you are talking about. Maybe you wouldn’t be so uptight if you actually had a stallion to give you a good lay once in a while.”

Chrysalis blasted them both with a bolt of magic, knocking them out of the chairs. “Cherub!” yelled Pinkie, surprised by her violent outburst.

The changeling ignored her and walked to where Flim and Flam fell. “You two are hopeless. You don’t win a pony’s heart by just screwing them. You actually need to do much more and commit to it.”

“Well like what exactly?” asked Flim while rubbing his head.

“For starters, you need to talk to them better, since you left an awful impression in less than five minutes. If that’s all you got, your best friend tonight is going to be a sock.”

“For sock puppets?” asked Pinkie.

“Shut up, Pinkie,” Chrysalis snapped, causing her to whimper. “We have plenty of time to educate you two in acting like proper stallions and that is what we’re going to do.”

“But I think we’re charming enough,” argued Flim.

“And as the expert, I say you aren’t. If you really want to get together with her, then we will have to make you into a presentable gentlecolt. You need to provide more than compliments or money if you really care for a lasting relationship. I know you both think I’m overreacting about this, but I need to keep my good reputation when I do business with you two. If you screw up dates and have ponies find out you two are losers who like to play grab-flank with mares and have unlikable personalities or whatever that will cause a public stir like your little cider stunt, not only is your business going to tank, but since I’m now involved with you both, my business might take quite a hit. And if my business suffers, you will suffer.”

They both gulped from her threatening tone and slightly pushed their chairs away. “W-we’re not that bad,” Flam argued weakly.

“Oh yes you are. Pinkie informed me about your previous visit to Ponyville and it is no wonder why Carrot told you to leave her alone. The Apple family is widely known in this town, so many ponies here already know of that stunt you tried to pull. Not only are you both losers in dating, but you are losers in business as well." She brushed the hair that hung in front of her face. "Fortunately for you two, this is where I come in. I can help you both succeed in both worlds. I need you two to succeed as you are both important to helping me expand my business. And before you dismiss me, just remember which one of us is the celebrity who built their business from scratch. I assure you I know exactly what I am talking about.”

While the stallions didn’t like how she was insulting them, they did think she had somewhat of a point.There was also the fact they were scared by her icy tone and did not wish to stay on her bad side, especially after getting blasted. Flim just sighed and waved a hoof. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

Chrysalis smirked at them. “Glad you came around. Since the date is tonight, we shall help you two in learning about succeeding in the dating scene. Business lectures will come later. Pinkie, you work with Flam while I do Flim. Be sure to let me know if you need anything.”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie bounced over to the kitchen with Flam following her.

Flim leaned in towards her with a dirty grin. “Oh, so you’re going to do me, eh?” Chrysalis blasted him immediately, knocking him onto the floor.

“No, just no. Sex jokes need to take a backseat when it comes to serious conversations, especially when you already come off as a pervert. It’s okay to do them when you two are closer, but just leave them out for now.” She she held her hoof out, which he grabbed, and helped him off the floor. “Let’s start with greetings first. I will pretend to be Carrot Top and I want you to take this exercise seriously.”

“Bring it on!”

“Very well.” Chrysalis cleared her throat. “Hello, Flim. It’s nice to see you again.”

“Hiya, babe! You ready for a fun night and the amazing after party?” Chrysalis once again zapped him.

“Wow. First thing that comes out of your mouth and you sound like a total slime ball. Are you even trying, Flim? Out of the many ponies I have encountered in this business, you have to be the most hopeless pony of them all.”

“Well what’s wrong with flirting?” he complained, sore from her assault.

“Nothing. You are just pushing things too far too fast. If the first thing you try to do to a girl is get between her legs with no interest in getting to know them, the relationship is doomed from the start. That’s not love, it’s lust.”

“So what do you think I should do, Ms. Expert?”

She gritted her teeth, but then took a deep breath. “You’re going to have to drop any attempts for sex as you two are practically meeting for the first time and the fact that you are a jerk. If you want some fun, you either wait for her to ask you or you go out on several dates and ask when you know things are going well between you two. Besides, we’re not trying to get you in bed with her. We are trying to develop at least a good friendship with her so it can evolve to something more. Relationships take time and commitment before it can fully bloom. Understand?”

“I suppose I do.”

“Good. Now let’s try again and this time, you will talk to me with respect. Remember: Love, not lust.” Chrysalis cleared her throat. “Hello, Flim. It’s so nice to see you again.”

“Hello, Carrot.” He paused as he thought what he was going to say next. “You look beautiful tonight.”

Chrysalis faked a giggle. “You’re so sweet. Are you ready to go?” She motioned her tail towards him.

Flim slowly wrapped his around hers, worrying that he was going to do something that would result in more pain. “I sure am.”

The changeling pulled her tail away. “Well done. You actually acted like a decent gentlecolt for once.”

“This isn’t too hard.”

“We’ve only done the first fifteen seconds of a date that can take hours. We need to be sure you don’t screw up at all in that period of time.”

“Look, I know you don’t like me, but don’t you think you’re being a little harsh on me?” he complained.

“Maybe, but I have a good reason.” Chrysalis sat at her couch and pointed at the one across from her, which he sat on. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, Flim. You would not believe all of the mistakes I have seen done. An infant could do a better job than some of these ponies. The only reason I am lecturing you is because you were a complete flop with your first impression, much worse than most I’ve seen, and I do not want you to make any more mistakes. Besides, if I can help you here, it will help you in your business since first impressions are the most important. I really need you two to get your acts together. As part of our deal, I am stuck helping both of you until you find love and I want it out of the way as soon as possible.”

“Point taken. I promise I will listen to what you say if you act a little nicer.”

Chrysalis huffed as she pictured Luna telling her something similar some time ago. “Very well. Now, let’s try the restaurant scene. Where would you take her?”

“The most expensive one in town.”

She lightly nodded in agreement. “Not a bad idea, but there’s no need to go all out for a first date. Any fancy restaurant will do just fine.”

“But I don’t know any here.”

“Then you should ask her,” Chrysalis suggested. “That way she will be guaranteed to like wherever you go. Now let’s see what you can talk to her about.”

Meanwhile in the kitchen, the two ponies were going through their own methods of education. “Okay, so you be you while I’ll be a pretty mare!” said Pinkie.

“But I like stallions,” Flam corrected.

“Oh yeah.” Pinkie thought for a moment. She then smiled and grabbed her hair, which she pulled it over her face and pretended it was a beard. “Is that better?” she asked in a gruff voice.

“This is really weird, Pinkie.”

Pinkie lifted a hoof towards his face. “Silence! For this class, you will refer to me as Hunkie Pie!”

Flam tilted his head, mildly disturbed. “Hunkie…Pie?”

“That’s right. I will pretend to be the stallion of your dreams and we will pretend that you want to ask me out on a date.”

He sighed in defeat. “Well as long as it’s only pretend. It might actually be better for you to do this than Ice Queen Cherub.”

“Good! Now let’s pretend we just met and you want to know me better.” Pinkie placed on a monocle and held a pipe which produced bubbles when she blew into it.

“What’s that for?”

“I have to pretend that I’m rich, just like what you want.”

“Oh yeah.”

“Hello,” she said in her deep voice, “I am Hunkie Pie, richest stallion ever. Who you might be, old chap?”

Her rich stallion impression still struck him as odd, but he played along. “Erm…I’m Flam! I just wanted to meet you.”

“And you have. Was there something you needed, dear boy?”

Flam pondered where he was going to go with this. “Well I wanted you to know that you I really like your beard.”

Pinkie began stroking it. “Thank you. I spend a hundred hours a day grooming it.”

“And it looks great. But have you ever been on a mustache ride?”

Pinkie stared at him with a perplexed look on her face. “Cherub?” Pinkie called, immediately sending Flam into a state of fear.

“What?” an annoyed voice called back.

“What’s a mustache ride?”

There was a brief moment of silence. “Just get the you-know-what.”

“If you say so.” Pinkie went back into the main room via bouncing.

Flam scratched his head as she left. “Now what is she up to?” Pinkie returned with something in her mouth. “Pinkie, what exactly is that you have there?”

Pinkie placed it in her hoof, pushed a button, and then touched him with it. Thousands of volts flowed through the unicorn’s body, causing him to fall on the floor while occasionally twitching. Pinkie smiled and looked at Flam, whose hair was sticking straight up. “You look so funny!”

“I-is that a bloody taser!?” he shouted as he quickly crawled backwards away from her.

“Yep! Cherub bought this from Canterlot and she’s used it on many stallions who hit on her. Their hair looks so funny when she does it!”

“That thing hurts like the dickens! Why did you even shock me!?”

“Because you said something wrong and Cherub said I needed to punish you.”

“Can we do this without any pain involved!?” he pleaded.

“Fine.” Pinkie placed it on the counter. “So let’s try again.” Pinkie got her hair around her face. “I spend a hundred hours a day grooming it.”

Flam picked himself up and thought hard about what he should say. “Uh…that’s great. So…what do you do for fun?”

“I like to throw parties for all of my rich friends,” she answered while blowing her pipe.

“That sounds fun and not painful in any way at all. Could I possibly get an invitation to your next one?”

Pinkie nodded at him. “You seem like a fine fellow. Very well, I will have the butler of my butler’s butler send you one in the mail. I look forward to seeing you there.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Pinkie clapped her hooves. “Yay, you did it! That was great!”

Flam sighed with relief. “Good for me.” He went over to the fridge and poured himself a glass of hard cider, not caring that he was stealing from the scary mare. “So are we done yet?”

“Nope! We still have several hours to go.”

Flam threw back his drink. “This is going to be a long day.”

After several hours of lessons and some pain, Celestia’s sun began to set. They all rested in the main room with tea as they wrapped up their lessons and went over what Flim was to do for his date tonight. The Flimflam Brothers managed to get the hang of things and were now acting a lot better than earlier, much to the changeling’s relief. Chrysalis also gave Flim some pointers on selling to ensure that he would be successful in raking up the bits when they started selling her slime, hoping he would consider it.

“I certainly hope we’ve influenced your ways when it comes to romance,” said Chrysalis as she sipped her tea.

Flim drank from his cup. “As much as I hate to admit it, I would think so. I feel like I have a real edge now with Ms. Top or any other mare for that matter. Even worse, I feel like an idiot when I think about earlier today. I’ve even thought about some other girls from my life and it’s no surprise why they never stuck around.”

Chrysalis chuckled to herself, finding amusing it took him this long to figure out what was wrong. “Trust me when I say your chances with her are much higher now. Just stick with everything we’ve taught and you will be just fine. If all goes well, we can get started with your brother tomorrow and maybe even be done by then.”

“I would thank you, but I still feel a little tingly from your shocking,” pointed out Flam as he gave the evil eye to Pinkie.

Chrysalis smirked. “All for the greater good, I’m afraid.”

Once he finished his drink, Flim put his cup down. “You know, I’m a little curious about you, Cherub.”

“Oh?”

“You run this dating service, know so much about love, and are practically a celebrity, and yet you are a single mare who refuses to date anypony.”

The changeling just shrugged. “I just don’t feel ready to settle down yet.”

“Oh, so you’re just waiting for Mr. Right, eh?”

Chrysalis chuckled. “I guess. But until them, I can have any stallion I want,” she said with slight seduction in her tone.

The unicorns took notice of the way she spoke. “You have them often?” questioned Flam.

Chrysalis grew a smile as she recalled previous experiences with several changelings. “Mhm. I often need some time to relieve stress and it’s easy for me to get what I want.”

Flim stood up. “Hey, wait a minute. Why do you make us sound like jerks when we want to seduce somepony and yet you act like it’s completely normal for you to do it?”

The false unicorn chuckled as she lied on the couch on her side. “There are so many differences between you two and I. You two are a bunch of cheats who have yet to contribute to society. When you seduce somepony, you only do it for your own pleasure like a bunch of animals.”

“And what about you?” asked Flam, slightly insulted.

The changeling stretched on the couch as she stared at the ceiling. “When I wish to give myself to a stallion, I admit I do it for fun, but I do a little more. As you can clearly tell, I am something to be desired,” she commented as she slowly rubbed a hoof up and down her body. “I turn quite a bit of heads wherever I go, all entranced by my beauty. As for who I pick, there are so many factors in terms of my decision. Obviously they need to be handsome and charming, but there are other things. If a pony is only interested in my body, I lose my interest in him.”

“I like a guy who takes me seriously. I want them to hear what I say and to appreciate me for who I am. Often I like a guy with confidence and experience as they know exactly what I want and they can give it to me, leaving me almost no work to do. However, I think I love a shy pony more. Some just want to catch a glimpse while maintaining their distance while others make feeble attempts in winning me over and it is just cute to see them fumble. Either way, I usually invite them for a little…spirit lifting.”

“They always blush so much and stutter their words when they find themselves in a bed with me. I just let them lie on their back while I fulfill their deepest desires. Eventually, they grow the courage to take charge and I let them have their fun. I even like to teach them a few of my tricks to keep things interesting. And in the morning after a fun night, it’s as if I’m lying next to a totally new stallion. They are so full of life and confidence, as if I broke the restraints holding them back. Because of me, they feel like they can take on the world. I’m sure they no longer have trouble in wooing any girl that catches their eye after being with a goddess like me. And that, you two, is why I seduce.”

The three ponies stared at her in shock, all speechless from what she said. The only sound that was heard was the quite sipping as the changeling drank her tea, smiling from the sight of their expressions. “I think I need a cold shower,” Flim said suddenly.

Chrysalis laughed at him. “Have I really made you that uncomfortable?”

“Yes. I must wash of this unclean feeling before seeing Carrot Top tonight. You not only fill me with absolute terror, but you also turn me on and I think getting involved with you is a death sentence.”

She couldn’t help but smile evilly at him. “It truly would be. The shower is right upstairs and you are free to use it.”

“Thank you.” Flim ran up the stairs and slammed the door behind him.

Once he was gone, Chrysalis faced the other ponies. “So what about you two? Do I amaze you as well?”

“Um…you certainly have a way with ponies,” complemented a surprised Flam. “I’m sure ponies thank you for your…services."

The changeling smirked at him. “How about you, Pinkie?”

“No comment,” she responded blankly.

“That's a first from you." Chrysalis finished her drink and set the cup on the table. "Anyway, we need to start finding another girl for Flim. No time to fool around.”

Both ponies were immediately confused. “What? But I thought he was going to go out with Carrot Top,” said Pinkie.

She sighed and shook her head. “Yes, but it can’t possibly end well. He’s already left a sour first impression and that really counts in the long run. Besides, he’s probably so confident about himself that he won’t realize it when he makes a mistake. He may act like he knows what he’s doing, but he has yet to apply this knowledge in the field.”

The mustached stallion looked angrily at her. “Are you calling my brother an idiot?”

“That’s not very nice,” informed Pinkie, mildly upset at her.

“I’m sorry, but I am. You saw how he did the first time with Carrot Top. What makes you think he won’t do something like that again? It will be some time before my lessons get thought that thick skull of his. Hopefully you’ll learn from his mistakes and do better when we find you a date, Flam.”

Flam stood up, not willing to have Chrysalis bad mouth his twin. “Oh yeah? Well my brother is far smarter than you give him credit for. I’m so confident in him that I’ll bet fifty bits that he’ll do everything just right!”

Chrysalis laughed mockingly at his offer. “Well I do love things being handed to me for free, so I accept. I should let you know that you are entering a bet you cannot win.”

“Flim is my brother and we stick together like glue. Maybe he isn’t perfect, but he’s my best friend and I will always be on his side. Maybe if you had a sibling, you’d know what it’s like to have somepony you can always depend on.”

That caused something to set off in Chrysalis. Her mood quickly shifted into boiling rage and she slammed her hooves on the table, shouting, “Make it a hundred bits!”

“Fine!” The stallion and the changeling shook on it. “You are going to be in for quite a surprise, Cherub,” said Flam.

“And you are about to learn how siblings are not exactly how you see them,” stated Chrysalis. As they stared each other down, Pinkie just felt sad. She could tell the red unicorn was very upset, but she would have to wait until after the date before trying anything to help cheer her up.

Before taking him to his date, they made a quick stop to the brothers’ motel room. Flim got out his trusty tuxedo and threw it on, trying to look his best for the night. Once he was set, they met up in front of the mare of interest’s house. “Well this is it,” said Flam as he looked at his brother’s destination. “Go and win her over, Flim.”

“We’ll be nearby, so if the night gets really out of hoof, find us and we’ll do our best to help,” advised Chrysalis. “Remember, if things start going to Tartarus, do not attempt to fix it yourself. Leave it to the professionals."

“You got it. Wish me luck!” Flam, Chrysalis, and Pinkie ran into nearby bushes as he knocked on the door. After a minute, the door opened, revealing Carrot Top, who had her hair done and wore earrings along with an orange dress. Flim was stunned by how she looked. “You look so beautiful, Ms. Top,” he complimented in awe.

The mare blushed and giggled from his comment. “Please, just call me Carrot, and thank you. You look quite charming yourself, Flim.” She stepped outside and closed the door to her home. “So where will we be going tonight?”

Flim gulped. “I actually don’t know Ponyville all that well, so I was hoping that you could choose a place. Think of it as a way to make it up to you for how I acted earlier. We’ll go wherever you want and it’s all on me.”

Carrot squealed with excitement. “I know exactly where I want to go!”

While they spoke, the others watched from a safe distance. “Can’t you just feel the magic between them?” Pinkie swooned.

“I can’t feel much of anything since you zapped me,” stated Flam as he checked his pulse.

“At least she’s still talking to him, so that’s a start,” noted Chrysalis.

They saw the couple walking down the street, so they followed them secretly. “You honestly think tonight won’t end well?” Flam asked.

The changeling sighed. “Personally, I hope he pulls through and we can just get this done. I still have high doubts about your brother, but if he does good, I am willing to swallow my pride.”

“Well just you wait. I guarantee he will surprise you.”

“I’m sure he will. Anyway, while we sit around and wait, we should discuss a business contract for our deal.”

Flam nodded. “Quite right. We need to get this all sorted out before we start any selling or consider giving you money for your business.”

“Can I help?” asked Pinkie eagerly.

The changeling just shrugged. “Whatever. You can help, just don’t do anything to upset me.”

“Yay! I get to help! So how about this for a slogan?”

Flim and Carrot strolled through Ponyville while trying to get to know each other. As they spoke, Flim frequently looked behind him to see if the others were keeping up. Eventually, they arrived at a fancy looking restaurant. “Oh I have always wanted to go here,” squealed the mare happily.

From the look of the outside, the stallion could tell the place was very high class. “Looks pretty nice. Very well, let us dine here for our first night out.”

They entered the restaurant and took a look around. The room was dimly lit, with a lit candle placed at the center of every table, which had red cloths on top of each of them. There was some pleasant music being played by a pony at a piano, whose tip jar held quite a high amount of bits. They were seated at a table and given menus. Flim could see how delighted Carrot looked and felt relieved everything was going well so far. He then opened his menu and examined his options. “Whoa!”

“Is everything alright?” asked his date.

He quickly forced a grin. “O-oh yes. Everything is absolute fine. I’m just surprised that they have…that one thing on the menu. It’s my favorite.” What really caught him by surprise were the prices. It was only their first date and the mare had suggested what was probably the most expensive restaurant in town, which was something he originally considered.

“I bet you go to places like this all the time,” said Carrot Top.

He shook his head as he drank his water. “Not really. Flam and I are often traveling and we usually do this sort of thing after we strike a good deal. Can’t really afford to just throw around money.”

“I see. You must be really special for Cherub to be helping you on a weekend.”

“It’s part of our business agreement.”

“Oh?”

“Cherub has this strange jelly that’s very popular here and we will help distribute that wonderful jelly of hers across the country if she helps us. With her recent fame, I bet we can have it sold out in markets across Equestria.”

Carrot giggled. “I absolutely love that stuff. There are rumors that it helps ponies fall in love if you eat enough of it.”

He nodded at her. “I’ve heard that as well, which is why we are so eager to sell it. I am really curious of what she makes the stuff out of to have such a powerful effect.”

“She hasn’t told you?” Carrot asked.

He shook his head. “Nope. It seems to be a part of some super-secret family recipe and she refuses to give, no matter how much we offer. I shouldn’t be surprised she’s that protective of it. It’s delicious and possibly even magical.”

“That’s a shame. I heard Twilight Sparkle tried analyzing the stuff, but she couldn’t figure it out. It’s been driving her nuts for a while.”

He knew who Twilight was as she was Celestia’s student and knew her to be extremely intelligent. “Wow. Now I’m really curious of what she puts in that stuff if even that girl can’t understand it.”

“I think it’s better if we don’t know. It makes it so much more mysterious and fun. Maybe you could use the mystery to sell more of it.”

He smiled at her. “Perhaps we should.” The waiter approached their table and they gave him their orders. Once he left, Flim began remembering some of the things Cherub forced into his mind. Since Carrot Top was a pony he could end up seriously dating, he should get to know her better before proceeding. “So Carrot, tell me about your little business.”

She only shrugged at him. “It’s nothing special. I just grow carrots and sell them. I’m like every other farmer in town, only that I sell carrots.”

“At least you’re cuter than all of them.” Carrot blushed from the compliment. “How about we talk about-”

“Cherub?” she interrupted happily. “You must be so excited to be working for such an interesting mare. I heard she did modeling for Photo Finish once. Do you know if that’s true?”

Flim sighed, not wishing to speak of the mare who enjoyed giving out pain as a method of teaching. “I don’t know. I guess she did.”

“Well it wouldn’t surprise me if it was true. She is so beautiful. I actually went to her welcoming party, you know,” she informed with glee.

“How interesting,” said Flim in an uncaring voice.

“She kind of flipped out at Pinkie, but then later she shook my hoof!” Carrot became giddy and kicked her hind legs. “I should have known how special she was back then!”

He noticed the way she was acting and raised an eyebrow, recalling what Cherub mentioned about why Carrot suddenly wanted to give him a chance. “You seem to be really obsessed with her.”

The mare laughed. “Well who wouldn’t be? I mean, she’s a celebrity right here in Ponyville! And she’s not some stuck up jerk like Filthy Rich or Prince Blueblood.”

It was obvious to him that she didn’t know Cherub as much as she thought she did. “Doesn’t Twilight Sparkle live here? The student of Celestia who saved Equestria like four times already? Shouldn’t you be excited like this over her too?”

“Yes, but she’s kind of…ahem…boring. I really do appreciate everything she has done, but she just loves to read books and she can be a bore to talk to. But Cherub is so much different. She goes out and creates love! Love is what makes the world go round, you know?”

“So I take it you’ve tried her services?” he questioned curiously.

“I tried. So many ponies wanted her after the news came out and I was in a long line. I was supposed to have an appointment with her next week. There’s also her fee, which is incredibly expensive and I had to save up for a while.”

“Why would any sane pony pay for her? Believe me when I say she can be quite scary.”

“Because she is so successful! Almost every pony that goes to her returns with satisfied results. It’s not just a onetime thing, Flim. She finds a pony their soul mate! She and Pinkie are a dream team!”

The waiter came and placed their food on the table. Flim had a salad while Carrot Top had a crab. The unicorn took one bite into his meal and his expression brightened. “This is really good. I wish my brother was here to try this stuff.”

She nodded as she took a bite of the crab. “I know. I’ve always wanted to come here, but being a carrot farmer does not make me rich. I can’t grow them in large amounts like apples and make stuff like apple pies, cider, etcetera.”

“Perhaps I can come up with some of food for ponies to enjoy, or maybe even invent something that will grow more carrots faster.”

“I forgot you two were inventors. What have you made besides the cider thing?”

“A few things here and there. Nothing that really flew off the shelves, I’m afraid.”

“That cider machine might have sold well if you didn’t try swindling the Apple Family,” she informed rather sternly.

The unicorn laughed nervously and tugged on his collar. “True, but the Apple Family in Appleloosa bought three. Of course, they kind of already knew who we were and we had to sell at a much lower price, but it provided us with heavy pockets.”

“So you’re filthy rich?” she asked curiously.

“Well funded is the term I would use. We still need to come up with something to put some serious bits in our hooves. With Cherub’s jelly and celebrity status, I think this might be our lucky break.”

“Well I wish you the best of luck. You don’t seem like the jerk we all saw before and I actually hope you succeed. You seem more like a true gentlecolt now and I thank you for taking me out.” Before Flim could respond, the mare suddenly grinned. “Speaking of Cherub, do you have any idea why she’s still single?”

Flim gave her a deadpan look for switching the topic back to the aggressive mare. “No, I don’t.”

“It’s just so strange to me. I heard rumors that she turns down any stallion that comes on to her. I wonder why that is,” she pondered.

“Maybe she doesn’t swing that way,” Flim joked.

“Maybe. If that were true and I were a lesbian too, I would totally marry her!”

“You don’t say,” said Flim with extreme agitation. “So anyway, tell me about-”

“A funny thing that me and friends have brought up is how Cherub is much more active in creating love than the Princess of Love herself! Can you believe that?”

Flim was stabbing his food with his fork. “Shocking. Can we please-”

“Wouldn’t it be funny if Celestia made her the Princess of Love instead? I think she should if she could get ponies like Fancy Pants and Photo Finish together.”

“It would be a real riot. So let’s talk-”

“And she’s so smart! I mean, I wouldn’t have given you a chance before, but thanks to her, here we enjoying ourselves in this nice little restaurant. She has really affected our lives. Why maybe I should write her a thank you letter and-”

While Carrot continued talking, Flim just tuned her out. It was clear to him what was going on with his date and could not believe Cherub was completely right. Carrot was only interested in him because she was helping, but he had no idea how much of it was true. The earth pony was clearly obsessed enough to worship Cherub like a goddess. The only reason Carrot was here was because Cherub wanted it to happen. He was certain that if Cherub told her to marry him, she would accept without a second thought. The waiter came back and handed him the bill. He was already too annoyed by the mare to let the price bother him. He wondered if there was such a thing as karma and this was his punishment for all of his misdeeds.

For over an hour, Chrysalis and the two ponies discussed their business deal as they waited for Flim and his date to return. So far, they managed to settle on the profit split and how much jelly Chrysalis would supply to the brothers. She could easily make enough with all the love around her, but she would have to drink more liquids to compensate. It would all be worth it in the end with the money she would receive and the business she would expand. They also discussed how they were going to market it and Pinkie proved to be a big help. Since Pinkie knew a lot about ponies, she was able to come up with good advertisement ideas that would surely attract many ponies to the mysterious jelly and Chrysalis wondered if she should use her to help advertise her own business.

“I think that covers just about everything,” said Flam, satisfied. “We can get started whenever you’re ready and bits will just fall into our laps!”

“I can’t wait,” Chrysalis said deviously.

“I’m so happy for you, Ms. Cherub! You’re going to be the most famous matchmaker ever!” exclaimed Pinkie with total excitement.

“It’s hard to think I’d ever get this far ahead, but life is just full of wonders.” She rubbed the top of the pony’s head. “And I will admit, you have been a big help.”

“As soon as Flim is done with his date, I’ll talk everything over with him and we can print out a contract before tomorrow,” informed the stallion.

Pinkie pointed to the distance. “We should ask him now!” Chrysalis and Flam looked to where she was pointing. Leaving the restaurant was Carrot Top and Flim and when they looked at the mare, they could see how happy she was. “Do you see that? Carrot Top is smiling! Their date must have been super fun!"

Chrysalis couldn’t believe her eyes. The mare looked like she had the time of her life, which she was not expecting at all. This pleased her greatly, knowing that she was done with one brother. “I guess he really pulled through after all. I suppose I have lost the wager, but I’m still satisfied since everything has ended in complete success.”

Flam tapped her shoulder and pointed. “I wouldn’t say that.”

Before Chrysalis could ask him what he meant, she noticed Flim, who seemed to be very sour. “What’s wrong with him?”

He shrugged at her. “I don’t know, but we should follow them just in case. I have a bad feeling about this.”

The rest of dinner went exactly as Flim expected. Occasionally, they would start talking about themselves and get to know each other’s interests, but then his date would derail and start gabbing on and on about Cherub, idolizing her. Flim did have some interest in her and wanted to see her more, but he worried that she was only doing this because of the love mare. After a long and uncomfortable walk, Flim and Carrot returned to her house. “Thank you for taking me out. I had such a wonderful time with you, Flim.”

He cleared his throat and spoke in a voice that made it obvious he was troubled by something. “I’m glad you had fun, Carrot. The night was…enjoyable.”

The mare became aware something was wrong. “Are you ok, Flim? You seem upset about something.”

He turned away from her. “Me? I am quite fine. Nothing wrong here at all. Everything is just tip-top.”

Carrot Top slowly approached him, very concerned about him. “Flim? What’s wrong? Talk to me, please.”

He took a pause. “Did you only go out with me because Cherub wanted you to?” he asked in a sad voice.

“What?”

Flim made a sniffle. “It’s true, isn’t it? You thought I was a loser and you suddenly changed your mind when you saw her. You don’t like me at all. All you wanted to talk about was her, not wanting to get to know me.”

“No! I…” Before Carrot could think of what to say, his words slowly sank in. She realized that what he was saying held some truth. She honestly didn’t think that much about him until Cherub appeared and she did recall talking about her a lot tonight. “Oh Flim…”

“I see how it is. You still think I’m a jerk from before and you don’t like me.”

The mare gasped. “No! That’s not true!”

“Yes it is! You still remembered about the cider incident and you didn’t give me a chance earlier today.” He sighed loudly and looked towards the sky. “How long must I carry this burden? I try to be a better stallion, but everypony still sees me as the same old Flim. I’m changed, but you didn’t seem to notice. I guess I have been just getting my hopes up for nothing.” He then started sobbing.

Pinkie was devastated by what she was seeing. After everything they did today, if it was all for nothing. Flim’s night was ruined and he was clearly heartbroken. The sight of everything made the mare cry herself. “This is awful! Carrot didn’t like him very much and now Flim’s sad! We have to do something!”

“No.”

Pinkie gasped and looked up at Chrysalis. “What do you mean no!? Why would you just sit there and let Flim’s heart get broken like that?”

The changeling just smirked as she watched the display being shown from the couple. “Isn’t it obvious?”

The sad mare shook her head and then grabbed her and shook her rapidly. “No! Why are you letting this happen, Cherub!? WHY!?”

The former queen looked at Flam with an amused look on her face. “You want to tell her?”

“Why certainly. You see, Pinkie, what you are witnessing is quality acting.”

Pinkie slowly stopped sobbing. “A-acting?”

“Acting! We do it all the time for our business. Flim’s pretty good to have you fooled since he has years of experience.”

“But why? Why would he pretend to cry?” the pink pony asked in confusion.

“If I were to venture a guess,” began Chrysalis, “it seems he is trying to guilt Carrot Top for ignoring him during their date and get something out of it.”

“It would seem so.” The stallion looked at her. “I’m surprised you could see through him, Cherub."

Chrysalis shrugged with a smile on her face. “What can I say? I have an eye for these things.” The changeling could easily tell he was faking from her natural ability to sense emotions of ponies. Even without her gift, she would have figured it out eventually. If Flim didn’t find himself in tears after being left with Chrysalis for several hours, nothing could break him. “I am ever so curious how he is faking those tears. It is quite convincing.”

“It’s very easy,” Flam answered happily. “You just got to put something in your eyes and make them sting, like that salt he used earlier. We use that trick all the time, whether we’re selling, running charities, or on trial.”

Carrot Top looked up at the stallion. “I’m so sorry for everything, Flim. You were trying so hard to impress me and I didn’t consider it. I was just so enthralled by the fact Cherub was involved that I didn’t even notice you during our date. I feel so awful about everything now. I can see now how different you are and how much of a sensitive gentlecolt you are. You were really trying, Flim, and I made a mess of things. Is there anything I could do to have you forgive me?”

He had to repress the urge to grin, knowing he had her wrapped around his hoof. “Well, there is one way.”

“Name it.”

Flim looked at Carrot Top. “How about some time later, we have a second date and hopefully do things a little better this time. Let’s just talk about ourselves and no pony else.”

She blushed. “After everything I did, you still want to give me a chance?”

“I do. I find you quite interesting and beautiful, so I would love to see more of you.”

The mare nodded at him. “It’s a date.”

Flim put on a smile. “Great! I’m afraid I will be busy for a while, so it might be a while before we will see each other again.”

“Okay. Take care of yourself.”

“You too. Have a good night.” As he turned away, the mare pulled him back.

“I almost forgot.” She leaned in a kissed him passionately on the lips. She pulled away some seconds later. “Goodnight, Flim. See you next time.” The mare then walked into her house and closed the door behind her.

Flim strolled proudly down the street, satisfied with the final results of his date. He heard hoofsteps behind him and saw the three ponies approach him. “Whoa nelly! You really scored on that one!” shouted Flam.

Chrysalis sat down and clapped. “I am not going to lie: you pulled that off amazingly. It was one thing to realize that Carrot Top was no good, but to call her out on it and get a second date with her? You are a real inspiration. Your little act had me at the edge of my seat.”

The stallion couldn’t help but grin. “Well I suppose you deserve some credit, seeing how you set my head straight. It’s hard to believe that we worry so hard about me that in the end, it was Carrot Top who killed the mood.”

“I honestly never expected that, either,” admitted the former queen. “Well, Flim did a good job, but the date was a mess, which I suppose means neither of us win the bet.”

Flam laughed. “It’s strange, but apparently you’re right.”

“Huh? What bet?” asked Flim.

Chrysalis waved a hoof. “Oh, it’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“This is so great! Are we going to find a pony for Flam tomorrow?” Pinkie asked eagerly.

The changeling nodded. “Indeed. I am sure he can handle things as well as his twin did, so there will be nothing to worry about.”

“You bet I can. After Pinkie’s pointers, I feel ready for anything! Well…except sudden shocks,” he muttered.

Chrysalis chuckled evilly at him. “Good. I expect a hundred percent from you.”

“So you just find my brother a pony just as good and our deal will be official!” stated Flim.

“I can’t wait. I am confident we can find you your perfect stallion,” Chrysalis said with cheer in her voice.

“I have faith in you. Flim and I shall discuss our deal and have everything ready tomorrow, so we’ll be going now. Goodbye, you two,” said Flam as he and his brother walked away.

“Bye, guys!” shouted Pinkie as she waved to them. Once they were gone, she walked aside Chrysalis. “You see that? You were totally wrong about Flim, Cherub!”

The changeling nodded. “I suppose I was. For once, I am glad to be wrong. I actually feel that Flam will do just as well tomorrow and we can start selling for some serious profit.” Chrysalis couldn’t help but smile. She was going to be home sooner in the Changeling Kingdom than she thought. Despite worrying about her plans recently, she was just happy with the fact she was going to be home.

“We’re going to have more employees, too! Aren’t you excited?”

“I already have enough headaches,” muttered the changeling to herself. She seriously wondered who in the world she was going to hire and how exactly they could help her. At least they couldn’t possibly be as bothersome as Pinkie, so it shouldn’t be too bad as long as she didn’t try to befriend them.

Pinkie noticed the annoyed look on her face, so she felt nervous. “So…I was wondering if you want to do something fun to celebrate.”

The changeling just looked at her. Chrysalis did feel like going out for some fun, but her mind said no as doing such activities with Pinkie would only add to her problem. “I’m sorry, but I’ll pass. I’m going home and getting beauty sleep.”

Pinkie ran faster to get in front of her. “Aw, come on. We can do whatever you want. Just say the word and we’ll do it.”

“I said no,” the changeling answered, steadily getting irritated by her persistence.

“Pretty please?” she begged. “We don’t hang out anymore.”

“No!” she suddenly snapped.

Pinkie flinched. “Why are you mad at me?” she asked nervously.

“Because you can’t take a hint! I said no, and that’s the way it’s going to be! I don’t want to do anything with you, Pinkie!”

“But…”

“But nothing! I’m going home and that’s that. Do you have a problem with that?” The pony remained silent. “Good!” Chrysalis began heading home, but Pinkie finally spoke.

“Why are you sad?”

Chrysalis stopped and just stood there, surprised by the question. The pony couldn’t have possibly noticed that, could she? “What…what makes you think that I am? I am perfectly fine.”

“No, you’re not. You haven’t been yourself for a while. You hate doing fun things and you’re being really mean again.”

The former queen turned and narrowed her eyes at the party mare. “Why don’t you butt out of my business?” she asked in her most unfriendly voice.

“Because I am your friend and I care about you. Just tell me what’s wrong and we’ll figure out what to do!”

Chrysalis got in her face. “You are a nosey brat! I didn’t ask for your help and I won’t start now! They are my problems and mine alone! If you keep bothering me with your nonsense, I will fire you! Get it?”

Pinkie was stunned by her threat. “G-got it.”

“I’m glad you understand. Now go home and leave me be. And remember, no more of this garbage.” As Chrysalis tried to leave a second time, she heard Pinkie say something quietly.

“I’m sorry…”

She looked at Pinkie, who was walking away with her head hung low. The sight actually made her feel bad for snapping at her and she knew she was going to feel guilty about it all night. “Pinkie,” she called.

The pony looked back. “Yeah?”

Chrysalis sighed and looked away from her. “I apologize for getting angry. I know you have good intentions, but please, just stop worrying about me. I promise I’ll be fine and let us not bring this up again, okay?”

Pinkie sighed. “Okay.”

“And Pinkie?”

“Yeah?”

Chrysalis faintly smiled. “Thank you for watching out for me.”

The pony smiled back at her. “Nighty-night, Cherub.”

“Goodnight, Pinkie. See you tomorrow.” Once Pinkie left, Chrysalis finally made her way home. She truly appreciated Pinkie caring about her, but she knew why she could not accept her help. It was a shame Pinkie would not be so courteous to the real Cherub. She thought that maybe she could play with some mind altering spells, allowing her to both receive advice and retain her secret. She wasn’t sure how Pinkie would help her in taking down Nymph, but she was willing to take any advice at this point. But for tonight, she decided that she was going to prepare a hot bath, light some scented candles, and just unwind for the rest of the night to relieve her stress before her next job.

Mare vs. Machine

Pinkie Pie slowly stirred from her slumber as she was awoken by the birds singing in the house. She found their voices to be much more soothing than her alarm clock back home and wished her marefriend would lend her some, but that would require taking care of them. She wasn’t ready to get up just yet, so she remained on the comfy bed and began thinking. Today, she would help Cherub with Flam and then she would be able to expand her business, allowing her to create more love. Pinkie prayed that this would be enough to bring the unicorn out of her grouchiness. She wondered for a while what brought her back to that in the first place, but maybe she would find out soon if everything went well.

She rolled on her back and stared at the ceiling, thinking about Cherub in general. She recalled talking with Celestia about how she knew so little of her. Why did she hate telling others about herself? She always got angry when Pinkie tried to obtain further details about her since day one. She had never even given the names of her ex-fiancé or her sister. She was actually improving her personality before, but something undid all of the progress and it was her mission to find out what.

Her friends, however, were not that much concerned about her. They have all known her for being unfriendly and it wasn’t too much of a surprise to see her act this way, but Pinkie knew there was more to Cherub. She used to laugh at Pinkie’s jokes, find joy in her or Luna’s company, and even smile in such a happy way. She actually worked hard to ensure that Pinkie ended up winning Fluttershy’s heart, which Pinkie wished to repay her for.

She looked at the empty side of the bed. Things between her and Fluttershy have been great ever since they got together. Pinkie occasionally slept over with her and they would talk, play, and even kiss when her animals were asleep. Their relationship was a powerful one and it was all thanks to Cherub. The pegasus was the only one of her friends who encouraged her to help the matchmaker. Fluttershy was personally afraid of her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t concerned about her. Whenever Pinkie felt down about not being able to make Cherub happy, she could always depend on Fluttershy to make her feel better.

The Element of Laughter sat up and stretched, finally ready to start the day. She got out of the bed and left the bedroom, finding the pegasus in the hallway doing some house work. The shy pony took notice of her and went to her marefriend. “Good morning, Pinkie,” Fluttershy greeted warmly.

Pinkie smiled and kissed her on the lips. “Morning, Flutters. You’re up early.”

“I got up to make you breakfast today. Come down and eat it.”

“Thanks.” Pinkie went downstairs into the kitchen and sat at the table, eager for some food. Fluttershy placed on the table in front of her some waffles and a glass of milk, which Pinkie proceeded to devour. “This is good,” she said through a stuffed mouth.

Fluttershy giggled from the sight of her sloppy eating. “I’m glad you like it. You’re going to need all your strength today and I just want to make sure you’re ready.”

Pinkie swallowed her food. “I’m totally ready! We’re going to help Flam find a special somepony and after that, everything is going to be better! Cherub will be happy and so will Luna once they start talking again!”

“I hope so. How do you think Cherub feels right now?”

The earth pony halted her eating, recalling how furious she had made her the night before. “Fine...”

“Still angry?” she asked worriedly.

Pinkie placed her silverware on the table and let out a defeated sigh. “Angry and sad.”

Fluttershy stood behind her and wrapped her forelegs around her. “What are you going to do, Pinkie?”

“I have everything figured out. We just need to succeed and then everything will be fine! All she wants to do is make Cupid’s Arrow bigger, so that’s what I’m going to do, no matter what.” Pinkie finished and pushed the dish in front of her. “Thanks for breakfast, but I need to get going now. I promise to tell you how it goes when I’m done.”

“Alright then.” The pegasus followed her to the front door and they kissed each other. “Good luck, Pinkie. I know it’s been tough for you, but I know you can do it. You’ve never given up on anypony and I am sure you can help Cherub be happy.” The mare blushed heavily. “I have more faith in you than anypony.”

“Aw, you’re so sweet.” She gave her another kiss. “Bye, Fluttershy! See you later!” Pinkie then skipped her way to Ponyville, having absolute confidence that everything was going to be fine.

As Fluttershy stood by the doorway, one of her hens ran to her and jumped around. “Is something wrong?” The chicken continued to cluck frantically, waving her wings around and motioning towards the henhouse. “You’re missing some eggs? Don’t worry, little hen, I’m sure we’ll find them. I’ll look for them right now.”

The kitchen was filled with the sound of sizzling as Chrysalis poured the yolk onto the frying pan. The day before was thankfully not too difficult for her, though incredibly stressful. All she needed to do was help the other idiot brother and then the money would come rolling in. With that, her business would produce more love faster, she’d be home where she belonged, and then crush Equestria under her hoof.

She wasn’t excited with the idea as much as she used to be. The changelings were apparently now really fond of ponies, so she couldn’t go forward with her invasion scheme unless she could show them Celestia’s true intentions. But even before their new opinions, she still had second thoughts. Luna and Pinkie were certainly likeable and she wasn’t sure she would want to hurt them. But when she overthrew Nymph, what was she going to do? Proceed with the negotiations like her sister was doing? It was pointless and they wouldn’t let her rule again. She had no clue about what she was going to do.

She sat at her table with her breakfast and a glass of hard cider for her drink. She felt she was going to need some alcohol in her system just to get through the day with the thoughts currently plaguing her mind. She at least felt more relaxed from her alone time last night. Once she finished, she just sat at her desk, trying to think about today rather than later on. Soon Pinkie entered and Chrysalis felt slightly relieved for the distraction. “Hi, Ms. Cherub!” the earth pony greeted in her cheerful voice. “Are you excited for today?”

“I suppose,” she answered without much enthusiasm.

Pinkie took her seat without looking away from her. “Something wrong?”

“I’m just feeling a little anxious, that’s all.”

“Don’t worry. Everything will work out. You always know what to do because you’re so smart!”

Chrysalis actually smiled by the compliment. “I am smart, aren’t I?”

“Yep!” She could still see some sadness in her boss. “Is there something else wrong?”

“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Were you thinking about your sister?” the pony guessed.

Chrysalis physically winced. “Kind of.”

Concerned, Pinkie got up and sat in the seat in front of her desk. “Do you want to talk about it? I’m a great listener!”

“No,” muttered the false unicorn as she moved her eyes away. “I thought I made that clear last time.”

Despite her hostile tone, Pinkie still continued her supportive tone. “Well I’ll be here if you need me, Cherub. You can always talk to me about anything.”

“Thanks.” She flinched upon hearing the name. Cherub was a disguise that she had held longer than any other and she worried that if she didn’t figure out what to do soon, the name would be a permanent part of her life. Still, she was somewhat glad Pinkie was around for her, even if she couldn’t really ask for her help. Their time together was spent only in silence. Chrysalis was in no mood to make conversation and Pinkie knew she would not get anywhere from asking. The false unicorn pondered what topics they could talk about during their wait that didn’t involve her, but talking could only strengthen her bond with her. Eventually, they saw the car pull up in front of Cupid’s Arrow. Even though Chrysalis had been waiting for this moment, she was dreading it. “Get ready, Pinkie.”

The door flew open as the twins jumped in, creating quite an entrance like before. “Ta-da!”

“It’s the Flapjack brothers!” Pinkie yelled excitedly.

“That’s Flimflam to you!” corrected Flim.

The changeling just sighed, actually not impressed by them this time. “Hello again, you two. Let’s just get this out of the way and then make some bits.” While they sat in front of her, Chrysalis pulled out a file from her drawer. “Alright Flam, you’re profile is exactly like your brother’s with an exception.”

He happily nodded. “That’s right! I want you to find me a good looking stallion with deep pockets and lots of charm. That shouldn’t be too hard for you, right?”

The matchmaker just stared at him as he reminded her of somepony else. “Have you ever met a unicorn named Rarity?”

He tapped his chin and thought for a few seconds. “Can’t say I have.”

“I’m sure you two will get along fine. Speaking of which, these kinds of ponies are much more common in Canterlot and Rarity is the kind to know a lot about them, so we’re going to have to ask her to see if she knows one we could get you with.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Flim. The brothers stood up and Pinkie ran to the door.

“Follow me! I’ll show you one of my bestest friends!” exclaimed Pinkie happily. The three ponies walked and talked together while Chrysalis dragged behind, weighed down by misery.

They arrived outside Carousel Boutique and Chrysalis knocked on the door. The door opened and Rarity appeared, surprised to see her and Pinkie visiting during a weekend. “Oh. Hello, you two. What can I do for you both today?”

“We need your help.” Chrysalis stepped aside and pointed at the stallions behind her.

Rarity quickly recognized them and gasped. “You two! You almost drove Applejack and her family off Sweet Apple Acres!”

The stallions just smiled at her. “Don’t get upset with us. It’s the nature of business. Plus she won, so I don’t know why you’re angry,” remarked Flim.

Rather than argue, she just looked back at the mare. “Why did you bring them here?” she questioned hostility.

“Stache-face here wants a rich stallion as a coltfriend and I thought this would be more of your field of expertise since you’ve spent quite some time in Canterlot and have plenty of connections,” answered Chrysalis. “If it isn’t too much trouble, could you perhaps help us in finding him true love?”

The seamstress just eyed the two stallions behind them. “I don’t know. I don’t trust him or his brother. They simply reek of trouble.”

“Please, Rarity. We’re doing this in the name of love!” begged Pinkie.

“And money,” her boss added.

The seamstress bit her lip, thinking over what she wanted to do. As much as she wanted to say no to helping Flim and Flam, she did feel that she owed the mare for helping her with Spike. She also noticed that Pinkie had a very desperate look on her face, signaling to her that she needed her help. Knowing Pinkie was trying to help her boss feel better about whatever was troubling her, Rarity decided to lend a hoof. “Very well. As it so happens, I do know a stallion who has been looking for a special somepony for a while, but I’m not sure getting him together with Flam is a wise choice.”

“I’ll handle the situation with delicate care,” Chrysalis reassured. “You have nothing to worry about. I will take the blame for whatever may possibly go wrong.”

“So who is he?” asked Flam with great interest.

“The one and only Hoity Toity!”

Flam became excited, knowing who he was. “Oh boy! A celebrity! You really are a wonder, Cherub! I couldn’t have asked for a better choice!”

Chrysalis was glad she was right about Rarity. Finding a stallion that matched Flam’s desire would have been tricky without her help. However, she had a feeling she was going to need some more assistance from the unicorn. “Would you mind introducing us to him? It would make things much easier for us if Flam was seen as an acquaintance of yours.”

The white unicorn rubbed her head with her hoof, laughing nervously. “I don’t know. I’m awfully busy today and if something goes wrong, I don’t want him to know I was involved. I could lose his business if something goes horribly wrong, which I am expecting from the likes of them.”

Out of complete desperation, Chrysalis got on her knees. She just wanted this done and to move on, no matter what. “Please, Rarity. I need this badly. I promise to make it worth your time if you help. Just help us out.”

Rarity was surprised by how she was pleading to her. Knowing she couldn’t just leave the poor thing, she decided to help. “As it so happens, he is attending a social gathering that is being hosted by Fancy Pants and Photo Finish today. They’ve been doing a lot of those since they became an item and he almost always attends. I can introduce him to you there and you can do what you need to do.”

“Don’t worry, Rarity. He will be so happy when he realizes you helped him get with me” commented Flam.

Rarity stormed past her friends and approached the brothers. “Let me make it clear: If one of you does anything that results in me losing his business, I will dedicate my life in making sure you two never succeed in anything. Do you understand?” the mare threatened.

They both gulped as their bodies stiffened. “I think we do,” whimpered Flim weakly.

“Good.” Rarity turned back to her home and walked inside. “If we’re going to a Canterlot party and meet Hoity Toity, then we’re going to need the proper clothing, so come on in and pick something out.”

Once they were dressed for the event, they headed to the train station to ride their way to Canterlot. When it arrived, the four ponies and the changeling seated themselves on the train. They attracted some attention from how they were dressed and from the fact Chrysalis was there in her form as Cherub. It took a while for her fans to settle down and when they did, the group began to talk. “Oh, he is going to be so thrilled to see you!” exclaimed Rarity with delight to Chrysalis.

Flam ran a hoof through his hair. “I know, right? He can’t possibly resist me and my charm. I’ll be the guy that every guy should know!”

Rarity gave him a deadpan stare. “I was talking about Cherub.”

“Oh.”

Chrysalis barely looked at any of them, focusing her attention to the world outside the train. She wasn’t too thrilled to be going to Canterlot since it was where Luna was as well as where she was defeated, but she would have to do this for her own sake. “Now Flam, just do what we taught you yesterday and we’ll be golden. No lying or acting like a big shot.”

“But I do have to make myself sound like a big shot. He’s a Canterlot elite, you know.”

The changeling just rested her head against the window. “I suppose, just watch what you say at least. So Rarity, tell us everything about Hoity Toity.”

“He is a high class pony in Canterlot with lots of connections and practically runs the entire fashion industry in Equestria,” the white unicorn informed.

“I need to know his interests.”

She only shrugged. “Pretty much anything of high class. He has incredibly high standards and I don’t think I’ve seen him with anypony. I am really curious of how you could possibly get him to like somepony like Flam.”

“I am too,” Chrysalis admitted. “Flam is an inventor, so that has to be worth something.”

“That would depend on what he has invented,” addressed Rarity. “Tell us, what have you two made besides that cider machine?”

Flam thought for a quick moment. “Let’s see, there was the manecut helmet.”

“Always caused injuries,” noted Flim.

“The Hoof-Shiner-4000.”

“Worked a little too well.”

“The Robotic Pool Cleaner.”

“Too many house fires.”

“And there was our short lived brand of My Little Stoney toys.” Flam held up a rock with a happy face drawn on it with marker.

The changeling raised an eyebrow, disbelieving they thought selling something like that would actually work. “What idiot would be stupid enough to ever buy that?” mocked Chrysalis.

Pinkie jumped up and reached for it, fascinated by his face. “Oh, he’s so cute! Can I keep him?”

“Fifteen bits,” offered Flam.

“Deal!” Pinkie paid him and held the rock lovingly when it was given to her. “I’ll name you Woody and love you forever!”

“Figures,” muttered the former queen as she rolled her eyes. “Have you two made anything worthwhile that isn’t completely stupid? You’re not exactly helping your image.”

“Yes, but I’m afraid they’re not as popular as we’d hope. Ponies are often picky of the products they buy,” answered Flam.

“Have you guys ever done something else besides inventing stuff?” questioned Pinkie as she put Woody away.

“The only thing we’ve done was a quartet with our twin cousins, Flip and Flop,” informed the stallion with facial hair. “We could sing so well that Celestia herself would swoon over us had she heard us. Of course, we developed our own interests and parted ways, but our careers often have us crossing paths.”

“What do Flip and Flop do now?” Chrysalis asked, feeling very curious for some reason unknown to herself.

“They’ve taken up careers as lawyers and they’ve bailed us out more times than I can remember,” answered the stallion without a mustache. “They may not be like those Canterlot lawyers, but they help us whenever we need them and that’s good enough for us. If you ever find yourself in a pinch, I suggest hiring them. You won’t be disappointed.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. As for your current job, maybe we could work with that,” said Chrysalis as an idea slowly formed in her head. “What if instead of an invention that makes you famous, you make one that makes Hoity’s life easier? Sort of like those cousins of yours making your lives simpler with all that trouble you probably get into?”

“Like what?” asked Flam as he moved to the edge of his seat, anticipating what she was getting at.

Chrysalis sat up, feeling a little more motivated now that she had an idea. “Rarity said he is pretty much the head of the fashion industry, so he must be in charge of production. Where there’s production, there must be machines. What if you could invent something that could help him make more dresses faster? He probably loves money and will be thrilled when you help him make more of it. We could use that so you two can get to know each other and go from there.”

The stallion grinned. “Sounds like a plan! I gotta say, Cherub, you’ve got bigger brains than Celestia’s student.”

“It really does sound like a brilliant idea. You are a clever mare,” complimented Rarity.

The changeling smiled and waved a hoof. “You’re all too kind. You go ahead and work on that plan while I will be elsewhere at the party as it would be suspicious if I was hanging around. Carrot Top was already enough of a hassle.”

“Don’t worry, you can count on me to make sure it all works out!” exclaimed her employee. “I’ll do my absolute bestest just for you, Ms. Cherub!”

Pinkie’s eagerness to please her annoyed her greatly, but Chrysalis maintained a false smile. “I know you will. Now, Rarity, they’re serving alcohol at this party, right?”

After their train ride and stroll through the streets, the group arrived at a garden right outside the Canterlot palace, where the social gathering was taking place. Chrysalis prayed that Luna or Celestia would not drop by as she was in no mood to deal with either. Upon entering the party, she felt some nostalgia wash over her as memories of her time as royalty filled her thoughts. It had familiar music like she remembered, an artistic theme, and even ponies pleasantly dressed like royalty. It reminded her of her days back home, where she took part in these parties and was the center of every conversation going on in the room. It was a shame that she was with her prey rather than her own kind, but she was sure she could get over that just for today for her own sake. However, there was a familiar face that she did feel very relieved seeing.

The stallion and his company were completely surprised from her appearance. “Cherub, is that you?” asked Fancy Pants in disbelief.

“Surprised to see me?”

He and Photo approached her and shook her hoof. “It’s simply been too long. I was expecting a visit from you with all the news about us and I am glad you are doing well. I see you are here as well, Ms. Rarity.”

“Hello again, Fancy. I know I said I was too busy, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to take one day off to see an old friend. And hello to you, Ms. Finish.”

“Hello, Rarity. I zee you are here with Cherub az well az your friend, Pinkie, but who are zese two?” asked Photo as she pointed at Flim and Flam.

The brothers immediately rushed over and began shaking their hooves. “Salutations, you two! We are the Flimflam brothers!” began Flim.

“World class inventors!” added Flam.

“If you two are world class, zen why haven’t I heard about either of you?” The stallions immediately frowned from the fact she caught them so fast. “Maybe you should work on inventing better lies. Ha! I crack myself up sometimes.”

“We’re just getting there,” Flam muttered while pouting his lip.

Fancy Pants gave a stern look to his lover and then looked back to Chrysalis. “I’m guessing you didn’t drop by just to say hi, Cherub. Knowing you, you’re here on business and these two have something to do with that.”

Chrysalis was surprised by what he said. “How did you know?”

“I know quite a bit about you from Rarity and from our first encounter. If I were to venture a guess, you are here trying to get these two with some special ponies?”

She couldn’t believe how smart this guy was. Maybe it was for the best that he lived out of town, otherwise he might discover who she really was. “Wow, you are good. The truth is that I am trying to get Flam together with Hoity Toity romantically.”

The photographer fell onto the floor in a fit of hysterics. “I did not realize da entertainment would show up so soon! Who should I make a check to? Dis iz high class comedy!”

“Photo, be nice,” scolded Fancy. He looked at the brothers. “Which one of you is Flam?”

“I am,” he answered.

“It’s nice to meet you. You seem like a nice fellow.”

“Why thank you, Mr. Pants. You seem like a nice fellow as well.”

“Please, call me Fancy.”

“Careful. They’re a mischievous bunch,” muttered Rarity quietly to him. “They’ll rob you of you bits before you know it.”

“So where is Hoity right now?” asked Pinkie as she rapidly scanned around the area.

“I zink he is on the other side of the garden,” answered Photo. “Oh how I wish I had my camera for this! I wish to cherish this moment forever. Maybe the tabloid company would pay me millions for such a picture!”

Flam frowned from her taunts, but the blue haired stallion gave him an encouraging nudge. “Chin up, old boy. With Cherub on your side, you are not helpless. I too thought my situation was a complete lost, but she has shown me otherwise. You are very fortunate to have her with you.”

“Yeah! She’s the best! This is totally going to work!” added Pinkie. “It’s not like anything could possibly go wrong this time! She has it all figured out!”

Chrysalis giggled. “You all make me blush. As much as I would love to stay to help, it might be better if my involvement was not made known considering last time. I need to go and mingle for some business opportunities. As for the rest of you, just chat him up and see what you can get started. Come to me if you need anything.” She took a glass of champagne from the table and disappeared into the crowd of the elites as she swung her hips.

Once she was gone, Rarity began walking to where Photo said the stallion was. “Follow me. I will need to introduce you to him if you wish to make a good impression. Remember that if one of you gives him a bad impression of me, you die.”

“We shall accompany as well,” said Fancy Pants. “It would be wrong for me to just stand by and watch as a gentlecolt attempts to win somepony’s heart without providing assistance.”

They went across the garden and found the stallion, standing alone as he sipped his drink. “Yoo-hoo! Mr. Toity!” called Rarity.

The stallion himself looked towards Rarity, happy from her appearance. “Ms. Rarity, how wonderful to see you. I did not realize you would be here. This party is absolutely fabulous and I am glad you decided not to miss it.”

“I just thought that taking a day off would do me so good and maybe give me some inspiration. Besides, when do we ever get to meet up like this?”

His attention was caught by her company and he only recognized three of them, with them being Fancy Pants, Photo Finish, and Pinkie, who he remembered from the fashion show. “And who are these two?”

“These are two acquaintances of hers,” answered Fancy Pants. “Why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourselves?”

Flam was getting cold hooves now that he was actually speaking to him until he noticed Pinkie waving to him. When he looked, she pulled her hair over her face like a beard, giving him the confidence needed. “Greetings, Mr. Toity. My name is Flam and this is my brother, Flim. We are infamous inventors who travel across Equestria, trying to sell our amazing products to the people.”

“I do not think I have heard of either of you,” Hoity said in an uninterested tone.

“That is because we are from out of town and still on the up and up,” he added. “Success is something you can’t simply find overnight.”

“I see. So why are you two here? You don’t exactly strike me as rich folk.”

“Well why not? It’s a fancy party with ponies that are defiantly more interesting than the lower class folks. How could anypony not want to be here, regardless of wealth?”

He smiled from his statement. “Excellent point. These ponies are simply much more preferable than the poorer riff-raff. But tell me, how do you expect to fit in with this crowd if you aren’t even high class like ourselves?”

Flam was eager, ready to make his move. “It’s simple really. One basic rule of acquiring rich success is meeting the right pony. I just need to find one who requires my skill.” he hinted.

“Quite right you are. Hard work is one thing, but connections are really how you get on top. You may have a chance in this world if you have already realized this important detail.”

He laughed. “Thank you. Of course, knowing is one thing while accomplishing it is another. I plan on finding somepony who fits the bill here, and I wonder if he might be you.”

Hoity raised an eyebrow. “And why would you think that?” he asked with heightened interest.

“Because you are a pony who has vision. Your work inspires the lives of everypony in Equestria. Clothing is often seen as just a way from being warm or whatever ponies do with it, but your designs are art that is recognized by the whole nation. Your work can really affect somepony. Take me, for example. You could easily tell I am not a rich stallion by how I look or talk, but thanks to this suit of your brand, nopony else has noticed and I get to have a taste of the high life.”

Rarity was honestly surprised that the unicorn had such a way of words. She even forgot for a moment about what he did back in Ponyville as she was lost by how he spoke. Her boss couldn’t help but smile. “You flatter me, but what could you do for me? Don’t expect me to just randomly throw money away without receiving anything in return.”

“Why it’s simple. Do you use machines for your production?” he asked.

“Why of course. Everypony does.”

“And I am somepony who specializes in machines as well as my brother, as I have mentioned,” he flaunted proudly.

Hoity Toity raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“So perhaps you could use that to your advantage.”

The business stallion finished his drink and set it on a nearby table. “Enlighten me.”

He rubbed his hooves together. “Well I could simply improve your business. You use machines and I build and enhance them. My intellect is one of a kind, besides from my brother, so I could build something that would create clothes within minutes.”

“Minutes? That’s impossible!” he argued.

“Nothing is impossible, Mr. Toity! Technology is the way of the future! If you take me to you factory, I can show you what I am capable of. Don’t think of me as a simpleton because I don’t possess as much wealth as most ponies here. After all, success stories all start somewhere, don’t they? So why don’t we start ours today?”

The rich stallion gave it some thought, but his expression showed uncertainty. “Hoity,” said Fancy Pants, “perhaps you should give him a chance. Rarity and even Cherub surely can vouch for their skills. These two wouldn’t be here if they weren’t worth your time.”

Hoity looked at the seamstress. “Well, Rarity, is he as good as he says? I would like your opinion.”

Rarity forced a smile. “Y-yes. He might be the best inventor I have ever met. You should really see what he is capable of.” She technically wasn’t lying as he and Flim were the only inventors she knew, but she hoped that meant they were good at what they did.

He stared at her and she feared he would know she was lying through her teeth. “It’s totally true!” Pinkie shouted, breaking his focus from Rarity. “One time, they had this big machine that made a whole bunch of apple cider really quick! And look!” She suddenly pulled out Woody from nowhere. “They even sold me this adorable little pet! They totally changed my life!”

The head of the fashion industry leaned towards Flam and whispered, “Did she really spend money on that?”

“Fifteen bits,” he answered, surprising him. “I know a sucker when I see one.”

Hoity Toity thought over what he wanted to do. He looked at the brothers then at Rarity for confirmation. The mare forced another smile and hastily nodded, praying he wouldn’t see through her. After staring at her for several long seconds, he then just smiled. “Well I am convinced. Let’s head out of this party and see what you can do, but you better not be wasting my time, Mr. Flam, or I assure you that you will regret it.”

Flam rapidly shook his hoof. “Thank you so much! I promise you won’t regret this! Of course, I will need Flim to help as we are partners.”

“Yes, yes, of course. I shall take you to my factory and you’ll show me what you can do.”

“I will catch up in a moment, so you two go on ahead,” spoke Flim as his brother and Hoity walked away. Once they were gone, he looked at the other ponies. “Hook, line, and sinker! Got him good in less than ten minutes!”

“That was pretty easy,” said Pinkie happily. “I thought we were going to have another super crazy adventure like we usually do!”

Fancy Pants drank from his glass. “He seemed to have everything handled by himself. I guess you didn’t need Cherub’s help after all,” he complemented.

“Actually, she had been helping us a lot before we came here,” Flim admitted. “It could have been a disaster if she didn’t help set us straight. She truly is a miracle worker.”

“And she haz sadly succeeded and now I am bored,” addressed Photo before drinking her champagne. “Life iz cruel.”

Pinkie started bouncing towards the main area. “We better let Cherub know how great it went. She’s going to be so proud of me!” The ponies found the changeling speaking in front of a crowd and she was the highlight of the party. She appeared to have been telling some story that had grasped the attention of everypony around her. Once she was finished and the crowd applauded her, Pinkie tapped on her back and she turned to look at them.

Knowing what it was about, she looked back at the other party attenders. “Well it has been fun, but duty calls,” she said to the crowd. Once the other ponies left, she turned towards her company. “I hope everything is going well.”

The party mare rapidly nodded. “It was a success! Flam is with Hoity Toity right now and he’s going to build him something good and they’ll totally get together!”

“I’m glad to see it was all so simple.” Chrysalis sipped from her glass of champagne. “I guess that means we are done?” she asked Flim. “I would love to get started on our deal today.”

The inventor shook his head. “Not exactly. They haven’t done anything romantic yet and it might be until tomorrow for us to get results since building something takes time, so try not to leave town.”

The false unicorn frowned and her eyes became unfriendly. “Tomorrow? I have to stay here for the night? Can’t I just go home and you give me an update later?”

He nervously backed away, waiting for another explosion of fury. “I’m sorry, but we need you here in case something goes wrong. We have faith in you for bailing us out of any mess we may come across.”

She stared coldly at him. “And where do you expect me to sleep, on the street? I don’t exactly have that much bits on me, you know.” She loudly groaned. “I should have known something like this would happen.”

Pinkie jumped at the chance. “I know where we can go! Let’s go to the palace and see Lu-” Chrysalis put a hoof on her mouth without looking at her, clearly not happy with her idea.

“Like I said, nowhere to go.”

“I can help you,” said Fancy Pants as he approached them. “I own a few hotels here and I can manage to spare you a room since you helped me out before. Would that be acceptable?”

Chrysalis’s mood switch was flipped and she was smiling again. “How very kind of you. I will gladly accept your offer, Fancy. Until then, I want to stay here and speak more with these ponies. The day is young and I am simply having fun for once.”

The party lasted until sunset and Chrysalis managed to tell many of the elites about her business in hopes it would bring in more ponies in the future. Speaking to so many important individuals while being the center of attention gave her nostalgia of home and she couldn’t wait to be finished with Flam, where her plan to redeem herself and go home would move forward. She was certainly glad Luna or Celestia decided not to suddenly drop by as it was the last thing she needed. More than likely word would reach their ears of her visit, so she wanted to get far away from the palace. Since it was time to retire, she took up Fancy Pants’s offer for getting a room at a hotel. In secret, Pinkie told Rarity to go to the palace and give Luna an update about Cherub since her plan to have them meet failed.

The stallion lead Chrysalis and Pinkie to a hotel that reminded the former queen of where she stayed for the first few months of her exile and hoped it was just as good. “Well here we are,” he said. “I hope you find it to your liking.”

She scanned her eyes across the lobby, remembering her long stay in Celestial Suite. “Very nice place. I can’t believe you actually own it.”

“All it takes is some wit and charm, and he has got plenty of that.” Photo kissed his cheek.

“Thank you, dear.” He held up a key to the unicorn, which she took. “Here is the key to your room. It is up on the third floor.”

She shook his hoof in thanks. “Thank you once again for doing this, Fancy. You are so very kind and it is been a pleasure seeing you both again.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed our company. Hopefully you will consider visiting us more often. Until then, have a goodnight, you two,” said Photo as she left with her lover.

“Bye, guys!” shouted Pinkie as she waved at them. She followed Chrysalis across the lobby, where they rode up the elevator and traversed the hallway in order to find their room.

“Okay, Pinkie, since we are sharing a room for the night, I expect you to act on your best behavior. I simply wish to relax and get some sleep while we are here and not deal with your usual annoyances. The rules are use your inside voice, no jumping on the bed, only I get to call for room service, and I will use the bath first. If you do anything else that annoys me, I will make more rules that will make you miserable.”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Chrysalis found their room and opened it with the key she got from Fancy Pants. Upon opening the door, Pinkie ran in and began examining everything. “Wow! Look how nice it is! The carpet’s all soft, you can see Canterlot below, and it comes with free chocolate on the pillows!” She looked in the bathroom. “Even the toilet looks fancy! And look how big the tub is!” She re-entered the main room. “This place is great! Aren’t you excited, Cherub?” Chrysalis was silent as she was looking at something. “What?”

“There’s only one bed.”

When Pinkie re-examined their room, she realized that she was right. “Well we can share it!”

Chrysalis loudly sighed as she walked in and went to the closet. She stripped herself of the dress she borrowed from Rarity and stored it away. Afterwards, she threw herself on the bed. “That’s what I’m annoyed about. I will complain to Fancy Pants about this the next time I see him. I need my personal space when I sleep.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t take much up at all. I share a bed with my friends all the time!” Pinkie laid on the edge of the double bed. “So what should we do tonight? Play cards? Eye spy? Make overs? Ghost stories? Toast stories?”

“Go to bed,” the matchmaker replied as she got up.

Pinkie laughed as she rolled around the large bed. “That’s boring. We should do something fun! Wanna jump on the bed?”

“Do that and you’ll be jumping out the window.” Chrysalis went over to the radio and turned it on. She shuffled around the channels until she found one that played music similar to what they heard at the party. She turned up the volume and went to the bathroom to get the water running.

“Oh come on. I want to listen to something else!” complained her employee. “We’ve been hearing that stuff all day and I’m kind of tired of listening to it!”

“I am the adult and what I want goes. You’ll just have to live with it.” After a few minutes, Chrysalis turned off the water and closed the bathroom door. Pinkie could hear the movement of water and a relieved sigh as Chrysalis submerged herself in the tub. With her out of the room, it was time for fun. Pinkie got on the bed and started jumping on it. She quietly giggled to herself as she went up and down on the mattress. “Pinkie, get off the bed!” Chrysalis’s voice shouted at her. Pinkie stopped and got back on the floor. She tried to think of what else she wanted to do and then she looked back at the radio. She was tired of listening to fancy Canterlot music and wanted to listen to something fun. Pinkie turned down the volume and changed to her favorite station.

While listening to some quiet rock music, she heard a loud splash from the bathroom. The bathroom door flew open and a wet, naked, and very angry Cherub stood before her. “Turn it back NOW!” Pinkie quickly switched it back to what Chrysalis was listening to. When Chrysalis went back in, the pink pony didn’t move from her spot, realizing that her boss made this room a no-fun zone.

After about half an hour, both of them were ready to go to bed. Chrysalis took the side closest to the window so she could get a look at the moon and stars while Pinkie took the other side and tucked herself in. “Goodnight, Cherub.”

“Goodnight.” Chrysalis turned off the lamp and tried to sleep. However, her mind was buzzing with her problems. She tried to think of something happier, but she didn’t know what. Her life wasn’t exactly in its prime for the past few months. She was always around these wretched ponies and had to unwillingly pretend she was one of them while Nymph made a mess of things with her own species.

“Hey, Cherub?”

And to make it all worse, Pinkie was still awake. “Yes?” she groaned.

“Why didn’t you want to go see Luna? She has plenty of rooms in her home.”

That was a question that made the changeling cringe in frustration. She was also not too fond of the hotel room as she was sharing it with Pinkie, but it was better than having a private room in the palace. Other than dealing with Luna, the sight of her and Celestia being so friendly with each other would make her heart ache, remembering when a certain someone took their friendship and stomped all over it. “That’s none of your business. Go to sleep.”

“Why not? I just want to know what’s going on with you.”

“Nothing,” the false unicorn snapped.

Pinkie turned towards her. “Did you two get in a fight?”

“No.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

The changeling sat up and looked down at her bunkmate. “Pinkie, I am trying to get some sleep, so please stop asking your stupid questions and leave me in peace.”

“Okay.” Pinkie pulled the blanket over herself and faced away from her. Satisfied, Chrysalis got back down and closed her eyes until she heard, “Cherub?”

The former queen’s eyes shot open and she was most certainly not pleased. If Pinkie didn’t stop soon, she’d be sleeping in the hall. “What now?”

Pinkie became nervous from her hostile tone. “Are you going to feel better when Cupid’s Arrow is bigger?”

Chrysalis rolled onto her back and looked at the ceiling. This question actually made her think of things. “I hope so, Pinkie. I really do.”

“And what if it doesn’t?”

The changeling wondered that as well. What if this changed nothing? What if her long scheme ultimately failed? What was going to happen to her or her subjects? If she didn’t figure out a concrete plan, her species was doomed. “I…don’t know. We’ll worry about that later. Now let’s get some sleep.” The changeling princess rested on her side and tried to escape into the land of slumber once more. However, Pinkie’s questions had softened her up and she decided to ask something that was on her mind and assumed she wouldn’t be able to sleep unless she gained some clarity. “Pinkie?”

“Yeah?”

Chrysalis hesitated for a moment, pondering over if she wanted to really ask Pinkie this. “Do you believe in destiny?”

The pony happily nodded. “Yep! Me and my friends are the Elements of Harmony that beat Nightmare Moon, just like what Twilight’s book said.”

“Right.” There was another pause between the two. “Do you believe that somepony can have a destiny where they only fail?”

This caught Pinkie’s attention and she sat up. “What?”

Chrysalis looked towards the window and wrapped herself with her forelegs. “A life where no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you want to help people you care about, you only find yourself kicked down over and over again, being remembered and mocked as somepony worthless.”

The mare gasped and quickly shook her head. “No! That’s super horrible!”

“Maybe it is, but that doesn’t stop it from happening. There’s always suffering in the world.”

“Cherub, no pony is meant to be miserable. Sure it gets tough at times, but you can never give up. You just got to keep trying,” she said encouragingly.

“It feels like I’m going nowhere,” she admitted gloomily.

“You are going somewhere. We’re making Cupid’s Arrow better so that we can make more ponies fall in love, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So you just need to keep going. I know it will be hard, but don’t give up, Cherub,” the mare insisted in her most upbeat voice. “I believe in you.”

“Thanks.” They both laid in silence until Chrysalis spoke once again. “Pinkie?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think destiny can be stolen from you?”

“Stolen? I don’t think so.”

Chrysalis sighed, expecting that as her answer. “Alright.”

Pinkie stared curiously at the back of Chrysalis’s head. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” That was the end of their conversation for the night. Chrysalis once more attempted to sleep, but she still found difficulty in doing so. She wondered if Luna cursed her to remain awake, which Chrysalis assumed she could do since she ruled over the sleeping ponies. But after some effort, she was finally out.

Daylight broke through the window of the room where the pony and changeling were sleeping and Pinkie was awoken by the sound of somepony knocking on their door. She slowly got out of bed, yawning as she stretched her limbs. She looked over at Chrysalis, who was still sound asleep, much to her relief. The red unicorn was almost unbearable the night before, so the longer she was asleep, the better. The knocking came again, louder. Pinkie went to open the door, finding the brothers standing there. “Hi, guys! How did it go?” she asked excitedly.

Both stallions wore very nervous smiles, which she didn’t notice. “Well…good news and bad news,” answered Flim.

“The good news is Hoity Toity was very pleased with what I gave him and I think I really have a chance now of winning him over,” spoke Flam. “I can definitely say that this situation…didn’t turn out like I expected.”

Pinkie gasped and began bouncing in place. “That’s great! I knew you could do it! So what’s the bad news?”

They stood away from each other, showing what was behind them. “Help…” whimpered the stallion with facial hair.

Pinkie’s eyes were wide from the sight and she gulped. She slowly stepped back and looked at her boss. “Uh…Cherub?” she called with a shaky voice. No response. “Cherub?”

“What, Pinkie?” an annoyed and tired voice answered. “I need my beauty sleep.”

“There’s something you need to see.”

She could hear Chrysalis groan. “I’ll do it later. I want to just keep lying on this nice bed.”

“It can’t wait.”

Chrysalis growled and forced herself out of bed. She rubbed her eyes tiredly as she went up to Pinkie. “Pinkie, what is so important that you had to…” She was suddenly not tired anymore when she saw the angry mob standing behind Flim and Flam. “Uh…can I help you?”

Rarity appeared from the crowd. “Cherub, have you heard what has happened?”

Chrysalis stretched herself as she yawned loudly. “Obviously not. I’ve been here all night and you’ve just woke me up.”

She looked at the unicorn brothers. “You know how these two invented some machines to help Hoity with his business?”

“Which was her idea!” quickly shouted Flim as he pointed at the changeling.

Chrysalis had a bad feeling of where this was going. “Yeah? Did they work?”

“Well…they worked too well,” Flim admitted.

She tilted her head. “Too well? How is that even possible?”

A mare from the crowd stepped forward. “Mr. Toity fired us all to replace us with their stupid machines!”

Pinkie and Chrysalis gasped loudly. “Oh my gosh! That’s awful!” cried the earth pony.

Chrysalis put together that these other ponies were employees of Hoity that were recently laid off and they were taking their rage out on the two stallions. “He did?” she asked in disbelief.

“Yes, and it’s these two ponies’ fault!” said a stallion. The mob started yelling in agreement as two buffer stallions held the brothers. “You’re going to pay for costing us our jobs!”

“But we told you it was Cherub’s idea!” shouted a panicked Flam.

The former queen whistled over them, which silenced them. “Look, I know you all are royally ticked at them for the right reasons, but I need them alive. They still need to make me some money.”

“Well you better convince Mr. Toity to rehire them, otherwise I don’t know what they’ll do,” spoke Rarity worriedly. “They’re quiet testy.”

“Can’t you talk to him?” asked the changeling. “I thought he was your friend.”

“I tried! He won’t give them up since his production rates are higher and he doesn’t need to pay anypony. He’s not listening to reason. The only reason he still needs me is because I create new designs, which thankfully their machines can’t do,” she answered while glaring at the brothers.

“Fantastic,” groaned Chrysalis. Somehow, her brilliance led the two into danger and she had no choice but to bail them out, otherwise all of this hard work would have been for nothing. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do, but I want Flam to come with me since I have not personally met Hoity Toity.”

“We will release him,” said one of the mares, “but know this, Cherub. If you can’t get us our jobs back, we will go to every newspaper there is and have everypony know this was all your fault.” The mob all muttered in agreement. “You will be shunned wherever you go and no pony will even look at you, making it as if you are a pony who doesn’t exist.”

Chrysalis gulped, knowing that they were serious. If she couldn’t solve this problem, her reputation as well as her business would tank and she could kiss her hopes of going home goodbye. “I won’t let you down.” The ponies released Flam and he scrambled over to her. “Come on, lover boy. We better fix this quick before they lose their patience.”

“Can I come too?” asked Pinkie. “I want to help!”

The false unicorn was already in a very sour mood and did not need that child making things worse. “No. Stay here and make sure Flim doesn’t die while I’m gone.” She exited into one of the elevators with one of the brothers following her.

The brother who remained gulped nervously. “Maybe this deal with Cherub wasn’t such a good idea after all.”

Chrysalis was just about ready to rip somepony’s head off. Not only was she ticked by her current problem, but she just felt incredibly cranky. She was tired, didn’t get her coffee, hadn’t eaten any physical food in some time, and she didn’t have time to put on any make-up. Her expression was a signal to the other ponies on the street that she was in absolutely no mood for conversation. Flam took Chrysalis to where they had met up with Hoity Toity after leaving the party the day before. It was a large factory that specialized in making clothes with sewing machines and conveyer belts. Upon entering, something immediately caught her eye. There were machines along the assembly line that looked like ponies with sewing machines attached to them and several other mechanical appendages. “Flam…what in Equestria are those hideous things?” she asked in horror.

“These are the machines we made for him. I’d say they’re one of our best works if it weren’t for the fact they might get us killed.” They watch some spools of thread and buttons came down one line. The machines picked them up and began designing a dress. Within a few seconds, part of a dress was made and was passed down to the next mechanical pony. After a few minutes of being passed from one machine to the next, a completed dress reached the end and was picked up by a hanger, being placed with the others that hung near the wall.

Chrysalis realized that all of these dresses that normally took a very long time to make were being finished in less than ten minutes. “I must say they are impressive, despite being creepy. It’s no wonder he fired all those ponies. Speaking of which, why do they look like ponies?”

“It gives them a friendlier look when they look like a pony rather than a machine.”

The red pony shuttered. “I find it unsettling. Anyway, let’s go see Hoity and be done with this. I want to go home.”

“Just show him some of the charm you showed us before and I’m sure he’ll do whatever you want.” The changeling actually smiled at his joke. Mind control would have been the easiest solution, but Flam was with her and her control could only last so long without her around. Short Sale was easy as she would have filed the paperwork away and would not have a reason to look at them as she would be distracted by other sales. Flam and Chrysalis went up the stairs in the back. In the middle of the hallway they entered were two large double doors with H on one and T on the other, which Flam knocked on. “Mr. Toity? It’s Flam. Can I come in please?”

“Yes, of course,” answered his voice from the other side.

They entered the office and saw him sitting at his large desk, which was covered with bags of bits. Chrysalis guessed that right after he fired his workers, he ran to the bank to cash in their checks and grab a bunch of bits for that rich feeling. “Hello, Flam. It’s so very good to see you. And Ms. Cherub, this is a pleasant surprise. Are you interested in buying a dress? Mine are of the absolute highest quality in all the land.”

When Chrysalis was the queen of the Changeling Kingdom, one of her largest priorities was to find her people jobs. Seeing this rich elitist throwing out workers to increase his already massive amount of money made her insides flare. Once she suppressed the urge to murder him on the spot, she began to work. “Mr. Toity, did you just fire all of your workers for some creepy machines?” Chrysalis asked in her harshest tone.

“Did you see all the robots Flam built for me?” he asked as he spun a coin on her desk.

“Yeah, and your former workers are not too pleased,” she snapped

“If you already knew I fired them, then why did you ask such a pointless question?” he asked, only to laugh mockingly afterwards.

The changeling was glaring from his smug attitude. “You little leech. Those ponies need jobs and you cast them out just so you could fatten your own wallet!”

“And? Isn’t that what business is all about?”

She stood on her hind legs and planted her hooves on his desk while leaning towards him. “I thought I could be heartless, but you disgust me.”

“Say what you will. It changes nothing. My brand will be number one in Equestria and I will create a legacy with all this wealth. I could probably retire in a few months, but how could I give up all of this money I’m making?”

“Why would you need even more bits? Aren’t you already loaded?” the false unicorn asked harshly.

“I am, but more bits couldn’t hurt,” he replied as he placed another bag on his desk.

“It could hurt the economy when more bits are going to one greedy pony. Not to mention those ponies you laid off, seeing how they aren’t going to make money with no work,” she spat.

He laughed once more, pushing Chrysalis towards the edge. “The world is filled with many job opportunities, so they should just look instead of complaining. Now I have had enough of this. Flam, would you be a dear and show her the door?”

“I’m not going anywhere, you little-”

“Ahem!” interrupted Flam. “I’m sorry, but you must be going, Cherub. Hoity is a busy stallion and cannot be distracted by the likes of you.”

He picked her up and carried her out while she was flailing like mad. “Put me down! You are not worthy of touching me! I’m not finished with him!” Flam took her down the hallway where Chrysalis finally broke free. She charged the stallion and pinned him against the wall. “Flam, what in the buck are you doing!?”

“Keep your voice down!” he pleaded. “We can’t let him hear us!”

Chrysalis released him from her grasp. “Why not? Why do you care of what he thinks?”

“Because…you know.”

After some seconds, the changeling got what he was implying. “You’re demented. How could you possibly like the guy after this?”

He smiled and waved a hoof. “Hey, this is just a phase. Before this, he was all cool and charming and we really hit it off. We got pretty chatty last night and he said he wanted to keep me around because how successful everything is right now. We were really making a connection! Trust me, Cherub, with his business and my genius, we go great together. We’re like peanut butter and jelly!” he said as he clapped his hooves together and looked towards the sky.

“I was thinking more orange juice and toothpaste,” she stated crossly.

He frowned at her. “I just want to keep a good impression and trust me when I say you yelling at him won’t change his mind. He’s really into those things and we’ll have to take a different approach.”

Chrysalis just covered her face with her hoof. “Lovely. Just bucking lovely. Alright, we’ll head back and try to come up with a new plan.”

When they returned to the work area, they saw somepony looking at one of the machines. “Hi, Mr. Robot! How are you doing today?” No response. “Do you only speak robot? I can do that too! Beep beep boop beep.”

“Pinkie, what are you doing here!? I thought I told you to stay with Flim!”

She at last took notice of them. “Hi, Ms. Cherub! They said they promised not to hurt Flim, so I wanted to come and see the robots! They’re so cool!”

“They’re not actually robots. They’re just lifeless machines that look like ponies,” corrected Flam.

“Really? So they don’t talk or anything? That’s boring. They should walk and talk and even dance!” Pinkie started dancing around them, only amusing the stallion.

“I would have a heart attack if they did something like that,” said Chrysalis as she stared hatefully at one.

“Why? It would be so amazing!”

The changeling rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Let’s get out of here. I think we’ve done all that we can here for now.” They left from the factory and Chrysalis felt relieved to be away from those things and around living beings, even if they were ponies.

“So how did it go? Is he going to rehire everypony?” Pinkie asked with hope in her voice.

“No. The stubborn jerk refuses to budge.”

The party mare gasped. “That’s awful! Why would he do such a thing?”

“Because he is very greedy and very stupid.” Chrysalis shot a glare at Flam. “I can’t believe you actually like the guy. He makes me look like a saint in comparison.”

“Well no pony’s perfect, but I will admit this is seriously troubling. I think he’s just blinded by bits right now and is being irrational. He was quite charming before we finished making those things.”

“We have to put a stop to it. It’s great he has taken a lot of interest in you, but those ponies aren’t going to show you and Flim any mercy if we can’t get their jobs back,” she reminded.

“So what’s our next move?” asked the stallion nervously, remembering the ruthless mob.

“We’ll head back and give them an update on the situation and hope they understand. After that, I’ll see if I can come up with something.”

They returned to Chrysalis’s hotel room, where Rarity, Flim, and some of the workers waited. When they saw them enter, they all immediately stood. “So how did it go?” Rarity asked immediately.

Chrysalis scoffed and got on her bed. “How do you think it went? That snob doesn’t give two shakes about his workers. He wants to keep the stupid things.”

“Well we’re going to fix that!” Two large stallions grabbed the brothers. “After we break the machines, let’s break their legs and horns so they don’t make any more!” The mob cheered and the brothers desperately struggled.

“STOP!” They quieted down and looked at the changeling. “I can probably get your jobs back; just give me some time to think of a plan. We do not need to resort to violence, even though it is very tempting.”

“Well you better come up with something, otherwise it’s going to take a machine to put them back together,” a pony threatened as he stared at Flim and Flam.

Chrysalis nodded. “Rarity, please ensure these ponies don’t do something drastic while I’m gone.”

“I’ll do my best, Cherub,” she answered as Chrysalis headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” asked Pinkie.

“Somewhere I can think in peace,” she answered without looking back.

“Can I come?” asked the mare.

“I do better by myself.”

Before Chrysalis was out of the room, she felt the pony clinging to her hind leg. “Please? You know how helpful I am! Let me help.”

The false unicorn turned around and locked eyes with her. “I have no use for your childish ideas.” When the mare got the message and released her, Chrysalis left the room, leaving behind a disappointed Pinkie.

Chrysalis sat at the hotel bar, drinking scotch on the rocks as she thought everything over. Nothing was ever simple for her. Why did she ever agree to a stupid deal with them? She should have just used her magic to control Flim and Flam, but it would have only lasted for so long. Despite her technically completing her side of the bargain, she still had a problem with the laid off workers. She simply could not think of a way to remedy the situation and just wanted to drink it all away. Her life in exile felt like one long nightmare and she just wanted to wake up. It wasn’t even her fault this happened. In reality, every little problem she encountered while living as Cherub was because of Nymph. The stupid girl just couldn’t accept what was meant to be and played dirty and Chrysalis intended to make her suffer even more than before for putting her in this position.

“Ah, there you are, Cherub.” Fancy Pants approached her and was accompanied by Photo Finish. “How was your night? Did you sleep well?”

Chrysalis only grunted at them. “What is da matter with you?” asked the earth pony.

“Mind your own business.” She then finished her glass and ordered another round.

Fancy raised an eyebrow. “Come now, Cherub. Surely talking to us in better than bottling up your troubles. It’s not like we can make things worse.”

The changeling took a sip and looked at her glass. “Hoity Toity got Flam to invent him some machines to increase dress production, but then he laid off all his workers because they work so well and will make more money.”

Both of the ponies gasped. “I don’t believe dis! He has some nerve!” Photo Finish turned around. “I vill go down there myself and convince him otherwise by shoving my hoof up his caboose!” When she tried to leave, her lover pulled her tail and brought her back, shaking his head in disapproval.

“Now they and Rarity are mad at me since it was sort of my idea and I need to think of something to fix this, but I don’t know what. Hoity loves those stupid machines and refuses to give them up, so the ponies are going to tear Flim and Flam a new one and my deal with them will go down the toilet as well as my business.” Chrysalis planted her head on the counter. “I am screwed.”

“Perhaps you are approaching this the wrong way,” the stallion suggested.

“How’s that?”

“You are trying to handle this entire problem alone,” he answered.

“What’s your point?” the changeling snarled.

He put a hoof on her shoulder and lifted her up so she sat upright on her stool. “Why don’t you have Pinkie help you create a plan? Isn’t she your partner? And from what I have heard from Rarity, she has a very unique imagination.”

Chrysalis scoffed at the thought of calling that mare her ‘partner'. It was as ridiculous as calling her a friend. “I don’t need her. I am better than that little headache.”

“And that’s why you are here, drinking in a bar during daytime.” He moved the glass away from her. “Something I have learned is that sometimes you have to swallow your pride and ask for help when you know you need it. Take me for example. I tried to win Photo back by myself with no success, but when I received your aid, look how it all turned out.”

Even though she knew he had a point, she looked away. “I am a strong mare. I don’t need help.”

“Oh but you do,” said Photo. “Your problem iz dat you are trying to carry all of your burdens alone, so it strainz you as time passes. Just go and ask her for help. Stop being stuck up like I waz. You want this over with, don’t you?”

The changeling absolutely did not want to ask Pinkie for help as she was trying to destroy her bond with her, but she was drowning and Pinkie may be the only one who could save her. “I…I don’t know.”

“You must, Cherub,” urged the photographer. “Nothing bad will happen if you do. After all, isn’t it better than getting drunk, which would make it even harder to think of something clever?” Chrysalis said nothing. “We would love to stay longer and help,” spoke Fancy Pants, “but we must catch the next train to Boltimare. Goodbye, Cherub, and good luck.”

“Goodbye, and please consider our advice. You have helped us and we just want to help you,” said Photo as she walked away with her lover.

Chrysalis just stared at the counter in front of her. She hated to admit it, but they were right. She could find nothing in her genius to make this all go away. Despite Pinkie having a mind of a child on an endless sugar rush, the pony was creative in some ways. Maybe she could miraculous come up with a plot, or at least something Chrysalis could build upon. She stood and slowly returned to her room, dreading what would come next on this day.

“Oh, you’re back!” said Flim happily when Chrysalis returned to the room. “I was afraid you ran off on us. Did you come up with something to make everypony happy?”

“No.”

All of the ponies looked worried. “What do you mean no!? Do I need to remind you that these guys are going to kill us!?” yelled Flam as he shook her.

“I mean no as in I can’t think of anything!” she snapped while shoving him off. “Look, I don’t think I can do this alone. I’ve tried and tried but I simply cannot find a solution. Thankfully, Fancy Pants and Photo Finish made me realize that I have a valuable asset that I shouldn’t have ignored.” She slowly turned towards the pink mare. Chrysalis needed to take a deep breath before going forward. “Pinkie, as my partner, I need you to help me come up with a plan to help these ponies get their jobs back.”

Pinkie looked up at her with huge eyes. “Really?”

“Yes. You have a huge imagination, so that has to be worth something. Just try to think of something and please nothing stupid. I know you can do it.” She struggled hard to say the words, “I have faith in you, Pinkie.”

The pony gasped and her eyes were beaming. “You do?”

Chrysalis gulped, having a hard time making herself saying it out loud. “Yes, I do. So please, help us. Hoity Toity only cares about money and refuses to give up those stupid machines. Is there some way we could make him throw them away and rehire these poor ponies?”

The pink pony thought hard of their situation and as more time passed, the more Chrysalis worried. Could she really think of an idea that would bring this nightmare to a close? Pinkie often just babbled like an idiot, but she knew that there was more to her than her hyperactive personality. She could feel herself tremble with anxiety, praying that her investment was going to be worth it. Finally, Pinkie said something. “I have an idea! And it’s a super good one!”

“Well let’s hear it.” Pinkie brought them closer to whisper it to them. As she explained more of it, a smile was growing on Chrysalis’s face. “I see. Huh? Why would…now I get it. That’s a very good point. Okay, that’s possible. Yes. Yes! This is perfect! Pinkie, this is an excellent plan!”

“I know, right? It can’t fail at all!”

“And I could do the make-up!” suggested Rarity giddily.

“Flam, go back to Hoity Toity and try to wow him while you’re there until we have everything ready,” Chrysalis ordered. “Keep him in the office as long as possible while we set it up.”

“This seems like a stretch, but if it works out, it will be one for the ages!” spoke Flam. “And I will surly win his heart from this!”

“Alright, everypony, let’s do this and not have us die!” said Flim. All of the ponies but Chrysalis cheered loudly.

Hoity Toity sat in his office as he reviewed some documents. Now that he no longer had actual ponies working for him, he would see a massive increase in profit. No longer concerned about trivial things like fair wages or safe work places, he would save a fortune, making more bits than in his wildest dreams. He had to admit, Flam was right about success coming from meeting the right pony. He was very glad to have met him and looked forward to doing more projects together. The unicorn had been staying in order to do maintenance checks and occasionally stopped by his office so they could chat. Hoity was certain that he was sometimes hitting on him and he was actually flattered. Normally, he wouldn’t like such behavior from poorer folk, but Flam was quite a pony to have helped him this much. Maybe wealth wasn’t everything when it came to quality of character.

Suddenly, the door barged open and Flam appeared, sweating heavily and completely out of breath. “Mr. Toity!”

“Flam? What is the matter?”

The unicorn paced around the desk. “It’s horrible! It’s awful! They kept telling me it would happen, but I never listened! I am a fool!” He ran over to Hoity and shook him wildly. “Quick, Hoity! Call the army! Call the navy! Call my three year old niece! CALL SOMEPONY!”

Hoity Toity pulled himself away from the terrified stallion. “What are you babbling about? What’s going on!?”

“The robots are uprising!” he yelled in panic.

Hoity gasped and lifted his shades. “THEY’RE WHAT!?”

“They have been calculating amongst themselves and they have concluded that all ponies are obsolete and are going to take over the world! I was always warned by scientists that this was possible, but I was too arrogant to listen!” Flam got on his knees and shouted towards the sky, “Why didn’t I watch more sci-fi movies!?”

“I don’t even know what those are! So what are the robots doing, Flam? How bad is it?” he asked nervously.

Flam got up. “It’s terrible! They’ve upgraded their own bodies, plan on enslaving everyone in the world who isn’t a robot, and are drawing mustaches on your portraits!”

“Oh no! This is worse than I thought! Those portraits were expensive!” He stood up. “This looks like a job for executive meddling!” He stomped through his office door and went to the production area. Upon arriving, he gasped when he saw how many active robots there were, which was more than he remembered being in the factory. They all looked much different than their original appearance and moved like actual ponies. However, he failed to notice that they were all ponies with make-up while wearing robot costumes. “Who is in charge here!?”

“Beep boop. We all are. We are the robot hive mind,” said one pony in a robotic voice. “And we have concluded that ponies are obsolete and we will take the world for ourselves.”

“Obsolete!” said the other robots simultaneously.

“A-and what are you going to do to us ponies?” Hoity asked nervously.

“Various treatments will be given to ponies based on professions and hobbies. You are a pony that likes fashion, so we will use you for fashion.”

He sighed in relief. “That doesn’t sound so bad. Maybe this whole robot thing will go smoothly, especially with my large amount of bribe money.”

“We will use our mighty robot technology to turn you into a mannequin and you will be used to wear our superior clothing.” One robot pony held up a dress that was grey in color and had metal plating sewn onto it.

He gasped in shock and backed away. “No! Not that! Anything but that! I would rather die than wear something that disgusting!”

“So you shall.” The pony pointed at him. “Get him, robots! Beep boop!”

Hoity ran as the mechanical beasts gave chase. He was in absolute terror as he saw the machines gaining on him. He went to hide in his office, but they appeared before he could close the door. He backed into a corner as they slowly approached him. “G-get away from me! I’m famous! I could sue you all!”

That didn’t slow them down in the least. “Prepare to be made into a more fashionable species, beep boop.”

“Help! Somepony help! I have money to reward you with!”

Right before they got to him, a strange sound was heard. The robots froze in place and fell over, showing Flam standing behind them with a strange device being held with his magic. “Are you all right, Hoity?”

The earth pony jump from his spot and hugged him. “Oh, thank heavens you are here! They were about to do something horrible to me!”

“I’m sorry I took so long, but I had to get something.” Held by his magic was a hairdryer without its cord, Robo-Stopper 10000 written on the side, and some lights glued on it. “I completely forgot my one scientist friend gave me this in case of an emergency.”

“What are we going to do!? There’s too many of them!” asked the earth pony as he frantically ran around. “Equestria is doomed as we know it!”

Flam pretended to think of a plan. “I heard that they have a hive mind, so there must be a master computer built nearby. It controls the robots, so if I stop that, it’ll stop them all. I will have to find it and shut it down, which should be located somewhere in this building.”

“But how will we get to it? It’s dangerous out there!”

“I will fight through them while you wait here where it is safe,” he stated as heroically as possible.

“By yourself!? You can’t!”

“I must! If I don’t do something, they will take over the world! Besides, it is my fault this happened, so it is my duty to put this nightmare to an end.”

“But what about you? They could kill you, or worse! They could make you wear their clothes or make you into a toilet cleaning robot or something!” he warned.

Flam brushed his hair back with his hoof and put on a serious expression. “I’ll be fine. Robots are no match for me. If I can put them together, then I can just as easily break them apart.”

Hoity slowly nodded, knowing it was the only way. “Be safe, Flam.”

“I will.” He walked to the door, but then stopped. “One last thing before I go.”

“What is it?”

The unicorn went up to him and kissed him on the mouth, surprising the Canterlot pony. “Just in case I don’t make it back alive,” he said with a smug expression.

The earth pony smiled. “Go get ‘em, tiger.”

Flam ran from the room as Hoity closed the door, pressing his ear against it to hear what was happening. “Have at thee, you metal monsters!” He could hear a lot of noises as the combat occurred out of his view. He bit his hoof worriedly, hoping the inventor would stop the uprising and save the world. After some minutes, everything became quiet. He was now very afraid and could hear hoof steps approaching, so he backed away. “F-Flam?”

He could hear the doorknob turning, so Hoity took cover behind his desk. When it opened, the unicorn appeared, covered in oil. “It’s done,” he panted. “They have all been deactivated and the world is safe once again.”

Hoity clapped his hooves happily. “You did it! You saved us all!”

The tired unicorn sat against the wall and wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Hoity, I am so sorry this happened. It’s all my fault. I did not think they would revolt and I should have taken more precautions before doing something so dangerous.”

Hoity knelt down beside him. “No, do not blame yourself. I was greedy enough to replace all of my hard workers with heartless machines. It is my fault this happened.” He left his office returned to the production area with Flam following him. He looked over the many deactivated robots and sighed. “I guess the world isn’t ready for such a thing. Robots may be superior in tasks, but they lack many important things that real ponies possess, like inspiration, soul…”

“And love?” added Flam.

He looked up at the mustached pony. “That too.” He took his shades off and they looked in each other’s eyes. Slowly, their faces met for a kiss. After a few seconds, they pulled away. “Flam, I honestly cannot believe I am falling for a simple pony.”

“I just created a race of bloodthirsty machines that suddenly got the idea to rule the world and put them to an end, so maybe I’m not that simple,” he joked.

Hoity chuckled. “I guess that is true. Now I need to figure out what to do next. There’s so much that needs to be done before I can open again.”

“I think I might know. First, you go home and rest while my brother and I clean up these robots and dispose of the evidence. Then tomorrow, you will rehire all of your original employees and apologize for what you did. It’s better if the media does not find out what happened here today, so let’s never speak of this again.”

He nodded in agreement. “Yes, that seems like a good idea. Ponies seem to be much more likable as workers after this little incident.” He looked at him. “Flam, thank you for all of your help. You have been a real friend.”

“It’s no problem. And perhaps we could be more than friends,” he suggested with a dirty grin, only to receive another in response. “Come on, let’s get you home. You need rest.” He led him down the stairs and they walk past the various ponies who were trying not to move.

Pfft.

They halted and looked at one of the robots. “What was that noise?” asked Hoity suspiciously.

“Uh…that was just exhaust. Nothing to worry about.” He led him outside of the factory and closed the door behind him. “This place will be spotless tomorrow, so don’t worry one bit.”

“Okay. Flam, I want you to come over tomorrow so we can get to know each other better. Maybe we could invent something without such horrifying consequences.”

He just smiled at him. “Sounds good to me. Goodnight, Hoity.”

“And goodnight to you, hero.” The earth pony walked away and when he was out of sight, Flam re-entered the factory and closed the door behind him.

“And that’s a wrap!” he shouted triumphantly. All of the ponies got off the floor and cheered loudly.

Chrysalis, Pinkie, Rarity, and Flim appeared from another room. “I can’t believe it worked!” exclaimed Rarity.

“Hoity Toity sure is a gullible idiot, but I will admit the costumes and acting weren’t half bad,” said Chrysalis as she took some bits from some money bags she found lying around.

One of the ponies picked up Pinkie and held her above her head. “Three cheers for Pinkie Pie!”

While the crowd was praising her, Chrysalis went to the brothers. “So what about our deal? Am I finally done yet?”

“Since you fulfilled your part, we will do ours! Just give us the supply of jelly and we will do the rest!” Flim said excitedly. “I
pray this will be the last of our adventures together.”

“Excellent. I’ll give you about two barrels every week. It may not seem like much, but I think its rarity and my fame will have it flying off the shelves.”

“And ponies will pay top bit for it,” added Flim happily.

Chrysalis shook their hooves. “Pleasure doing business with you both, and don’t forget about that loan you owe me.”

“We won’t, and thank you so much for what you have done for us,” said Flim. “It has truly been an experience.”

“See you around, Cherub!” said Flam as he waved goodbye.

“Goodbye, Flimflam Brothers. Come on, Pinkie,” she called, “it’s time to go home.” Pinkie got down from the crowd and they waved goodbye as she caught up with her friends outside.

“We did it, Cherub! Now Cupid’s Arrow is going to be better than ever!” Pinkie shrieked while leaping high into the air.

“I still can’t believe you actually made a deal with them, but I’m more surprised that it actually worked out,” spoke Rarity.

“Me too. And now, there will be more love than ever before at a quicker rate. Everything is going to be perfect.” She thought over of what was going to happen next. With all that love, the changelings would support her again and she would dominate Equestria. She was all excited with the thought of getting vengeance on Nymph and thought of horrible things she could do. Maybe she would shave off all of her hair and use a spell to keep it from growing back or use a spell to give Nymph a masculine voice so the males wouldn’t want to go near her. There were so many possibilities for her to consider. Besides, she was justified. Nothing she could do would ever hurt Nymph the way she hurt her.

“Are you happy, Cherub?” asked Pinkie excitedly.

“Indeed I am,” the changeling replied. “You have done a good job and my respect for you has increased. Thank you for assisting me for these past few days. Because of your help, I’m feeling pretty good about everything now.”

Pinkie began to do her usual bouncing. “Great! Everything will be even better soon and then you will be happier and then you, me, and Luna will be best friends forever!”

Chrysalis’s fantasy was shattered as Pinkie’s words forced her back to reality. The red unicorn walked faster, distancing herself from the two ponies. “What’s her problem?” asked Rarity, only to receive a shrug from her friend.

On the way home, Rarity and Pinkie sat together while Chrysalis sat alone. They occasionally looked at her while whispering to each other. The changeling knew they were talking about her, but she simply could not care. The only thing on her mind at the moment was going to bed at her house. Once they arrived in Ponyville, the three ponies got off the train. “It feels so good to be back after so long,” stated Rarity.

“Yep! Nothing beats the feeling of home! Wouldn’t you agree, Cherub?” Pinkie asked.

“Goodnight,” Chrysalis said icily in response as she left them behind.

Once she was gone, the ponies talked to each other. “She seems to be really troubled about something,” commented Rarity.

“Yeah, but I’m about to fix all that!” Pinkie replied excitedly. “I have it all figured out!”

“Just be careful, Pinkie. She seems to be in a fragile state and I would hate for you to push things too far. You need to learn when to give her some personal space.”

“I have it all under control! Bye, Rarity!” The pink pony then ran off, going light speed to get everything set up in time.

Once she was gone, the seamstress sighed. “I pray nothing terrible happens to her.”

Chrysalis’s walk home was a long one. Home. It was something she dreaded calling Cupid’s Arrow. Her only home was in the Changeling Kingdom, but it had also lost its touch for about thirty years. She tried to think about her recent development to make herself feel better, but Pinkie’s words prevented that. It was even worse that Pinkie once again showed how useful and supporting she was. She would have to get over it eventually, or else she would be stuck as an outcast. She didn’t want to be Cherub anymore. She hated the name. She hated how successful she became while Chrysalis had nothing. She wasn’t sure how much more she could take of her double life. All she wanted to do was lie down and just take a break from everything while everything else was being prepared.

She arrived at Cupid’s Arrow, opened the door, and entered. Upon turning on the lights, confetti fell from the ceiling. The setup in her room was very reminiscent of the party held on her first day in this town. “W-what is this!?”

Pinkie sprung from behind the couch. “Surprise, Cherub!”

Of course she would have something to do with this. “Pinkie, what do you think you’re doing?” she asked, annoyed.

“It’s a party just for you!”

“You know I hate parties.” Chrysalis took a look around. “Where are the others?”

“It’s just me! I know you don’t really like to party with other ponies, so I thought it could be just the two of us. We can easily have fun with just us!”

The changeling just went for the stairs. “Pinkie, I really don’t feel like partying. Just take your stuff and go.”

“Nonsense! Just see what I have. I got a congratulatory cake of your favorite flavor.” She placed a vanilla ice cream cake on the table that had, “To Cherub, the best matchmaker ever!” written on it in pink frosting. “And wait until you see this!”

Pinkie pulled on a rope that hung from the ceiling. Upon tugging it, a banner unfolded that read, “Congratulations, Cherub!” Seeing the name caused Chrysalis to snarl. “Pinkie, I seriously want this stuff gone now.”

“Don’t be a party pooper! I even wrote you a song!” Pinkie placed a record on the record player and music began playing as Pinkie sung, “Oh Cherub, she’s so great. She can find anypony a special date! Cherub’s a pony who makes love shine through, and Cherub’s also a really great friend too!”

Chrysalis could feel her restraint breaking as her mind echoed Cherub Cherub Cherub Cherub Cherub Cherub Cherub. “No more, Pinkie. No more or I swear…”

“What’s that? One more? Okay! Oh Cherub, she’s-”

Pinkie was interrupted by a loud scream. She saw the unicorn charge past her and tackle the record player. It fell onto the floor with a loud crash and she began stomping on it with furious force. “I am so sick of everything!”

“Cherub!”

Chrysalis turned her attention onto the cake. She didn’t care how sweet it tasted, the fact it had that name on it was enough to make her vomit. She picked it up and hurled it against the wall, causing the pastry to splatter and the dish to shatter. She ran over there and began trampling the mess. “I am so sick of this job, this town, this life, and of ponies!”

Pinkie was completely horrified by the outburst she was witnessing. “Cherub, stop!” she begged.

Finally, she looked up at the banner. “AND I AM SO SICK OF MY NAME!” With her magic, it erupted in flame and was immediately reduced to ash.

Chrysalis took deep breathes as the ashes rained down on her. Her rage was immediately subsided when she heard faint whimpering. She looked under the table and found Pinkie quaking with fright. Her appearance was even altered like she had seen before, with flat hair and missing color. “Why did you do that, Cherub? I just wanted to help you smile,” the pony sobbed.

The changeling just sighed and stood back up. “Please…don’t call me that.”

“Why not?”

“It’s…not important. Nothing is.”

Chrysalis sat down on the couch and faced the floor. Pinkie slowly got up and sat right next to her. She placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Please talk to me.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Please. We’re so worried about you.”

She looked at her. “We?”

“Me and Luna. You’ve been acting like this for weeks and we’re really worried.”

Chrysalis sighed loudly. “I’m sorry, but I just don’t want to talk to either of you.”

“Why not? We’re your friends.”

Chrysalis closed her eyes. “I just don’t want to.”

“Then what do you want?” Pinkie asked.

“I want…” For once, Chrysalis could not find the answer. While there was being a queen again, doing so might have not been possible at this point. Nymph was much too loved and she could never convince the changelings to go against the ponies now. Right now, she felt trapped and there was no way out.

“What?”

Chrysalis turned away from the pony. “Go home, Pinkie. We’re taking the week off and I just need to be alone.”

“But I want to help you.”

“Please,” she begged, “just go.” Pinkie slowly headed for the entrance. Right as she stood at the door, she turned her head to look at Chrysalis, who just sat there without making any sound. Pinkie then exited and walked home.

Chrysalis lied on the couch. Despite her success, she didn’t feel any better. She then remembered that she did not read the paper from today as she was occupied with helping the brothers. She picked it up from her front door and got back on the couch. She brought it to her and looked for any news about the changeling negotiations. She didn’t have to look hard as it was on the front page. It seemed that Princess Celestia had actually paid another visit to the Changeling Kingdom and nothing went wrong. The picture for the article was her at the hatchery and she was playing with some of the infants. The gut wrenching sappiness of it was the kind of publicity she did not want as it surely won some ponies over. Out of anger, Chrysalis growled and incinerated the paper, leaving nothing but soot. She did not buy into the alicorn’s act of wishing to feed the changelings. Such a gesture towards an enemy nation would have been political suicide. There was no doubt in her mind that she was up to something in regards to dealing with the changelings. It gave her grievance that Nymph was falling for the charade, dooming her kingdom.

What Chrysalis definitely wanted to do was to get payback on Twilight Sparkle. She was going to make the little pony pay for making her fail. She was going to enslave her as well as her precious teacher along with Nymph, the traitor. Those three would be forced to serve her for the rest of their lives, bowing to Chrysalis’s every wish. Chrysalis kept thinking these thoughts in attempts to make herself feel better, but it only ended up backfiring on her. Twilight and Celestia were both beloved by Pinkie and Luna, so she would only end up hurting them. She tossed and turned on the couch, wondering why she cared so much about their feelings. They were her enemies, not her friends. They believed that she was Cherub, a likable unicorn who just wanted to spread love and at the same time, they hated Chrysalis, calling her a heartless tyrant who needed to be locked away.

She didn’t need them. She only needed the support of her fellow changelings. She would come back with her town of love and then she’d…she’d…

She’d what? Try to conquer a country that could possibly want to help her people? Hurt ponies who the changelings and even she had begun liking? Overthrow the beloved Queen Nymph? And if she were to do so, what then? Continue with the negotiations that her sister had originally started? Try conquest again and be forcibly removed once more? All of her original scheme had gone down the toilet. There was no revenge to be had and no crown to reclaim unless she had evidence that Celestia was plotting something and even she wasn’t entirely convinced that was true. All she could do was continue with the dating service and hope that her people would be satisfied enough to welcome her home or at least listen to her about the alicorn. But even if she did accomplish that, Celestia would find and punish her because stupid Nymph would rat her out.

Chrysalis forced herself up and made herself clean the mess she had made. She couldn’t believe she exploded like that, but that’s what happens when Pinkie can’t take a hint. Once she was finished, she trudged up the stairs, desiring escape from reality through slumber. She entered the bedroom, closed the door, and flopped onto the bed. All she wanted to do was to not think about her situation. What made things worse for her was that she had no one to talk about it with. No one to confide with; no one to support her. The fact of how alone she really was just made her feel even more depressed. She was hated by all, a monster in the eyes of the ponies and even the changelings. Would the changelings even take her back after what she had brought upon them?

She couldn’t remember the last time she actually had a changeling comfort her that wasn’t Nymph, which was probably because she wasn’t exactly the nicest individual. At this point, she took back what she said about not caring for love. A lover would have stayed by her side through thick and thin and help the poor changeling escape from this mess. She wanted them to hold her and tell her how everything was going to work out for her, how she didn’t have to handle things alone. She didn’t care how weak this made her sound. The torment that had been inflicted upon her was too much for Chrysalis to bear. All she wanted was something to make her feel better about everything. But then again, if her sister would abandon her, why wouldn’t anyone else?

She looked towards Luna’s moon through her window. She envied the princess, being so easily forgiven for her sins. Why couldn’t the same happen to her? Why was she suffering like this? Now that she thought about it, the only one that she had recently met who tried to be as supportive as possible of her problems, not counting Pinkie, who tried to make her feel better with stupid parties, was ironically Princess Luna herself and she sort of wished the alicorn was still around. She knew Luna was still very worried about her from the many letters she was receiving and was now tempted to write back to have her come over.

However, that would have only added to the problem of her caring for ponies. Chrysalis really wished Luna still wanted to overthrow her sister, that way she could have revealed herself and listened more to the princess’ comforting words. They would have been a dream team and she’d have this all finished a long time ago. She would even make Luna her co-ruler as a way of thanks and they could take the rest of the world if they wanted to. Maybe she could lend her an ear whenever Chrysalis felt down.

She could fantasize all she wanted, but it would never come true. Luna hated her guts and would have most likely enjoyed pounding her head in more than listen to her woes. Besides, she had much bigger problems than finding someone for her to whine to. It was very possible she would be hiding out as Cherub and even other ponies when Cherub got too old for the rest of her life or until Celestia or Luna found her and did something terrible to her.

She brought her legs to her chest and curled into a ball. She was so lost, so scared. She didn’t know what to do and could not think of how to save herself from her fate. It was almost two hours until her body finally gave in to sleeping.

Pinkie lied on her side as she stared at the wall and had her forelegs wrapped around a pillow. She had been laying there for a while and she felt incredibly miserable about failing her duty. The Cakes immediately noticed something wrong and ran to her when she returned earlier that night. She cried while Mrs. Cake held her, explaining to them what had happened in Cupid’s Arrow. They allowed her to take as much time off as she wanted for her to recover and she had spent it thinking about what happened. Why did Cherub get so angry? All she wanted to do was make her happy.

She just didn’t know what to do. For months she had tried to make her happy but to no avail. She had recently been able to get some smiles from her boss, but it wasn’t enough. Pinkie knew that deep down, something was very wrong with Cherub. She kept telling her that she was just mad about her wedding and her sister, but it felt like there was more. Pinkie always offered to help find her love, but she always immediately rejected it. She never really talked about her past and was incredibly anti-social. Why was Cherub so secretive about herself? Then she remembered some strange things her boss said during her rampage. What did she mean when she was sick of her job? Wasn’t matchmaking her talent? Wasn’t it what they had been trying so hard to do? And how could she be sick of her name? Cherub was a nice name. Why would anypony hate it?

Pinkie pulled the blankets over herself and sighed. She thought about going to her friends about what she should do. She then remembered how Cherub was always so distant from them, barely speaking to them unless she needed something. Pinkie had even noticed her disdain for Twilight. Now that she thought about it, Cherub’s only friends were herself and Princess Luna, who she was now avoiding. She knew she would have to tell Luna about this and worried of what would happen next. After what happened today, she was not looking forward to tomorrow.

Pinkie suddenly sprung up. She had completely forgotten about tomorrow. Perhaps this was her chance to put things right. She leapt out of bed and ran down into the kitchen. She was going to probably be up late, but she thought it would be worth it. Tomorrow, she would go and fix Cherub’s problems.

She was going to go over there and get the truth, no matter what.

Author's Note

You know what's coming next...

Identity Crisis

Hours of work and toil in the night were all made possible by coffee, which Pinkie considered to be one of the greatest inventions in history. Today was going to be a very special day for her friend Cherub. Pinkie wasn’t going to hold back any longer. She could no longer stand the thought of her close friend being so tormented and was going to help repair everything. Pinkie was not going to give up until Cherub was happy again because that’s what a friend should do. She was sure it all had something to do with her secret life, which is why she would find out what it was at all costs.

She opened up the waffle irons and placed a stack of waffles on a plate, which she flooded with syrup and whipped cream. Right as the bread popped out of the toaster, she swiped each piece and put butter on them. She put the waffles and toast on a tray and placed a cover on top. Then she remembered what she left on the counter and grabbed it. It was the most important thing she needed for today and her plan would be incomplete without it. She got the rest of her things and left Sugarcube Corner. Outside it was dark because of all the clouds hanging over Ponyville as there was going to be some rain later in the evening. The mare wished it was sunny as a nice day always made ponies happy, but she pressed on. Pinkie walked with a skip in her step as she carried the tray on her back. She was excited for this day and she wanted to give an amazing surprise for her friend right as she woke up. If all went well, she and Cherub would be best friends and the unicorn would never be upset about anything ever again.

Eventually, Pinkie was outside Cupid’s Arrow and got to the door. It was locked, but she still had the key she acquired from Short Sale, so she managed to get inside. She noticed that all of the window shades were pulled down and the house was very dark, giving the room a creepy atmosphere. Somehow, all of her eager cheer disappeared and was replaced by dread. For some reason, her Pinkie sense was telling her something very bad was coming. She shook her head and pressed onward, not letting anything stop her. She didn’t see or hear Cherub, so Pinkie assumed she was still asleep, which was exactly what she was hoping for.

She tiptoed up the stairs, developing a sense of fear that she simply could not explain. Something in her subconscious was telling her to run and never look back, but she had to ignore it. Pinkie would never abandon her friends, especially when they needed her help. With some determination, she got to the bedroom door. She had never seen Cherub’s bedroom, so this surprise was also exciting for her. She slowly opened the door and went inside. In the darkened bedroom, she could make out a lump in the bed, but she couldn’t see the occupant’s face as it was under a pillow. Pinkie quietly placed the portable table in front of her and placed the tray of breakfast onto it. Once everything was in place, she was ready for her favorite part of surprises. “SURPRISE!”

The figure shrieked, flailed, and flew off the other side of the bed, landing with a loud thud. Pinkie panicked by what she had done and knew she was in trouble. “I’m so sorry, Cherub! I just wanted to-” She fell dead silent as the figure stood up and her mind went blank as she stared into her eyes.

“Pinkie Pie! What have I told you about surprises!? And what are you even-”

Pinkie screamed and kicked the tray at the changeling, striking her in the face. She ran down the stairs as fast as she could, hearing the thundering hoofsteps behind her and the changeling calling for her. In a desperate attempt of escape, Pinkie launched herself at the door. Right before she collided with it, she stopped in midair. She looked and saw a green aura surrounding her. She was dropped onto the floor and pinned down on her back. Chrysalis looked down at her in anger and her horn was glowing intensely. “Please don’t hurt me!”

“Don’t worry. You’re not going to feel a thing!”

Pinkie’s vision was engulfed by a green light and then she lost consciousness.

Chrysalis paced around the room, ready to have a panic attack. Why was Pinkie here so early? How did she even get inside? This was the last thing she needed, given everything that was already on her mind. She just hoped that her mind wipe spell would work and this whole thing would blow over. Of course, with Pinkie’s bizarre mind, Pinkie sense, and other things she couldn’t possibly explain, there was no way to be sure until she woke up.

Soon the moment came. Pinkie started stirring, so Chrysalis, in her disguise, ran to her side. “Pinkie, are you all right? You had a nasty fall down the stairs and bumped your head.”

“I think so,” she responded woozily. Pinkie looked over at her and stared at her. She saw some syrup and whip cream still in her hair, triggering her memory of what happened and causing her to scream. “I remember now! You’re really Chrysalis!” She tried to get away, but was held down by the changeling.

“Pinkie, calm down!” she commanded.

“No! I have to tell Twilight!”

While holding down the struggling pony, Chrysalis’s mind was going a mile a minute. It seemed that trying to control her or erase her memory would work to no avail. If she didn’t figure out what to do soon, it would be all over for her. She then got a very desperate idea. “Pinkie, you have to Pinkie promise to not tell anypony that I’m here!”

“No!”

Chrysalis became enraged and made her horn glow. “Do it or else!”

Pinkie panicked and broke into tears. “I won’t tell anypony! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” When she finished, Chrysalis let her go. Pinkie didn’t move from the couch and they both sat in silence with the exception of Pinkie sniffling.

Chrysalis went over to her desk and sat in her chair. She knew that Pinkie was scared out of her mind and probably didn’t want to work for her anymore, so she would need to speak with her. Chrysalis took off her disguise, which caused the pony to whimper. “Pinkie,” she called.

She jumped. “Y-yeah?”

Chrysalis let out a sigh. “This must be all very confusing for you and I think now would be a good time for some explanation, so go ahead and ask your questions.”

Pinkie didn’t bother to wait for even a second. “What are you doing here, Chrysalis!? Where is Cherub!? You ponynapped her, didn’t you!? I want my friend back right now! She’s nice and loving and my friend, unlike you! You took her place just so you could steal her job, am I right!?”

“No. I am Cherub.”

Pinkie stared at her in complete silence as her anger melted into confusion and denial. She began to slowly shake her head as tears reemerged from her eyes. “No…no! That’s not true! That’s impossible!”

“It is the truth, Pinkie Pie. I was here from the very beginning. You have been working for me the entire time.”

Pinkie put her hooves over her ears. “N-no! You’re lying! You couldn’t have been her the whole time! You can’t possibly be Cherub!”

“On the first day of my arrival, your surprise caused me to have a nasty fall down the stairs. You put silly string in my tooth paste during your first week here and I made you wash my floors. On Nightmare Night, I lured you into the forest with some candy and gave you quite a fright. Your reaction was absolutely priceless and none of your friends believed you.”

The pony’s mouth hung open. “I…I…”

Chrysalis leaned back in her chair with a satisfied smirk on her face. “I did a good job of hiding myself this time, didn’t I?”

Slowly, Pinkie’s vision began to blur and her head was hurting. She could not accept what she had just heard. There was no way that her friend was the banished changeling queen the entire time and no pony had noticed. Cherub, a pony that she had worked for, hung out with, and even tried to help, was Chrysalis the entire time. Pinkie then started to act aggressive again. “So what are you doing here, Chrysalis!? What’s your scheme!?”

Chrysalis smiled. “To do what we’ve been doing since the start: make ponies fall in love.”

Pinkie put her hooves to face and gasped. “That’s horrible! You won’t get away with this, you…wait. That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“It’s not. It’s completely harmless.”

The mare tilted her head. “But why?”

“You’ve heard that I’ve been stripped of my authority and have been exiled from my home.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been trying to find a way for them to take me back ever since. The plan is that once enough ponies are in love, this town will be flooding with it. With that, my people can sneak in and feed by merely being in contact with it instead of finding a pony to take it from and no pony will ever notice. With so much becoming available by yours truly, they will overlook my one mistake and take me back.”

“Why didn’t you just do that instead of pretending to be Cadance?” suggested the pony.

“Because ruling over all of you was a much better idea.”

“But it’s not nice at all!”

The changeling rolled her eyes. “Well excuse me for looking out for my people. We were starting to have a problem with feeding our large population and if I didn’t do something soon, my people would have died of starvation.”

“But they’re not starving now.”

Chrysalis shook her head and gave a look of disgust. “That’s only because Nymph has to beg to Celestia. She really does want us and our prey to live side by side. She’s a weak ruler.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say about your sister.”

“What do I care? I hate her.”

“But sisters are supposed to love each other!” Pinkie argued.

Chrysalis gave a quick laugh. “I have to disagree with that.”

“But why would you hate your own sister, Chrysalis?”

“It’s a long story.” She saw that Pinkie was looking at her expectantly. Chrysalis averted her eyes to somewhere else in the room, but they were drawn back to the pony. “Do...you really want to hear it?”

Pinkie nodded. “I really do want to hear about you and Nymph, Chrysalis. Tell me everything.”

Chrysalis stared at her for a bit, thinking over what she wanted to do, and then nodded. “Very well. I better start from the beginning so you can have a better idea about her and me. You see, we were the daughters of the late changeling queen, Rhopa Locera. My sister is younger than I, so I felt it was my duty to take good care of her. We were the greatest of friends and our mother loved us both very much.”

“What about your dad?” asked Pinkie.

“He was there for a while. Normal changelings don’t live as long as we do.”

“What do you mean?”

“My mother, Nymph, and I are royal blooded changelings. We are much larger, more powerful than other changelings, and we live for almost a thousand years. However, royal changelings are only female. This is why the queen has much more authority, since she is much more powerful and only she can continue the bloodline. Fortunately, she could just mate with any other changeling and produce one.”

“As for my father, his name was Scarab and he was a soldier that served by my mother’s side for a long time. He personally saved her life from an assassination attempt and that was how she developed feelings for him. He was a bit of a stern parent, but he loved each of us with all his heart. He even trained me himself in fighting when I was old enough.”

Pinkie had to fight the urge to laugh as she remembered Nymph’s story about Chrysalis getting hit in the face, which Chrysalis didn’t notice. “So what about Nymph?”

“Ah yes. So while we were growing up and as adults, we were inseparable. We did everything together: from tending the royal garden to growing our own parasprite farms. Oh, they were so delicious. We each had our own interests. I was once obsessed by the military might we possessed. We changelings live underground to keep our existence a secret, knowing that we would never be accepted due to our appearance and nature. But every now and then, a bunch of diamond dogs or a dragon or whatever would find our home and would try to take over or threaten to expose us and we would always show them the exit the hard way with a memory wipe included. It was truly a sight to behold. Nymph, however, was more interested in stuff like learning about the world and the other races that inhabited it, so she liked to be in the library with all of the scribes to study maps and cultures. I must admit, as a child, I was also very curious of the outside world.”

“I loved everything about our royal life. When I was a lot younger, I was a princess and I made sure they all knew that. Every changeling answered to my beck and call. Nymph and I were the most precious children in the entire kingdom and I liked rubbing it in the faces of the other noble children. Because of that, we didn’t get along and we often got into fights. It didn’t happen as much when Nymph befriended them. I was never sure why she did that considering she would just outlive them. Eventually, Nymph convinced me to find other friends and it all worked out in the end.”

“But what I loved more than anything was knowing that one day, I would be the queen. It was all I ever dreamed about, knowing that the whole kingdom would belong to me. I wanted to be just like Mother. She was a kind and generous leader that every changeling loved and respected. None dared question her. I always liked to follow her around and watch what she did. For over three hundred years, I did everything I could to prepare myself for the role. Mother always gave us lessons about what she did. Running the military, making laws, bringing joy to the people, everything a good queen does.”

“But of course, only one of us could be the queen. Our mother was always worried that it would create tension between us as it had done before with previous queens, but it was never a problem since I made sure that Nymph understood that it was something meant for me. Surprisingly, Nymph was fine with the idea. She always did look up to me.” Chrysalis giggled. “When I was a child, I said that as the queen, I would allow a dual monarchy, meaning that we could both be queens, kind of like Luna and Celestia. Still, Mother had her take her lessons as she thought it would be important for her to learn.”

Pinkie then pushed the difficult question. “So what happened between you two?”

Chrysalis was hesitant to answer and, to Pinkie’s surprise, looked sad. “Everything was going fine for us all. Father was gone, but we still had each other. Mother was doing excellent as the queen and Nymph and I were living our own lives as princesses. Everything changed forever that one day thirty-three years ago. I was doing some combat training and a messenger came to me, completely panicked. He told me that my mother had collapsed, so I stopped everything I was doing and ran to her side.”

“What was wrong with her?”

“She suffered from a very serious sickness that we did not know about for months as she gave no symptoms until the later stages.” Chrysalis paused for a moment. “It was beyond our doctors’ abilities because our isolation limited our potential medical knowledge and there was…nothing they could do at that point.” Pinkie gasped and put her hooves over her mouth, looking like she was ready to cry. To be fair, Chrysalis almost felt like doing the same. “It didn’t bother her as much as we thought it would. She just carried on like normal, not fearing her impending death. She only had a few months left, but she would soon be too weak to leave her room, so she needed to pick one of us to take her place as the Queen of the Changeling Kingdom. I had always prepared for this day. I knew I would one day be queen, but sometimes I didn’t want to because of what would have to happen first. I learned everything I could about my mother, trained myself to become as powerful as I could be, and was even in charge of some of the army. I was everything I needed to be to become a queen that would lead her people into prosperity. But…”

“But?”

“She chose Nymph.” Chrysalis steadily became very upset, taking deep breathes and her voice was slightly shaking. “All she said was that she felt that Nymph was better suited for the role. Was she disappointed in me? Had I done something wrong? What had Nymph done that was so great? I was older and more experienced, so I deserved the crown!” she shouted as she slammed the desk, causing Pinkie to hide behind a pillow. “Nymph was always weak, needing me to protect her. She didn’t even like fighting. No, all she did was try to talk her way out of things. And look at her now, getting on her worthless knees and kissing Celestia’s big, fat flank without realizing what she is bringing the changelings into. I wouldn’t have surrendered to the inferior species, but rather conquer them! The girl does not have what it takes to be a strong ruler. It was obvious that Nymph had conspired against me, knowing she could never live up to be like me!”

Chrysalis took loud, steady breaths when she finished. After a moment, she sighed deeply. “Things were never the same between us since. I couldn’t stand being around her, knowing that she stole what was rightfully mine. We never let Mother know about what was going on between us, however. We didn’t think she could have taken it in her condition. We even made sure the other changelings didn’t find out about what was going on as we did not want to risk the rumors reaching her and the fact it wasn’t their business. Every day I am grateful that Mother had passed peacefully without ever knowing the truth.”

Pinkie wasn’t sure if she could handle any more of the story, but she pushed forward, needing every piece of information she could get. “So if your mom picked Nymph, then why were you the queen during the wedding?”

“After Mother had died, I had fallen into deep depression. Without her, my sister, or the crown, I had nothing. I just lost the motivation to do anything. I was like this for almost a year and I just told others that I missed my mother and I was in mourning, which was true to some extent. Nymph’s mourning lasted months, so they never asked me too many questions about mine. My sister would always try to convince me that she never did anything against me, but I never bothered listening to her lies.”

“One day, one of the high ranking soldiers I had come to know, Stag Beetle, came to me. He told me that he worried about my health and wanted to check on me. We talked for a while and it was actually nice to tell someone what I was going through. However, there was another reason he came to me. He informed me that Nymph was not interested in ideas of conquest, which is something we both have thought about doing as we and as well as many other changelings were sick of being stuck underground. He needed my help to remove Nymph from power and for me to rule. We both knew that she would have been the downfall of our race. I wasn’t even sure how we could rid of her. That worm had the guts to suggest assassination.” Pinkie gasped. “Don’t worry. As much as I despise my sister, she’s family and I could never bring myself to harm her. I even struck him right then and there.”

“So what did you do?” she asked worriedly.

“We decided we would wait for the right moment before making our move. To my surprise, Nymph was quite loved by the people. Of course, the inevitable happened. The hunger crisis escalated several years back before her crowning and has been an ongoing problem. We could tell the inevitable day was coming and waited.”

“What day?”

“The day that ended changeling secrecy. Basically it was the day where living in secret would no longer sustain our growing population, so we would have to take it in mass, which would eventually reveal our existence. Of course, there were two possibilities of this: one was the world would welcome us and give us all the love we need and the other was that they would drive us away, so we’d have to take our food by force. It was scary for changelings to think about, but we knew it would come one day. The main problem was that changelings always had to remain in secret while we tried to feed, limiting how quickly we could gather resources. Groups of changelings would go around and seduce ponies in order to harvest their love. They would collect love in masses by storing it in crystals and bring it back for the rest of us to feed off of. This method would soon no longer be enough to sustain our needs.”

“So why didn’t you just ask for our love instead of invading?” Pinkie suggested.

The changeling sighed and rolled her eyes. “Well gee, how do you think I should’ve asked Celestia? Hi there! My species of shape shifters need to actually eat one of your emotions in order to survive. This shouldn’t be a problem, especially when you factor in our growing population and the fact feeding off ponies leave them physically weak and loveless for a while. You think that would have worked?”

“It worked for Nymph.”

Chrysalis loudly snarled at her, scaring the pony. “Anyway, so the crisis continued to escalate over the years and unrest had spread throughout the kingdom. Nymph’s plan was to continue using our feeding methods through means of stealth and even suggested population control to delay the inevitable like the stupid changeling she is. Of course, that did not go well and changelings become unsatisfied. After waiting for almost twelve years, we played our hand. We began a campaign against her, convincing the masses that I had a better idea of how to run things. I told them that we should no longer fear the world and claim it for our own! We didn’t need to spend our entire lives living in secrecy or worry about starving any longer. I said that I would launch a military campaign to claim our rightful place in the world. Over time as the crisis continued, we won their favor. Nymph tried to tell them that war was not the answer, but they were smarter than that. After about two years of work, I had enough followers behind me and I made my final move.”

“What did you do?”

“I approached my sister in the throne room. When she asked what I wanted, I simply made her my offer.”

“What offer?”

“Either she made me queen or my followers and I would secede from the kingdom.”

Pinkie gasped. “What!? How could you do that to her!?”

Chrysalis slammed her hoof on her desk with tremendous force, causing Pinkie to cower. “My people were starving! Her ideas of staying hidden and controlling our growing population were stupid and ineffective. We could no longer stand it. The poor girl got on her knees and begged for me to reconsider, saying that she would find another way as she knew full well what I was planning.” She chuckled. “I must admit, it was rather amusing. She tried and she tried, but I didn’t budge. When she saw that we were indeed serious about leaving, she admitted defeat.”

“So after the ceremony where I was crowned, the changelings were happy. I began my plan to start earning our place in the world. I built our armies and we trained ourselves for many years. I even made Stag Beetle my second in command as part of our deal. And like I suspected, he tried to get involved with me so he could be king. I honestly didn’t like him all that much, but I let him have his fun. Every now and then I would need him for some very personal favors.” Chrysalis leaned back in her chair and sighed. “The one downside to being a royal blooded changeling is that all your choices for mates are much smaller than you, so usually they need to be on top, but Stag Beetle really knew how to make things work.”

“I didn’t need to know that!” Pinkie shouted while covering her ears.

“Oh, sorry. As for Nymph, I was very tempting to have her locked away for publicly opposing me, but for some reason, I didn’t.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. I suppose I still had a soft spot for her since she was family, despite feeling nothing but hate whenever I saw her. I simply just made her one of my advisors to appease her remaining supporters. It worked out well too, considering I never listened to a thing she said.” Chrysalis laughed loudly. “Of course, I couldn’t let that wretch get away with what she did. Robbing me of my crown and leading the people to despair? The girl needed to be punished. Washing the floors of the entire palace by herself, making her wear rags, reminding her of the most awful moments of her life, I even spread some nasty little rumors about her like how she couldn’t bear any children. The girl lost her spirit and it was enjoyable to see her bawl like a little baby. If changelings could feed off each other’s misery, we would have had enough food for a lifetime from Nymph alone!” Chrysalis hollered in laughter as she kicked her legs.

Pinkie felt terrible by listening to her. “Why do you enjoy being so cruel to her?”

Chrysalis stopped laughing and got very angry. “What about me? Have you forgotten what she had done behind my back!? I was justified in what I did to her!”

“Why do you keep thinking she went against you?”

“Because it’s the only thing that makes sense! I was the one destined to become queen, not her! She must have done something to make mother think she was better than me! I swear the next time I see her, I will force it out of her!”

Chrysalis heaved heavily as she clenched her fangs together and then realized that she was getting too worked up about the past, so she took a deep breath and continued. “Let me just quickly wrap this up. While we continued to increase our might, we began taking ponies in the midst of night in order to feed ourselves. We could only take so many without drawing suspicion. We would bring them underground and leave them preserved in cocoons. Then I would use my power to hypnotize them into thinking they were with the ponies of their dreams. We would keep them for feeding for about a week or two until we tapped them out. After that, I would erase their memories of being taken and then we would return them to where they came from.”

“So we kept using these methods for many years. The hunger issue was being handled, but still not solved. Our populations grew and that meant we had to steal more ponies. But thankfully, I was prepared. Our armies were now a force to be reckoned with. We just needed a place to set our sights on. And then when we scouted Canterlot and heard about the wedding…” Chrysalis trailed off and sighed. “I don’t think I need to tell you what happened.”

They both sat silently, staring at each other. Chrysalis could not believe she just told so much about herself to one of her greatest enemies, but to her surprise, she felt great relief. Maybe Pinkie discovering her was nowhere as bad as she first thought since after all this time, she finally found someone who could listen to her true self. Since Pinkie was bound by her Pinkie promise, she could maybe talk to her about her woes, while adding a few lies here and there, and possibly get some real advice about her problems. It took her a moment to realize Pinkie had yet to say something. “So what did you think? Sad? Enlightening?”

“Awful!” Pinkie then proceeded to bawl.

The changeling nodded. “Yes, it is indeed an awful story. I am so glad you understand.”

Pinkie shook her head. “No, not the story! You! You’re awful!”

Chrysalis was taken aback by what she heard. “Me?”

“You are so mean to your sister and ponies! How could you be so cruel, Chrysalis!?”

The fugitive stood up. “Why should I love a race who would have shunned us upon discovering us? Let’s face it, you and your kind are disgusted by how we look and fear us by how we feed, which is why we live underground in the first place. As for Nymph, she started it! She plotted against me!”

“How do you know that’s even true about Nymph? You have no proof!”

“Well why else would have Mother picked her over me? I was just like Mother!” she shouted furiously.

“No you’re not! You said your mom was loving and kind, which is exactly the opposite of what you are!” Chrysalis looked down at the desk in front of her. “She was your sister and you wanted to be so mean to Nymph because you didn’t want to accept the truth! And after everything you did to her, she lets you go! She does love you, but you think she’s your enemy because she got to be queen. You’re not a victim, Chrysalis. You’re just a spoiled, rotten, jealous brat! What would your mom say if she knew how badly you treated your little sister?” Pinkie noticed she was completely motionless. “Chrysalis?”

“Get out.”

“But-”

“OUT!”

Pinkie lifted herself off the couch and onto the floor. She slowly walked towards the door and looked behind her, only to be met with an expression of fury. Pinkie turned away and then exited the building. When she was gone, Chrysalis sat back down and sighed.

What really bothered her was how Pinkie said she was nothing like her mother. She just wanted to be as successful and as loved as her so she would be proud of her daughter. She did what she had to do to ensure that her species would survive, even though she went as far as trying to conquer another nation as she felt that it was all done in her people’s interest. But in the end, they became upset with her upon her failure and now were supporting Nymph’s current idea, which would have been the end of them all.

She still could not figure out why Nymph had decided to kick her out in the first place instead of locking her up. Chrysalis treated her like garbage and was at her mercy and yet Nymph just let her go. Did she still care for her? Seeing how she kept asking Celestia for her location she must have, despite saying how they should handle her. Chrysalis hated to admit it, but she did miss the old days, when they were younger and more carefree. Maybe Pinkie was right about Nymph not conspiring against her, but she couldn’t be sure. If it was true, it would mean that Chrysalis let her mother down somehow, which she could not ever bring herself into accepting.

Chrysalis slammed her head against her desk, knowing she had gone a little too far with Pinkie. She wasn’t sure if she could ever convince her to come back now that her secret was out, probably even harder because Pinkie thought she was horrible. At least she was safe from being caught, but that wouldn’t matter if her plan couldn’t succeed. She heard the bell above her door ring and suddenly realized she wasn’t in her disguise, causing her to panic. She lifted her head and met a pair of blue eyes.

“Surprise!”

Chrysalis screamed, flew back, and fell onto the floor. As she tried to catch her breath, she looked up at the smiling pony. “For the love of Luna, stop doing that! And what are you even doing here?”

Pinkie placed a cake on the desk. “Happy birthday, Chrysalis!”

The changeling got back in her chair. “Birthday? What are you…” She then realized that today was indeed her birthday. “How could have I forgotten?”

“Well luckily I remembered, so here you go!” She slid the cake in front of her. It was a birthday cake with several lit candles on it and it read, “Happy 33rd Birthday, Cherub!” in pink frosting. Chrysalis just sat there silently as she looked at it. “What’s wrong?”

“What are you doing, Pinkie?”

“Well duh, I’m giving you your cake.”

“I know that, but I mean why. Why would you want to celebrate my birthday?”

“I always want to celebrate a birthday, even it is for a changeling!”

Chrysalis couldn’t understand what was going on. “Are you really so stupid? You just went on about how awful I was and now you want to have a party?”

Pinkie’s smile slowly bent into a frown. “I just don’t want you to be sad anymore.”

Chrysalis briefly felt breathless. “What?”

Pinkie slid the cake aside. Surprisingly, she looked serious. “After you told me to get out, I wasn’t sure what to think. I thought you were bad, but then you said you did all that stuff for your changelings. I also remembered how upset you’ve been lately and I knew something was wrong.” Chrysalis turned her eyes away. “I don’t like seeing any pony or changeling sad and I thought I could help you feel better. I decided I’m going to stay and help you with your plan.”

The changeling looked at her with disbelief. “You’re going to help me become queen again?”

“No. However, I want you to be able to go home. I bet you miss it a lot.”

Chrysalis sighed loudly. “I do. It’s been so long since I’ve seen its glory.”

“Do you miss Nymph too?” the mare asked.

“Not in the slightest.”

Pinkie shrunk by her answer. “Not at all?”

This time, there was a pause before she answered. “Maybe a little.”

“Don’t you want things between you two to be back to the way it was?”

“I guess.” She could see Pinkie giving her a look, telling her she was unconvinced. Chrysalis sighed. “Yes. There, I admitted it. I do miss my sister, but I can’t bring myself to trust her. Even if I am wrong about her, I don’t think she will forgive me for what I did.”

“Sure she will! You just need to be nice!”

Chrysalis groaned and shook her head. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard.”

“It’s not stupid!” the pony countered. “If you were nice like me, would you even be here right now?”

The changeling thought about it. Had she tried sticking with secretive means of feeding and perhaps what Nymph was currently trying, she would have probably back home while still being in charge. Thinking about her plan at the wedding had recently put her in a foul mood. While she had kept saying it was for means of survival, was it really worth the costs? An entire nation imprisoned in a sleep like state, being drained for the rest of their lives. Had she not been so blind with power and anger towards ponies, she and Nymph would have probably come up with a solution together that would help the changelings thrive in the world.

“I think you may be right,” she gloomily confessed.

“Of course I’m right! No pony likes somepony who’s mean. Just be nice and when you see her again, tell her you’re sorry. And you have to mean it!”

“Even if I could earn her forgiveness, there are still the rest of the changelings. They were pretty happy to see me leave and until I convince them to take me back, there’s no way I’m going home.”

“Say sorry to them too! They will totally forgive you if you just act nice.”

Chrysalis glared at her for moment, but then stopped. Pinkie, surprisingly, had a good point. Luna herself even said that the ponies accepted her again because of her change in personality. But there was no way it was going to be that easy for her. While Luna had the excuse of being possessed by a mysterious force, Chrysalis had no excuse for what happened. The changelings were not only mad at her for being a failure, but for being a bit of tyrant. She always held the belief that since she was the queen, she was always right and any changeling who didn’t support her views was either an idiot or a traitor, making it extremely difficult for anything she opposed to pass. The fact she rallied their anger against the ponies and caused the peaceful, neutral nation to perform an act of war certainly did not help her case.

Speaking of ponies, living among them has certainly given her a different point of view about them. She didn’t mind them so much and was actually starting to enjoy living in Ponyville. Even Pinkie and her friends were growing on her, with the exception of Twilight. She had even made close friends with Luna, who she still considered to be her foe as she knew she was going to do something to her people. She figured that changelings didn’t care for ponies or any other race because they never truly got to know them since they were always secluded. She wondered how differently things would have been for them were they not so xenophobic.

“What’s wrong?” asked Pinkie, concerned by her silence.

Chrysalis rested her head between her hooves. “I’m just not feeling too good right now. It’s awful to be hated by your very own species. Sometimes I wonder if they will turn me down, even if I do offer them a huge food source.”

“Don’t be sad, Chrysalis! You just need to smile!” Pinkie suggested encouragingly.

The matchmaker looked up at her. “Excuse me?”

“Trust me, you will go home and you will be loved! Now turn that frown upside down and give me a smile. You need to be positive if you want your dreams to come true!”

Chrysalis turned her head away from her. “That’s stupid.”

“Come on! Smile! Smile! Smile!”

“No.”

Pinkie frowned. “Why not?”

“Because it won’t change anything.”

“It’ll make you feel better! You don’t want your friends to see you upset when you go home, do you?” Chrysalis immediately turned the rest of her body away from her. “You have friends…right?” Chrysalis said something but she couldn’t hear her. “What?” The changeling spoke again, louder, but she still could not understand what she was saying. “I can’t hear you.”

Chrysalis whirled around. “No, I don’t anymore! There, are you happy!?”

“No! Why don’t you have any friends?”

Chrysalis sighed and rested her head on the desk. “For a long time, I thought it was pointless. They would just die long before I did and I didn’t want to deal with the loss. It was already hard enough with my father. I kept telling myself that Nymph was the only friend I would ever need in my life, which changed. I did eventually come around to meet others and I did develop friendships with them, but after my mother’s decision to crown Nymph, I was not a very kind changeling and most of them did not like to be around me unless they had something in mind. The worst part is that I can’t blame them. Then after the wedding, the remaining parasites threw me under the bus and wanted nothing to do with me. I had brought the threat of war onto them and I was labeled with the worst kinds of names. Not a single changeling in the kingdom had come to my aid.”

“Wasn’t Stag Beetle your friend?”

“Not at all. We were merely changelings who shared the same ideas. We got along, but there were some things about him that made my chitin crawl. The biggest problems I had with him and every other changeling who associated with me later on was always the same, and that was me being royalty. The only reason they wanted to be around me was because the favors I could grant them whenever Nymph wouldn’t and it only happened more when I was crowned. It was always money, laws, political positions, and even sex. I was so sick of it.”

Pinkie scooted closer to her. “What about me or Luna? Aren’t we your friends?”

Chrysalis didn’t even look at her. She could actually feel her heart sting upon the question. “It was only an act, Pinkie. It’s not like you or Luna, or any of your friends would ever want to be friends with the real me. You and I both know that you and all the others hate me for what I did.”

They both remained quiet for a moment. Pinkie was obviously upset about what she heard and Chrysalis actually felt guilty. “Chrysalis?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really sorry that you don’t have friends anymore. And since you were pretending before, I was wondering if maybe we could be real friends this time.”

Chrysalis looked at her in absolute disbelief. “What?”

“I don’t want you to be alone, Chrysalis. I can tell you’re very hurt and I want to help you in any way I can.”

The changeling was as surprised as she could be. She tried to form words, but she couldn’t. After much effort, she asked, “Why?”

“Because I can’t stand seeing you like this anymore. For so long I have seen you in so much emotional pain and nothing I did fixed it. Now I have chance to help you and I’m going to do it. I’m going to make you happy, Chrysalis!” stated Pinkie.

“I…really don’t know…”

“Do you want me to just leave you like this while you’re all sad?” she asked.

Chrysalis merely sighed. “No…”

“So let’s make a deal! I will become your friend and help you and in exchange, you will stop being all evil and stuff! How does that sound?”

After everything she had done, Pinkie was willing to give her a chance. This pony was doing something that no other had done for her. Chrysalis was willing to throw away all of her thoughts of vengeance to receive her friendship in return. She wasn’t even sure how to respond. “Do you…really mean that?”

“Of course I do!” She extended a hoof towards her. “Friends?”

Chrysalis never thought too highly of employee before, but this moment had given her a new perspective about her. After everything she had been through, she finally found one person who was willing to help her. She reached out her hoof, ready to accept Pinkie’s offer.

Right before they touched, Chrysalis quickly retracted. “No!”

“No!?”

The changeling got off her seat and stormed upstairs. “Just go away, pony!”

Pinkie watched as she disappeared and heard her slam the door shut. Pinkie sat quietly, completely stunned by her reaction. They were about to be friends and she suddenly freaked out. All she wanted to do was help the outcast, but it seemed Chrysalis was not interested. The mare started wondering of what she should do now. She could follow Chrysalis, but she could be in danger if she didn’t want to be friends. The mare made up her mind. Pinkie went upstairs and got to the bedroom door, pressing her ear against it.

“What has gotten into me!?” she heard Chrysalis shout as she paced around her room. “How could have I even consider for a second befriending her? She’s a friend of that wretched Twilight Sparkle! No doubt this is some ploy to have me exposed and imprisoned. Why else would she want to be my ‘friend’? She is going to cost me the crown! I will not let Nymph win! The kingdom is mine! MINE!”

Pinkie was compelled by fear, not wanting to enter and confront her after hearing her yelling. However, she wanted to help Chrysalis since she was so close in doing so. Mustering her courage, she opened the door to the bedroom. What immediately caught her attention was the look the changeling was giving her.

It was a look of pure hatred.

“Chrysalis, please listen to me!” she begged. “I just want to help you!”

Chrysalis scoffed and pushed her aside. “You are too nosey for your own good, Pinkie. Because of your caring nature, I actually developed doubts of my second invasion because I started caring back!”

Pinkie gulped. “Your what?”

“But good news: I’ll get over it! You will not sway me from my goal! I will expose Nymph for the thief she is and get my revenge against Twilight! And afterwards, I will be the queen I was meant to be; one that would make the changelings dominate this world!” Chrysalis stared at Pinkie and an evil grin appeared on her lips. She slowly approached her, cornering the terrified pony. “But perhaps this little incident can be useful to me.”

“W-what are you going to do?”

“I’ve been going through with this stupid dating business scheme for far too long. But thanks to you, I have a much better plan in mind!” Chrysalis closed the door to the bedroom and focused intensely on Pinkie. “And you get to play a special part, my little pony!”

She lifted Pinkie off the ground and pinned her against the wall with her magic. “Put me down!” demanded her captive.

“Oh, not just yet. Pinkie, for being an intrusive, obnoxious pest who had the nerve of making me doubt myself, I’m going to drain you!”

Pinkie began to struggle wildly. “Please don’t take my love! I need it!”

Chrysalis cackled loudly as the pony continued her efforts. “Oh, that’s going to be the least of your worries, since I shall use a stage three drain!”

“W-w-what’s that?”

“I’m glad you asked. You see, a changeling’s ability to drain emotions has various effects, each classified into three stages. The first stage is where we take love and leave our prey with headaches and fatigue for up to a week, as you’ve seen with Shining Armor. The second stage is where we take additional positive emotions, leaving the negative ones to fester and grow. The victim is left as a cruel or sad pony for up to a month in the worst case scenario and it is always amusing to witness.”

The mare could feel a feeling of horror rising when she asked, “What’s stage three?”

Chrysalis gave off a very sinister grin. “It’s where we take all of your emotions.”

“That’s horrible!”

“Oh, but it gets worse, because these effects are permanent.” Pinkie gasped loudly and continued in her desperate struggle. “The victim is left in an emotionless state for the rest of their life. No anger or happiness or fear or even love. It is a fate worse than death, to be left as such a husk. Only royal changelings are capable of this and it has been outlawed for almost a thousand years because the effects are so horrible, but I’ve considered using it on Twilight for some time.”

“Please don’t take my emotions! I want to laugh with my friends, smile at parties, and love Fluttershy!”

Chrysalis chuckled and stroked her cheek. “But Pinkie, I need to do this so I can reclaim my title from that traitorous Nymph and save my precious subjects from the evil Celestia.”

“How?” Pinkie sobbed.

The changeling pulled away and paced around in front of her. “I will gladly tell you, seeing how it won’t matter anyway. These peace talks are completely ridiculous. Your kind will always look down on the changelings and treat them like scum. The thought of creatures that we feed from taking charge of our lives is ludicrous. And if you think I buy Celestia’s act of giving a feather about my subjects, especially after I defeated her, you are wrong. So rather than letting Celestia have us treated like trash or whatever she has in store for my changelings, I will simply conquer Equestria and crush the threat once and for all.”

“But Celestia does care about the changelings! She’s trying so hard to help them!”

Chrysalis shook her head as she continued walking. “Spare me your stupid beliefs. No ruler in their right mind would consider helping a nation that just attacked them. There’s nothing for her to gain out of aiding the changelings, so I will strike first before she carries out her retribution.”

“But the changelings don’t want a war! They want peace!”

The fugitive stopped and stomped her hoof. “There can never be peace! We feed off ponies and this will always bring conflict. Nothing will change that. So rather than having your kind walk all over us, I will simply put you ponies in your place. What I will do is drain you of your emotions and leave you near the edge of the Everfree Forest after altering your memories. When your friends ask you what happened, you‘ll tell them you were attacked by changelings under the orders of Nymph.”

Pinkie’s mouth hung open in absolute shock. “What!?”

“But I won’t stop there. I will be sure to get all of your little friends as well and it gets even better. After you are all dealt with, I will write a letter to Luna, telling her that I’m sorry for not talking to her and that I need her protection, feeling scared and vulnerable. That gullible princess won’t see it coming. With all of the love here, I should have more than enough power to keep her down long enough for me to tap her dry of her magic! And with her form, I can get close enough to Celestia and give her the same fate!” Chrysalis greedily licked her fangs. “It will be a feast fit for a queen!”

“No!”

The changeling wore a wicked smile. “And when the ponies learn that Nymph was responsible for draining their beloved rulers and guardians, they will launch a war. The changelings will hear that Nymph was behind the cause of the fighting and imprison her, where I will return and lead my nation to victory with my unmatchable might! Equestria will be ours, our famine will be no more, and I will be a queen of legends!” She then proceeded to laugh evilly.

Pinkie was completely panicking, horrified by what Chrysalis was planning. She then remembered something and grinned. “Oh yeah? Remember Discord? Celestia is making him look out for you and take you down! You’ll be in big trouble when he-”

“With all the magic I will acquire, I will send his worthless hide to the moon the very second I see him. With the powers of the alicorns and the Elements of Harmony, he won't stand a chance.”

All of Pinkie’s confidence died. She had nothing left in her mind that could save her from the changeling. For the first time in life, Pinkie felt completely hopeless. “Don’t do this, Chrysalis! I’m begging you!”

“Beg all you want. I actually enjoy watching you try so hard to save yourself, which will end when I alter your mind.”

“But you couldn’t erase my brain last time.”

“True, which is why I need a little boost to get the job done.” Chrysalis opened her mouth and a green aura appeared, entering her maw. As time passed, her eyes and horn began to glow brighter. “With all the love I have created here, I will be sure to get things right this time. How does it feel to know that you will help bring the fall of your own country?” Pinkie just looked on the floor and cried. “Aw, are you sad that I have finally won? Don’t worry, I promise you that you will never be sad again. I still need some time to prepare my spells, so any last words, Pinkie?”

“You’re…you’re…”

“Yes?”

Pinkie looked up at Chrysalis, tears running down her cheeks. “You’re a horrible queen!”

Chrysalis laughed at her. “Me? A horrible queen? I’m afraid you have been misled. I am one of the best there is. My people have thrived over the years of my ruling, unlike with that worthless sister of mine.”

“But Nymph is-”

The changeling shoved her hoof into Pinkie’s mouth and looked dead into her eyes. “Nymph this and Nymph that! I am so sick of hearing what a saint she is! She is only seen the way she is now because of me!”

“What do you mean?” Pinkie asked while muffled under her hoof.

Chrysalis stepped back from her. “Do you honestly think Nymph is someone out of a fairytale while I’m just some heartless monster? Things never appear as they seem, which you should have learned from us changelings. You think she wanted to do these peace talks? She’s not doing them because she wants to, but because she has to. The only reason she has even considered doing this was because she didn’t know what else to do, just like before. In reality, it was I who got the talks started, despite them being a waste of time. Don’t you see? My invasion created progress! Before me, all she did was nothing but delay the inevitable. How do you think I convinced the people to remove her in the first place?”

Pinkie remembered the queen admitting that she wasn’t too fond of ponies before, but refused to believe Chrysalis was right about everything else. “Well at least she didn’t try invading us like you did, you evil changeling!”

“You still don’t get it, do you? My choice was the best choice, you stupid pony. Let’s say I tried appealing to Celestia instead of crashing the wedding. First, I would have to pray that she took mercy on us and allow us to come and feed. If she was willing to banish Luna for a thousand years, then it wouldn’t be hard to imagine her doing something horrible to a race that dined on her subjects’ emotions. Now if she were to accept us, that would leave the rest of Equestria. You believe ponies only hate us because what I did, but you are wrong. I’ve read your history and you ponies used to hate each other solely on appearance. Just because you had wings, horns, or neither did your kind feel the need to oppress the others. Your hate for each other was so powerful, you turned your kingdoms into icy wastelands. Now if you ponies could hate each other that much, how do you think it would have gone with changelings suddenly coming in?”

“Um…we’d get over it eventually like we did with each other and the other races?” Pinkie guessed.

Chrysalis laughed. “Not even close. There would have been serious prejudice against our kind, like what will happen if these negotiations go through. Changelings would have been shunned by ponies because of our feeding habits and how we look, not to mention our power to take another’s form. Over time, things would get out of hoof as tension grew and push would come to shove. So in the end, my invasion changes nothing. If we just tried being peaceful in the start, it would still bring the inevitable. However, had I succeeded back then, you ponies would have been left in a peaceful slumber while the changelings lived happily, completely eliminating this conflict all together. And that is why my idea of taking over Equestria was a good one.”

Pinkie shook her head. “You’re wrong, Chrysalis! I know it would be hard at first, but we’d all get along at some point. We just have to try.”

Chrysalis scoffed. “It would never work, not in a million years. You need to stop using your imagination and look at the reality. Ponies and changelings won’t get along and they never will.”

The pony thought hard of what to say to her, actually considering her reasoning. Was Chrysalis actually right? Would the changelings and ponies struggle with each other if they were to come to Equestria? She knew that other races had a rough relationship with ponies at first, but that changed over time. Pinkie and her friends promised they would do their best to ensure the same happened with the changelings and Pinkie swore she would never give up helping them until they were loved. As her resolve returned, she then remembered something Chrysalis said earlier and she got an idea. “So you’re saying ponies and changelings can’t learn how to like each other?”

“Correct. Haven’t you noticed how my subjects took pleasure in attacking your city? Their anger towards your kind has always been there. I just helped them bring it out.”

“And you must hate ponies more than any changeling,” she emphasized.

The changeling showed her scowl. “You bet I do. A lesser race driving us into fear and making us living underground in secrecy while we starved? I despise you hay eaters more than any other and I intend to make you all pay.”

“And you hated me, right?” she asked happily.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at her. “You and your rotten friends injured quite a number of my changelings and the fact you are friends with Twilight certainly does not help. I despise you, Pinkie.”

“My point exactly,” the pony said triumphantly.

The former queen cocked her head from her change in mood. “Huh?”

Pinkie produced a large grin, annoying her foe. “You have just proven that changelings and ponies can get along! Isn’t that great?”

“How have I done that? I’ve said no such thing!”

“You said you hated me as well as ponies super-duper much.”

“I still don’t follow.”

“But don’t you remember what you said?” the mare hinted.

“Huh?”

“Even though you hate me a lot, you said you were thinking about not invading because you cared about me! Don’t you see? You learned how to like me, a pony! And if you of all changelings can learn to like ponies, then why can’t our people learn to like each other?” Chrysalis’s eyes were as large as dinner plates as she stared off into space and Pinkie could see one twitching. “So aren’t you happy that we’re all going to be friends? Your changelings are going to be just fine. You’ll see!”

Chrysalis slowly looked back at Pinkie and the pony began to grow very fearful. As Chrysalis stared at her, her expressions shifted slowly into one of pure rage. Her eyes pierced through her and she was bearing her fangs. “You little worm!”

“Huh?”

“How dare you speak to me like that, you insignificant wretch!” she screeched. “I am a queen and I will not have my words used against me by filth like you!”

“You’re not a queen anymore. The changelings threw you out!” Pinkie argued angrily.

Chrysalis pressed her face against Pinkie’s and stared directly into her eyes. “It was not my fault! Twilight foiled me and Nymph made me look like a villain!”

“You are a villain!”

“I am a queen who spoke and acted for her people! My changelings wanted to invade your country and I gave them the opportunity! The only reason they hate me now is because my sister told them lies!”

“No! They only wanted to hurt us because you gave them the idea! And because of that, ponies and changelings got hurt! You had them invade us because you wanted to do it for yourself, you selfish bug!”

“At least I was doing more than Nymph had done in her reign! She had no idea what to do about acquiring food and we were beginning to starve! I wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing, nor was I going to gamble our future away!”

That’s when a thought came to Pinkie. “If you care about the changelings, why didn’t you help her?”

Chrysalis no longer looked angry and was now uncertain. “What?”

“Chrysalis,” Pinkie said calmly, “she’s your sister for crying out loud. She needed help and you did nothing but make things worse for her. And because of that, changelings were starving. Why didn’t you help your little sister when she needed you?”

The changeling was at a loss for words, feeling doubtful about herself. “W-why should have I done anything for her? She stole my crown and lied to me for years. She brought it on to herself. B-besides, I did my part in feeding the people, she should have done hers.”

“But you said it was an ongoing problem even before you were crowned. You had all these big ideas that made them happier, so why did you wait until you were queen before doing anything? Why did you want them to get rid of Nymph first before giving your subjects a better future?”

Chrysalis looked away in shame, the truth painfully sinking into her. “I…I…”

“I’ll tell you why, Chrysalis. It’s because you don’t care about the changelings at all. You only care about yourself and your own needs.”

The former queen’s eyes shot open and she looked at her. “Stupid girl. I am doing this all for them! My new invasion will-”

“It’s not what they want, it’s what you want!” Pinkie interrupted. “It’s always been about what you want!”

The changeling took a defensive stance in front of the captive pony. “Oh, what do you know, Pinkie? How would you know what my subjects want? You know nothing of changelings!”

“Because they told me they wanted peace!”

Chrysalis’s stance shifted, feeling unsure. “Excuse me?”

Pinkie was feeling angry at her for what Chrysalis wanted to do, but she spoke calmly. “Celestia took us to Bugartha and they all told us they were so happy that she wanted to help them. They said they wanted to live with ponies and be happy, not to fight them like what you want to do.”

“But there can’t be peace between us!”

“Yes there can!” Pinkie countered. “You just don’t want to believe there can be because you don’t get to be a queen anymore if Nymph succeeds!”

“I’m protecting them from where Nymph is leading them!” she yelled defiantly.

“Protecting them from what? Happiness? Acceptance? You know how you said everypony would fear and hate the changelings? This is their one chance to change that and you are trying to stop it! It’s changelings like you are why everypony thinks they’re monsters and won’t give them a chance! And now you’re going to take their one chance away because you’re jealous, making the changelings live underground again.”

The changeling’s rage shifted into fear. “N-no! I…but they…”

“And do you know what they said about you?” Chrysalis froze, fearful of the answer. “They said they don’t like you. They said Nymph is a better queen than you’ll ever be!”

Loud, steady breathes could be heard from the changeling. “T-they didn’t say that.”

“Yes they did! They were all peaceful and you made them into invaders! They also know what you did to Nymph! They think you’re heartless and terrible!”

“Stop lying,” she threatened.

“And you know what? They’re right! You are going to hurt both ponies and changelings just so you can be a queen again; a queen they don’t want!”

“Stop it!”

“It’s true, Chrysalis! If you were a good ruler, then why did they want to get rid of you?”

“STOP IT!”

“They will find out about your plan and they will overthrow you again! Do you know why they hate you? Do you know why all your friends left you? Do you know why you are so miserable?”

Chrysalis’s eyes glowed green and she got in Pinkie’s face. “SHUT YOUR MOUTH!”

“It's because you’re mean, because you’re selfish, and because you are flat out evil!”

Chrysalis threw a hoof forward, putting a hole in the wall inches from Pinkie’s head. The pony slowly turned her head to look at the hoof, almost wetting herself from the sight. Chrysalis just eyed the floor and didn’t move. “You’re right,” she muttered.

“I am?”

The changeling slowly nodded. “Yes. My changelings could create a peaceful society with the ponies. There will be some difficulties at the start, but I am sure they can be overcome with time and effort. And as for me, you are completely right about who I am. I am selfish. I am uncaring. I am a monster.”

Pinkie sighed with relief. “I’m glad that you-”

Chrysalis looked back up with a deranged look in her eyes. “But I don’t care.”

“WHAT!?”

“Don’t you get it? If I let these negotiations happen and they succeed, where will that leave me? Celestia still wants my head and Nymph must pay for what she has done! I must have my crown to keep my freedom and title, no matter the costs!”

“But Chrysalis-”

The changeling shoved a hoof into her mouth. “I am done listening to you, Pinkie. I will go through with my plan, escape from persecution, and have my revenge and you are not going to stop me!” Chrysalis started draining the love around her at an accelerated rate. “I will not be remembered as a failure! I will not let Nymph be victorious over me! I will not let Twilight get away with foiling my plans for paradise! I WILL NOT LET CELESTIA TURN ME INTO A GARDEN ORNAMENT! I AM CHRYSALIS, QUEEN OF THE CHANGELINGS!” Chrysalis’s horn and eyes glowed intensely bright and she began to conjure the spell.

Pinkie tried once more to free herself from her bindings. If she didn’t do something, things were going to end very badly for her and her friends. Realizing that fighting Chrysalis’s powerful magic was useless, she tried speaking to her. “Chrysalis, please don’t do this! I don’t want ponies or changelings getting hurt!”

“I must do this for survival. This is the only way I can win,” she answered as she kept feeding.

The pony shook her head. “It’s not the only way! You don’t have to do this!”

“Like I care. I think I’ll just stick with this plan and be done with you and your wretched kind, leaving my subjects as the dominate species of this world and me on top.”

Pinkie was panicking, fearful of losing her emotions. The changeling’s survival instinct was preventing her from seeing reason. Pinkie tried to remember what Nymph had said about her sister, but she realized something else from her visit to Bugartha. “But Chrysalis, your plan won’t work.”

The mad changeling rolled her eyes. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Yes I do! Just because you’re their queen doesn’t mean the changelings will like you. You are cruel and unloving, which is why they took Nymph’s side .You won’t have any friends and you will be lonely, just like right now. They probably hate you so much that they wouldn’t take you back even with a war because they could find someone better!”

Fear made a sudden return within Chrysalis. “T-they will take me back! They will require my leadership to win against the ponies!”

“But would they really believe Nymph did this? Would they believe that she, a kind queen who is friends with Princess Celestia, would suddenly decide to make war after trying to join ponies and changelings together for so long? Would they believe that you just suddenly returned to help them? Or will they know that you, the mean and nasty queen, caused it and imprison you instead? And don’t forget, only royal changelings can take all of a pony’s emotions, so you can’t control us to say her soldiers did it. And you can’t say Nymph did it because she is almost always in Bugartha and Canterlot with so many people watching her. You know what will happen instead? They will know it was you all along and arrest you!”

Pinkie could feel the magic holding her weaken. Chrysalis was visibly panicking, thinking over the words Pinkie had told her. The evil queen realized that her plan was completely flawed. Pinkie was right that the ponies and changelings would never believe Nymph would do such a thing after trying so hard to bring both species together. Her mind was a jumbled mess, trying out of pure desperation to come up with another plan to save herself. “Chrysalis?”

“Shut up and let me think!” the outcast screeched.

The pony could only produce a look of disappointment. “You’re still trying to think of an evil plan? Really?”

“I said be quiet!”

“Don’t you see? There’s nothing you can do to be queen again.”

“Liar!” Chrysalis’s mind increased its pace in its mad pursuit of creating a scheme to help her. Her temples were pounding and she was heavily sweating.

Knowing that Chrysalis was vulnerable, Pinkie made her move. “You were already the queen and you blew it. Do you really think you should do it again when Nymph has done a much better job than you? She may not be the best queen, but she’s actually nice and cares about the changelings more than herself, unlike you! You are the one leading the changelings to their doom, not her!”

Chrysalis put her hooves on her head, fearing that it would burst from the intense pain she was experiencing. “SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”

“Give them one reason why they should give up Nymph and take you instead; one reason why they would want a queen who would make war just to help herself in getting a crown she doesn’t deserve!” Chrysalis looked at her defiantly, but her expression immediately shifted into hopelessness as she could not form any words. “You think you can get what you want by being mean, but that’s why you’re so miserable now. You were supposed to be a good queen, but you just took advantage of being one. You forced changelings into giving what you wanted and persuaded them to attack us. If your own sister can’t stand you, why should your subjects? Why should anyone care about you? And if your mother saw you now, after teaching you so much of what it means to be a good queen, she would be so disappointed in you, Chrysalis!”

Pinkie immediately regretted saying her last sentence as Chrysalis’s magic wrapped around her throat. The pony struggled for air and could feel the magic intensifying from the furious changeling strangling her. Although she wasn’t a changeling, the pony could feel the anger being given off by the villain. Right as Pinkie started to lose consciousness, she was suddenly released as Chrysalis’s legs gave out and she collapsed on the floor. Pinkie sat against the wall, gasping for air as she looked at the royal changeling. Chrysalis didn’t stir from her spot, completely motionless with the exception of breathing.

Somehow, Pinkie stood victorious over Chrysalis.

The pony worried about what Chrysalis was going to do next as she slowly inched her way towards her, hoping she was all right. “Chrysalis?” she asked nervously.

She flew back when the changeling stood back up. However, the former queen only hung her head in defeat as she slowly turned away. “I…failed…” she said, her voice heavily quivering. Chrysalis went to her bed and climbed onto it, pressing her face into the pillow. She just laid there without making a sound.

Pinkie got up and went up to her, who turned her back towards her. “Chrysalis?”

“Go away. Just leave me here to rot.”

Pinkie frowned from her gloomy response. She went around the bed and got on the side next to Chrysalis, who turned away from her again. “Can we actually talk now? Please?”

“What’s there to talk about? Do you wish to gloat how you’re right and I’m wrong? Want to kick this pathetic excuse for a changeling while she’s down? Go ahead. I deserve it all. You’d be doing the world a big favor.”

“No. I just want to talk. So can we?”

Chrysalis sighed. “I don’t care anymore.”

Pinkie wanted to start with what had been bothering her for so long. “So why did you start avoiding me and Luna, Chrysalis?”

“You both have been delightful to be around since I didn’t really have anyone to talk to and I didn’t want to hurt either of you. However, without an invasion, I would have no method of obtaining my people’s favor. I kept avoiding you both as much as I could in hopes that I could hate you both again, creating a reason for myself to invade Equestria. But in the end, I now just hate myself.”

“But-”

“So Celestia truly wishes to help the changelings?” Chrysalis interrupted.

The mare nodded, even though Chrysalis wasn’t facing her. “Of course she does. She and Luna and my friends care about them so much. We want to help feed them and be liked by other ponies. They deserve a chance.”

The changeling sighed. “I’m not sure whether to call you all noble or foolish, but I am grateful nonetheless.”

“Why didn’t you believe she cared about them?”

“How could I? After everything I had done, what reason would there be to give us any aid? Even before that day, I feared what she would have done if she learned of our existence. I have heard of what she had done to those she found to be a threat and it seemed obvious she would do the same to a race that feed off her subjects.”

Pinkie could sort of see why Chrysalis thought invading was a better idea. Along with her dream of taking over, the royal changeling seemed to have thought up of many plausible reasons why invading and removing the pony threat was a method of survival. Maybe things would have gone better had Nymph not been removed from the throne. “Chrysalis, why do you care about being the queen so much?”

The changeling remained silent for a moment. “I…don’t know what else to do with my life.”

“What do you mean?”

Chrysalis rolled onto her back and faced the ceiling. “All my life, I dreamed of being a good queen just like Mother. To be loved, to be successful, to be questioned by none. She was my hero. All I ever wanted to do was make her proud. It wasn’t just something I took lightly, Pinkie. I worked myself to the bone to ensure that I would bring happiness to my people. But then, it just disappeared. Seeing Nymph live my dream broke me. I had never prepared for something like that. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the rest of my life.”

“You got mad at Nymph because you didn’t know what you wanted to do? Weren’t you a princess? Why didn’t you just do that?”

“Because it was not enough for me. A queen shapes the future of her kingdom, leads them through hardships. I wanted it more than anything and I could not accept losing it.” The fugitive sighed as she rubbed her eyes. “Let me put it in a way you understand. Imagine that long before you met Twilight, you knew you were going to be the Element of Laughter. You grow up thinking about yourself and the role you would play, dreaming of being Equestria’s hero and making good friends as well. But then, on the night Nightmare Moon returned and when the Elements were awakened, it wasn’t you, but your closest friend or sister who gets the title. They go and have adventures with friends who were supposed to be yours while you get nothing. You would never be able to accept it and you would give blame to your friend. That feeling, Pinkie, was what I felt all those years ago and refused to let go of.”

Pinkie could feel her chest ache. The thought of something like that happening did not sit well with her. “But there is no way Nymph would ever do something like that. She would never hurt you.”

“Then how do you explain it, Pinkie? My Mother had always told me that I would be a great queen for the changelings; that I was a born leader, and when the time finally came, she just suddenly changes her mind.”

Even the party pony found it to be odd, but she didn’t believe what Chrysalis thought. She had met Nymph and she was desperate to find Chrysalis and have her back. There was no way she would have done such a thing to her. “I…I don’t know, but I refuse to believe that’s what happened. Sisters are supposed to love each other!”

“I envy your ignorance.” The princess just turned away and faced the wall in front of her.

Pinkie placed a hoof on her shoulder. “So what are you going to do now, Chrysalis?”

There was a long and uncomfortable pause. “My life is pretty much over at this point. I am a total failure and nothing will change that.”

Pinkie scooted closer to her. “You are not a failure.”

“Yes I am. The crown is no longer within my grasp, I am the most hated thing alive, and I have ultimately lost in my quest. I have nothing left in this world. No one would miss me if I was dead.”

“Nymph would miss you, Chrysalis.”

Chrysalis shook her head. “Have you heard a word I said? She has no reason to like me. I am beyond redemption for causing suffering to both our species. You were completely right. While I did invade for food, I just wanted the glory. I didn’t care about ponies and only saw making myself a legend.”

“But she does care about you. She told us so much about you and she said she misses you.” Chrysalis didn’t bother answering, likely not believing her. “She even attacked Twilight for you.”

This caught the outcast’s attention and she faced her company. “She…what?”

“Twilight said horrible things about you and Nymph got really mad. She cares about you so much and she’s really worried about you. You have to believe me.”

Chrysalis was in total disbelief that Nymph would even consider giving her another chance, but resumed her moping when she turned away again. “Even if she did still love me, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because I am still Equestria’s most wanted. Ponies hate me for attacking them and changelings hate me for being cruel and for endangering our kingdom. And before you even think that saying sorry will help, you are wrong. Celestia will just make me a statue and call it a day.”

Pinkie gently rubbed her cheek. “It will help. It’s just you’re going to have to do more to make up for everything you did. Remember how I said there was another way to help yourself? I think I have an idea of how to make everything better.”

The princess swatted her hoof away. “Don’t bother. It’s over.”

“It is not over. You just have to try.”

“I pity your childish imagination, thinking that everyone gets to live happily ever after. The truth is I won’t. I have done too much unforgivable things and I will never be able to cleanse myself of my sins.”

“It will work!” Pinkie insisted cheerfully. “You just have to trust me. Besides, what else do you got to lose?”

Chrysalis sighed, not caring for any false hope. “And what possible idea could you have, Pinkie?”

“Well first, I have question: what do you want, Chrysalis?”

“My crown and vengeance,” she answered.

The pony was not too pleased by her answer. “Nothing else? Are those the only two things you care about?”

“Twilight exposing me not only had me nearly killed, but I lost everything out of my failure, including being the queen. It was my destiny. It was my entire purpose in life. I was supposed to lead my subjects into prosperity, not despair. I need to be queen again so I can fix this mess and bring a golden age to the changelings.”

Pinkie turned her around and took her hoof. “Are you sure you want to be queen again? You weren’t that good and they all hate you now.” She saw that Chrysalis took great offense to that and quickly continued. “Just because your mom didn’t pick you doesn’t mean she didn’t love you or that Nymph went against you. And you don’t have to be a queen to do anything important. You can just be you and do so many good things. I’m just a pony and you’ve seen how happy I make others.”

“But Twilight…”

“Stop!” she shouted suddenly, startling Chrysalis. “I know you are mad at her, but what else was she supposed to do? You forced her into stopping you because of what you had planned. She was protecting the ones she loved, who were being threatened by you. Wouldn’t you do everything you could to protect your loved ones?”

Once again, Pinkie was right and Chrysalis could feel her self-loathing grow. “I…suppose.”

“So I’ll ask again: what do you want?”

The changeling took her time to find the answer. “I don’t want to suffer anymore.”

Pinkie rubbed the changeling’s hoof. “Go on.”

“I miss my old life. I miss my home, my mother, my…sister. I don’t want to live in hiding anymore. I don’t want to be remembered as a monster. I want to be free, to be myself. I am afraid of being alone again. Being isolated for so long has been absolutely agonizing. I guess I only dealt with it so well before was because I was occupied with ruling the kingdom. But since I’ve been living here, I actually began enjoying the company of you ponies.” She sighed dejectedly. “You are right of how I truly am giving the changelings a bad name. I should have listened to Nymph about the wedding, but my hate for her blinded me from her reasoning. We are only so lucky Celestia did not wish to exterminate us for our assault.” Chrysalis began sniffling. “I just wanted the outside world to be something we owned and not feared. Had I thought things through and actually did research, I would have seen Celestia for the kind soul she is and maybe approach her diplomatically first. But then again, I wouldn’t have cared, being who I was back then. As for what I want, I wish for forgiveness for my mistakes and to return home to live a peaceful and quiet life, dedicating myself to shaping my people’s future for the better.”

“What about Nymph?”

“That is a double-edged sword, Pinkie. If I am right about her stealing the crown, then that says enough. If I am wrong…” Chrysalis closed her eyes. “…then every horrible thing I did to her was for nothing.”

“Chrysalis, I know it’s difficult, but the important thing is you are sorry. Nymph still misses you and she would be so happy if she saw how you learned your lesson. You have to try to make things better between you two. I know you still love her.” Chrysalis slowly nodded. “And wouldn’t your parents want you two to make up instead of fighting?”

“They would.”

“So what if you could get Nymph back, have everyone forgive you, and make new friends? Would that make you happy?” Pinkie asked.

“Yes. Yes, it would.”

“So no more evil stuff?”

The changeling sighed. “No more.”

Pinkie’s expression was beaming. “That’s great! So you know how you’re pretending to be friends with my friends? Well you just need to actually be their friends along with Luna and Celestia and when they see how different you’ve become, they’ll forgive you. It shouldn’t be so hard since Nymph told us how nice you used to be.”

“You’re still forgetting the problem with the citizens of both of our nations. They would rather see me in a jail cell and I’m sure they can pressure Nymph or your princesses into doing so.”

“But we can change that, Chrysalis! You know how you’re super famous as Cherub right now and almost everypony is wondering what you’re up to?”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow as her curiosity rose. “Yeah?”

“Everypony thinks you’re a totally awesome matchmaker and we can use that to help you since everyone will know about you. You just have to act really nice and help everypony and changeling you can by creating love! If you can help more ponies find special someponies, then more ponies will be happy because they’re in love and the changelings will be happy because there will be more food! And when they see that it was all you and how much of a great friend of the princesses you are, they’ll totally give you a chance. And then you’ll live happily ever after! So what do you think? Is a great idea or what?” Pinkie asked excitedly.

This pony never ceased to surprise her. “That sounds…really clever, to be honest.”

“Great! And after we finish, you can just be a princess that still helps her people. But if they don’t let you be a princess anymore, we can find something you like doing together. It’s going to be a while, but everything’s going to be okay, Chrysalis. I promise.” Despite her excitement, Chrysalis looked very depressed. “What?”

“Pinkie, why are you doing this? The invasion aside, I have told you how horrid I truly am, I have done nothing but insult and demean you ever since I came here, and even threatened your home once again. Why not simply imprison me and be done with it? What could you possibly gain from helping me? What is it that you want from me so badly?”

“A friend.”

Chrysalis gasped, unable to believe her ears. “After everything I did and admitted, you…still want to be my friend?”

“Yes I do. You may think it’s stupid for me to still want to, but it’s even more stupid to have enemies. Why fight when we can just get along? What does hating each other ever do? If we stay mad at each other, then we just keep fighting and somepony is always miserable. I don’t want you to suffer anymore, Chrysalis. You saw what being sad almost made you do. Rather than just keeping you all sad and miserable, I just want you to be happy. So please, Chrysalis,” Pinkie hugged the changeling, pressing her face into her chest, “will you be my friend?”

It took a moment for Chrysalis to believe this was happening. She was so tired of feeling lost and alone and just wished for her torment to end. She no longer desired to be a ruler, but only to be loved and accepted once again. Since Pinkie gave her a chance, Chrysalis would do the same for her. A small smile appeared on her lips as she slowly held Pinkie with her forelegs and hugged her. “Yes, Pinkie,” she whispered. “I want to be your friend.”

They laid there for several minutes, neither making a sound as they enjoyed each other’s embrace. Chrysalis felt her fears and doubts fade away, knowing that there was still hope for her. It wasn’t exactly how she envisioned her future, but she was more than willing to take it. She buried her face in Pinkie’s mane, noticing how it carried the scent of cotton candy. She couldn’t remember the last time she did something like this with anyone, but she missed the feeling so much. “So do you feel better now?” asked the earth pony.

“Yes and thank you. Pinkie, I want you to know that I am sorry for what I did during the wedding and for being such a jerk to you when I posed as Cherub. I’m also very sorry for going mad earlier. What you saw wasn’t me. I would never do such a terrible thing to my people. I just got upset over everything and was thinking irrationally.”

Pinkie looked up at her. “It’s okay. I forgive you. But you know what we should do? We should write a letter to Nymph and tell her you’re ok!”

“No.”

Pinkie immediately frowned. “Why not?”

“Two reasons. The first is if Celestia hears that I have written to her, her guards will be all over it and they will trace it back to us in no time. Even using the mirror for communication would be risky since she could trace the magic.”

“Oh. So what’s the second reason?”

Chrysalis sighed and closed her eyes. “I…just don’t want to speak with Nymph right now.”

“Why not? She misses you.”

The fallen queen tightened her hold on the pony. “I’m afraid I still have some lingering doubts about her and need more time to think things over. Please understand.”

Pinkie wanted to argue with her, but she didn’t want to spoil the mood. “Okay.”

“I will in time, but I just want to focus on helping me right now. I have so much on my mind that I wouldn’t know what to say to her.”

“Then we’ll worry about it later.” Pinkie then pulled away and got off the bed. “Hey, you know what will cheer you up? Celebrating your birthday!”

Chrysalis actually smiled and stood up. “As long as it’s just the two of us.” They exited her bedroom and returned to the main room down the stairs. Chrysalis sat her desk and Pinkie held up the cake to her.

“So do you like it?”

The changeling princess looked down at the treat. It was a small, chocolate cake with pink frosting used for writing. She noticed something was incorrect and laughed. “I do, but I think the age is a little off.”

Pinkie looked at what she wrote and then back at her. “Well how old are you?”

“I’m three hundred and sixty two years old today.”

The mare’s jaw dropped. “Wow, you’re way older than my granny! But I don’t think I can fit that many candles on it.”

Chrysalis chuckled amusingly. “That’s fine, Pinkie. Maybe next year we could make a cake large enough to fit them all.”

Pinkie nodded. “It’s a promise! So are you going to blow them out?”

“I might as well.”

“Don’t forget to make a wish!”

Chrysalis thought that was a bit silly, but she decided to do it anyway. In her mind, she wished that everything would work out for her and she would find happiness. Holding onto that thought, she took a deep breath and blew them out.

Pinkie applauded her and cheered loudly, but she slowly came to a stop. “Oh…”

“What?”

“I kinda remembered it was your birthday last night, so I didn’t get you a present.” Pinkie stared at the floor, completely crushed. “I’m sorry…”

Chrysalis could feel how down she was, so she reached a hoof over to her. “Don’t be. You’ve already given me a present that will last forever.”

The pony looked up. “Really?”

“Your friendship, Pinkie. It is a gift worth more than anything and I’ll treasure it always.” She got up and made her way to Pinkie. “You know, I think you deserve a gift as well for coming to my aid and giving me a second chance. No one else has done that for me since the invasion.”

Pinkie couldn’t hold back her grin. “A gift? For me?”

“Oh yes. It isn’t much, but I hope it expresses my gratitude.”

“What is it?”

“Close your eyes.”

Pinkie giggled excitedly as she closed her eyes, but then something happened that made them shoot open. She felt something press against her face and she could see Chrysalis kissing her on the cheek. “Whoa…”

“Sorry to have surprised you. A kiss from a royal changeling is considered to be one of the highest blessings one can receive in my culture and after all you have done for me, I felt like you deserved it.”

“Well I really liked it. I don’t think Fluttershy will, though.”

Chrysalis giggled. “Good point. When all of this is over with, I promise you that I will reward you with whatever you desire for all your help.”

“Your happiness is all I want, Chrysalis. Speaking of which, it’s cake time!”

They spent several hours celebrating Chrysalis’s birthday in her home. Despite it only being the two of them, Chrysalis deeply enjoyed the party. She was actually willing to play some of the party games and felt like a kid again. She never did anything as fun for her birthday since her mother passed and wished she met Pinkie earlier. Once they finished, they just lied on the couches and talked for a long time. Chrysalis felt good from opening up and she could feel a connection growing between her and Pinkie.

Eventually, sunset was approaching and they decided to discuss business, which was going to go through some major changes. “So our new building will be ready later this week and we need to decide what we need to add in order to improve our performance. I’d like something to keep the customers distracted while you and I are out on a job since that is our prime issue.”

The pony immediately had an answer. “I know! Why don’t we have an ice cream stand?”

The changeling rolled her eyes. “Try to be realistic. I’d like them to maybe find some love while we’re out on business. Progress shouldn’t stop while we are away.”

Pinkie rubbed her chin. “We could have them date each other while waiting? Like speed dating?”

Chrysalis happily clapped her hooves. “Yes! That is an excellent idea.” She wrote it down on the paper and held it when she finished. “So we’ll need a secretary to create and organize the profiles and keep the costumers in check, somepony to run the speed dating, and security.”

“Security?”

“With so many ponies in one place, I can promise you something will go wrong. Plus I am done with being harassed by lonely losers,” she spat disdainfully. “Now the question is who I would want to hire for these jobs.”

Pinkie stuck her tongue out as she thought intensely of who would best suit the jobs they were considering. After a minute, she gasped loudly, catching her boss’s attention. “I know who we could get! Spike and Twilight are really smart and are good at organizing, so they could be your secretaries. And I’m sure we could get Rarity or Fluttershy to help run the speed dating and Applejack or Rainbow Dash could be security since they’re really tough!” Pinkie could see her friend giving her a blank stare. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like my friends?”

“Only a little. Well, all but one.”

Pinkie could easily guess who she was referring to. “Twilight? But why?”

“Because she’s the reason I’m in this mess in the first place!”

“Can you blame her? You tried to marry her brother by stealing the bride. What would you do if somepony evil wanted to marry Nymph and take over the Changeling Kingdom? And besides, this is great way for you two to get along.”

Chrysalis crossed her forelegs and huffed. “Fine.”

“That’s the spirit!” Pinkie leapt off the sofa. “I’ll go tell them right now!”

Chrysalis got up and stashed her papers in her desk. “Have them come by tomorrow so I can talk about it with them and be sure to tell them that I won’t be so much of a jerk from this point on. I’m a brand new Cherub.”

“Can do!” Pinkie got to the door and looked at Chrysalis. “So you want to do something fun tomorrow? We still won’t have work for a while.”

The changeling smiled warmly and nodded. “That would be lovely. However, I would prefer if we just sat and talk for some time before actually doing something. I really need someone to listen to me.”

“Okay. Are you going to be okay until then?”

The changeling placed a hoof on her forehead. “I…I don’t know if I want to be left alone again, but I’ll try. I don’t want to make you stay.”

Pinkie really didn’t want to leave her alone, but she was sure Fluttershy and the Cakes would wonder where she was. Then Pinkie remembered the changeling’s other friend. “Don’t be sad. Why don’t you write to Luna? I’m sure she will want to talk to you.”

Chrysalis suddenly remembered the Moon Princess. Even if she didn’t know the real her, her friendship was something she valued highly. “That is a good idea. I shouldn’t have blown her off and I bet she’s wondering what I’ve been up to. I also do miss her company.” She walked over and bent down to get on Pinkie’s level. “Before you go, there’s something I need to say to you.”

“What?”

She sighed. “Pinkie, I am so sorry about everything I did.” She hugged Pinkie, who returned the gesture. “Thank you for everything, Pinkie. I can easily say that you’re my best friend.”

Pinkie produced a very long gasp. “Really?”

“I do, considering you’re my only friend.” Chrysalis released her from the embrace. “Goodbye, Pinkie. I can’t wait to see you again.”

“Me too! Bye, Chrysie!” Pinkie quickly went through the door, now on the search for her closest friends.

Chrysalis locked the door, mildly annoyed. She did not like it when she was called Chrysie, especially since she and Nymph were not on the best of terms. Speaking of Nymph, she wondered if there was any truth to what Pinkie said. If Nymph really didn’t do anything, why did her mother change her mind? Did she know what Chrysalis’s reign would have brought? She shook her head, deciding to worry about such things later. Her bigger concern was to get Nymph to give her a chance, which might be harder to do than having Celestia do the same.

With Pinkie gone, Chrysalis was alone with her thoughts. She began replaying over the wedding in her head, looking at it with a new perspective. She remembered how Cadance cried and begged her to let her go while Chrysalis just taunted her. She was going to use her lover as a personal feeder and destroy her home for her own needs. Chrysalis could feel the guilt growing within her, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it. All those ponies running in terror as her soldiers unleashed havoc on them. And then in the end, she was thrown out of Canterlot by the barrier. Chrysalis shut her eyes and clenched her teeth as she remembered falling. She had never been so scared in her entire life. She remembered counting the moments until she finally landed, wondering if she was going to die. But in the end, she survived, only to be kicked out of her home and labeled as a monster. Chrysalis forced these thoughts out of her mind, feeling incredibly depressed and knowing she would go mad once more if she kept it up.

Chrysalis lied on the couch and stared at her ceiling. It was certainly shocking to hear that Nymph assaulted Twilight as she was not the type to usually lash out like that. Chrysalis believed that the years of torment had affected her sister in some way, which was not too hard to imagine. Most likely Nymph would not simply sweep their history under the rug and would have some sort of payback in store for her, which made her nervous. The queen was willing to give her sister to Celestia for punishment, so obviously she was still mad. It would probably be many years before things would be normal between them.

Speaking of younger sisters, she decided it was time to talk to Luna. She got up from her couch and made her way to her desk. In the bottom drawer was the mailbox that the princess gave her, which she pulled out. She then got a blank sheet of paper and a quill and began to write. She wrote a brief letter apologizing for cutting her off and requesting her to come over as soon as she could. Once she finished, Chrysalis put it inside the mailbox and closed it, sending it to the alicorn. She then remembered she had those letters Luna sent her that she hadn’t read and decided to give them a look, so she went upstairs.

In her bedroom, she rested on the bed as she pulled out the stack from the nightstand drawer. She began in chronological order. The first few letters were like the usual ones, talking about interesting stuff and asking a few questions about her. They made her smile faintly, remembering the good times they had before. Then came the letters when Luna noticed something wrong with her. She asked her what was bothering her and requested to visit so they could talk. Chrysalis could feel a weight in her chest grow as she read more, noticing that Luna was progressively getting more desperate in getting an answer. The last letters made her feel the worst. Luna was asking if she did something wrong that offended her and kept begging for forgiveness. All the letters involved her pleading for Chrysalis to talk with her and for them to be friends again. It was clear Luna was not taking her silent treatment well at all. Once she finished the last one, the former queen placed them on the nightstand and stared at her ceiling.

Now she felt extremely depressed. How could she have done that to the poor girl? The princess was struggling to make friends and she just tossed her aside because she was too busy thinking about her own selfish needs. Not only had she done this to Luna, but to Pinkie and Nymph as well. Her desire to be a hero was so strong that she wanted to push them away. Even worse, it turned her into a monster. All she felt like doing now was lie in her bed, feeling worse than she ever had in a long time. She could feel some tears roll down her face and was glad no one could see her. The sight of a royal changeling such as herself crying was pathetic.

Her mind was clouding with thoughts of her misdeeds. Now she could see how wrong she really was all this time. How could she have lost sight of what was important? She was raised to put her subjects ahead of herself, but when she found her dream threatened, she had completely forgotten this lesson. She thought about what Pinkie said of the changelings’ opinion of her. If everything she said was true, then she was already finished. Pinkie’s plan wasn’t going to work. She would just be arrested, tossed away, and forgotten. There was no hope for her. She should just give up instead of investing in something that was doomed before it even started.

Her thoughts were interrupted by loud knocking on her front door. Knowing who was there, she forced herself up off the bed and headed for the stairway. She could feel herself growing more anxious as she approached the front door. Would Luna be mad at her for treating her like that? What could Chrysalis even say to her? She had no excuse to provide and she most certainly could not tell her the truth. She felt absolutely awful and did not want to see her right now, but she knew this had to be done. She took a deep breath before opening the door. “Hello, Luna.”

“Hello, Cherub,” the alicorn greeted. “It has been far too long. May I come inside?”

“S-sure.” She stepped aside to let the princess in her home. “I wasn’t expecting a visit so soon, to be honest.”

“Well I just want to make sure you’re doing okay. It’s been a while since I’ve heard from you.” Luna sat at the couch and while Chrysalis sat across from her. “I don’t mean to be rude, but you look like Tartarus.”

Chrysalis lied on her side and sighed. “I feel like it, too.”

The pony didn’t even crack a smile. “What’s going on, Cherub? You’ve been acting strange for weeks and you wanted nothing to do with me without saying why. I tried to get answers through writing to you, but you never replied. You were my friend and you just decided to leave me in the dark.”

Chrysalis could see that Luna was very mad. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I was busy with things.”

“So busy that you couldn’t even drop by and say hi while attending a party right outside my home?” Chrysalis quickly sat up and looked at her in surprise. “The music woke me up early and I decided to take a look and who do I find there? You. I thought to myself maybe you had come to your senses and wanted to visit, but you just left. My hopes were crushed and I just felt miserable for the night, wondering if I had done something to lose you. Rarity showed up later and when I asked her about you, she said you had a great time and never once asked about me. So you were so busy boosting your own reputation you couldn’t possibly bother to visit your friend? No offense, but that’s a pretty hurtful thing to do.”

Chrysalis looked at the floor in front of her, feeling guilt pushing down hard on her. “I…didn’t know.”

“So would you care to share what had you so busy that you didn’t even bother to talk to me for several weeks? I bet you didn’t even look at my letters,” she accused coldly.

Luna’s aggressive tone was hurting her, even more since she couldn’t tell her the truth. “N-no, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“No? You’re going to keep another secret from me after all this and pretend it never happened? Do you even think of me as a friend, Cherub?”

“O-of course I do, Luna! You’re a great friend!”

Luna crossed her forelegs and looked sternly at her. “Then why are you playing these games with me? I try to be your friend, but you don’t seem to value me so much. What have I ever done to you?”

“Nothing!”

“Then what? Why can’t we talk like adults? Why did you avoid me when I have done nothing?”

Chrysalis was reaching breaking point as she flashed back to the last time she had an argument like this. “I…I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? You wanted to be rid of me and you don’t know why? What is it going to take for you to be honest with me? Now that I think about it, are we even friends? Am I just wasting my time with you? I will gladly leave right now if you don’t-” All of sudden, Chrysalis broke out into loud bawling right in front of her. “Cherub?”

“I’m sorry!” the changeling cried. “You’re completely right! I am a horrible, worthless friend! I know that I deserve nothing from you, but please don’t leave me! I…I can’t stand being alone again! I won’t hurt you again, just please don’t cast me aside! Give me another chance!” Chrysalis dug her face into her hooves and wept uncontrollably. It was probably the most embarrassing thing she had ever done, but she was too upset to care. It hit her hard that she treated those who actually cared about her like this to the point they were willing to give up on her. Ever since Nymph was chosen to be the new queen, Chrysalis had been in a spiral of self-destruction. She now thought Pinkie’s plan was absolutely pointless. No one was ever going to forgive her after all she did. She might as well just give up and stop fooling herself into believing there was any hope for her.

As Chrysalis sat there, she suddenly found herself in the warm embrace of Luna. The mare had her wrapped in an embrace with forelegs and wings. Rather than say anything, Chrysalis pressed her face into her shoulder as she sobbed. “It’s okay, Cherub. Just let it all out.” The red unicorn sobbed as Luna stroked her hair. This physical contact with the alicorn brought a sense of comfort to Chrysalis. The false unicorn wept on Luna for about ten minutes until she finally managed to calm herself down. “Better now?”

“Yes.” Chrysalis wiped her eyes and got on the other side of the couch. “I’m so sorry you had to see that.”

“It’s okay, but I would really like to know what’s going on with you. I have never seen you act like this before and I am very concerned.” She placed a hoof on Chrysalis’s. “You know you can talk to me.”

Chrysalis wished she could. She wished she could tell Luna everything and that she would be understanding and friendly like Pinkie was. But instead, she would have to spin another story. “I…suppose you deserve some truth after what I put you through.”

“Your past?” Luna asked, very curious.

“Yeah, but I would rather not get into the details of it right now. I let it affect me too much, actually wanting to push away my friends out of spite.”

“But what about now?” asked the blue pony.

“I’m fine now, at least to some extent. I still have a lot of cleaning up to do, probably years until it’s all behind me. I just hope I can pull it off. If I don’t, I…I’m scared of what will happen.” Chrysalis prayed that Pinkie’s plan would pull through as it was her last chance to be happy. The changeling then thought about what had happened today. She could not believe that she had snapped like that, willing to throw all her changelings into danger simply to avoid her punishment. She was extremely thankful that the pony managed to talk some sense into her and decided to help her after everything that happened. Chrysalis felt a little skeptical about Pinkie’s plan, but she didn’t have any other plan in mind.

“It sounds very serious.”

“It is very serious. Luna, I’ve done…awful things. Hurtful things. I’ve brought pain to others who didn’t deserve it and even took delight in it. I think I may be messed up in the head. I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but this needs to be said. You deserve to know more after how I treated you. The truth is I have lied to you about many things.”

The Night Princess gulped, fearful of what she was going to learn. “Like what?”

“First, let’s start with my wedding. My fiancé didn’t do anything bad. It was all me. I just blamed him to make myself feel better. I was out of control and too uncaring and he didn’t want anything to do with me anymore, which is why he broke it off. I was a monster and I couldn’t see myself for what I was.”

Luna gasped. “Goodness.”

“It affected my personality to the extent where my relationship with my sister fell apart. I then did something incredibly stupid and afterwards, I ran. I had to get away from it all and start anew, throwing everything I had behind. I was already punished for what I did, but I had to get away. Somehow, my ex-fiancé tracked me down and wanted to bring me home for my sister’s sake, but I would not have it. We got into a loud verbal argument and I threw his flank out. Since then, I just got sick of everypony, including you. I’m so sorry.”

Luna stared at her with wide eyes and with a hoof over her mouth. “I…I can’t believe this.”

“I’m sorry, but it is the truth. This is why I never talk about myself.” Chrysalis sighed. “But then, Pinkie found out a few things about me and I…got mad.”

Luna was now even more surprised. “How mad?”

“V-very. But in the end, she talked me down and we talked for a while. She made me realize how wrong I was. And now, I am working on my own redemption, if that is even possible for me.” She looked at the alicorn. “I need you to tell me something, Luna.”

“What is it?”

Chrysalis just threw herself at her, wrapping her forelegs around the alicorn’s warm body. “Tell me everything is going be okay. Tell me that I don’t need to be scared of what may come. Tell me…you’ll always be my friend.”

Luna smiled at her and held her. “Of course we’ll always be friends, Cherub, and you do not need to be afraid. Life is filled with many difficulties that will push you to your limits, but do not lose hope. You are a mare who is very remorseful of her actions and wishes to be redeemed. You have also shown to be very caring towards others, including me. And remember, I’ll always be here. I forgive you, Cherub, just please don’t do something like that again. I was hurt by what you did.”

The changeling tightened her grip, causing Luna to blush. “Thanks, Luna. I’m really sorry I cut you off like that without saying anything. I know you were worried and I should have said something.” Chrysalis released Luna. “Okay, that’s enough about that. My emotions need some rest, so we will talk about this more another time. It’s time to move on to more positive things. So I actually have a lot of time off from work and I was wondering if we could spend some time together and do some catching up, if you want to. I owe you that much.”

Luna smiled. “I would love to, Cherub. I really do miss your company.”

“I’m glad. And since I haven’t been fair to you, I want you to pick what you want us to do.”

The alicorn produced a grin. “Really?”

“Yes. I will do whatever you want to do. Your wish is my command.”

Luna’s expression reflected her incredible excitement. “I know exactly what I want to do. I’ve been planning to do this with Celestia and the Elements for a while, and I would happily take you with us.”

The changeling could only imagine what sort of activity Luna would be so eager about. Any royal gathering or sports event would be nice for a change, but she wouldn't be too picky as long as she was with her. “Sounds like fun. What do you have in mind?”

“I want us to go clubbing!”

Chrysalis chuckled. “That does sound like…wait. Clubbing!?”

“Oh yes! I have recently heard about these clubs ponies have at night, with bright lights and some great music!” Luna then began imitating some of the techno music with her mouth. “It is so great that ponies hold these fun activities during my night and I wish to try it for myself!”

The fugitive was still in shock. “C-clubbing!?”

“Yes, clubbing. Won’t it be fun?”

Chrysalis crossed her forelegs and looked away. “I won’t do it.”

Luna was shocked by her answer. “What? Why not?”

“Because it’s dumb.” Night clubs were something Chrysalis was very familiar with. It was an extremely popular thing for middle and lower class changelings to do while in Equestria. It provided them with music they had never heard, dancing that was fun to them, and a great way to find food. Chrysalis, however, thought it was stupid and degrading. As royalty, she was not fond of the idea of dancing like a madmare and just going home with some random stranger and heavily preferred her more tame social gatherings at home. Even Nymph, who loved studying the outside world, wanted nothing to do with night clubs.

“Come on, Cherub, it’ll be fun,” Luna pleaded.

“Absolutely not. As a celebrity, I cannot allow myself to partake in such foalish activity. I can’t believe you are even considering this, especially since you’re a princess.”

“But I thought you said you would do anything I wanted,” she reminded.

“Well I take it back. Pick something else.”

Luna lost her smile. “You really don’t want to go with me?”

She shook her head. “Not at all.”

“…Please?”

The way Luna asked made her curious. Chrysalis looked at Luna and could see her pleading eyes. It wasn’t the sad puppy eyes Pinkie liked to use, but it showed that she really wanted her to go. Chrysalis tried to resist, but she was finding it very difficult to turn her down. After some consideration, she gave in. “If you really want me to, I guess I’ll go.”

Luna clapped her hooves, very pleased. “Oh, I’m so happy! I promise you that you will have a good time. I’ve always wanted to sing karaoke and shake my money maker.” She then became lost in thought. “But what is a money maker, I wonder, and why do you shake it?”

Chrysalis burst out laughing, confusing her friend. “You want me to tell you?”

“Please do.”

The changeling got up, stood behind the princess, and pressed a hoof on Luna’s butt. “This is your money maker.”

The alicorn gasped and her face was as red as Chrysalis’s coat in her disguise. “What!? H-how is that a money maker!?”

“Well usually you need a pole, but all you do is wiggle it and stallions will throw bits at you like no tomorrow. So are you going to show those ponies that cute rump of yours?” Chrysalis asked as she continuously poked her rear.

Luna turned around, showing how embarrassed she was. “Stop touching me there and I most certainly will not! I will not let perverts pay me to show them my posterior. I shall be sure to warn Tia and the Elements as well to avoid any embarrassment.”

Chrysalis was ready to burst out laughing again. “That is a good idea. With the size of Celestia’s money maker, it wouldn’t be wise for her to swing around it without thought. Somepony could get hurt.”

The Princess of the Night put her hooves over her mouth and giggled uncontrollably. “You are terrible, Cherub, but I’m relieved that you haven’t lost your sense of humor.” Eventually, she managed to get a hold of herself. “Speaking of my sister, this will be your first time meeting her, won’t it?”

Chrysalis’s smile slowly disappeared, feeling uncomfortable. “Oh. I haven’t thought about that.”

Luna threw a hoof around her in attempts of reassuring her. “Don’t be nervous. She’s a nice pony just like me, not some stuck up snob. Just don’t crack jokes like that about her and you’ll live to see another day.”

They both snickered. “Good advice.”

“So when do you want to go? I’m ready whenever you are.”

The reformed changeling sighed. “Definitely not tonight. I’ve had one heck of a day.”

“Very well. So what do you want to do tonight instead?”

Chrysalis thought for a moment, but she heard her stomach growl. Despite having love available, she still needed physical food and all she ate today was birthday cake. “Eat. I feel absolutely famished.”

“Well how about I take you out for dinner? I’ll pay for it, too.”

The matchmaker was pleased with the idea of getting free food. It was very sweet of Luna to treat her so well and to show her gratitude, she got up to her and nuzzled her cheek against hers. “Oh, Luna, I will gladly go on a date with you,” she cooed.

Luna's cheeks turned crimson from the comment and pulled away. “I-it is not a date!” she stammered loudly.

Chrysalis just laughed at her reaction. “I know, I’m just teasing.” She was actually mildly disappointed. Luna had quite a nice body on her and a very cute personality. “I have to admit it is very kind of you to treat me like this, especially since I haven’t been too good to you lately.”

“You have helped me before, so I want to help you in any way I can.”

“Spending time with you is enough for me, but I will still accept your offer.” Chrysalis stretched her legs. “Might as well go now. It will rain soon and the sooner I get to bed, the better. I need rest.”

Chrysalis and Luna went to the door and the alicorn opened it for her. Outside, they walked together through Ponyville, where many ponies took notice of Luna. On their walk, Chrysalis tried to think about something they could discuss. Convinced that Luna and Celestia were not out to get vengeance on her species, she decided to ask her about that. “So…how is it going with the changelings?”

“Just fine. Peace talks are slow as usual and it doesn’t help with the other races watching, creating so much unneeded pressure.”

“The other races?” Chrysalis asked, now worried.

“Yes, they have been concerned about the changelings for a while and are constantly reminding my sister and me to be careful when dealing with them. I personally do not worry about them. Only their queen can be a potential threat, but she is on our side. It will take some time to convince the other leaders.”

“Pinkie has mentioned she and her friends paid Nymph a visit some time ago.”

“They have and it has helped them see the changelings in a better light. Twilight has actually accompanied Celestia to Bugartha a few times after and even by herself for some research.”

The changeling rolled her eyes, not surprised in the least. “Doesn’t surprise me. It’s all she ever does.”

Luna produced a small smile. “True, but she’s at least making good friends with Nymph.”

“I’m surprised she would even consider befriending her after what happened at her brother’s wedding.”

“She was reluctant at first, but she came around. I’m just surprised it took her a lot less time to trust her than it did for me, considering everything she had been through.” The alicorn sighed. “I do feel foolish for being so doubtful and cold towards her at first, expecting a trick. I have even frightened her at times. Even my sister has scolded me for being an airhead.”

Seeing how bothered her friend was, Chrysalis nudged her. “Well you just wanted to keep your people safe. It’s good that you and Celestia may have different opinions on things as it will allow you to look at both sides of things and give you time to evaluate your options. If Nymph was planning something, you both all of a sudden supporting her would have been bad. Don’t feel bad that you don’t always agree with your sister. If you did always have the same opinions, why would she need you to rule by her side?”

Luna thought about it a moment, and then smiled. “You know, I’ve never thought about it like that. Thanks, Cherub.”

“It is my pleasure. I take it Shining and Cadance have taken a liking to her by now?”

The Princess of the Night smirked. “Yes, but Shining often gets…flustered by her.”

The false unicorn raised her eyebrow. “How’s that?”

“I don’t know, but I think that queen might be a little too friendly with him. Sometimes I hear her call him Shiny and it seems like her eyes are often glued onto him.”

Chrysalis couldn’t help but chuckle. Nymph was always the flirty type and clearly she was drawn to the knight. She knew her sister would respect their marriage and not try something like Chrysalis had, but that wouldn’t stop her from putting them in awkward situations. “Can you blame her? He’s quite a catch.”

“I suppose he is, but she will end up in a cat fight with my niece if she does not control herself. I heard that many mares in the palace cried when they found out he was getting married to Cadance.”

“They’ll get over it. I’m surprised Celestia never fancied him, but I suppose she has seen more attractive stallions in her lifetime.” The changeling then felt a surge of surprise and mild nervousness from the pony. She figured this meant she was on to something. She looked at her and asked, “Luna, did Celestia have a thing for him?”

“W-w-what!? O-of course not! Do not be ridiculous! She was most certainly not upset that Cadance found him first!” she blabbed.

Chrysalis was in hysterics on the inside. “What about you? What was your thoughts on him?”

Luna gulped and began to sweat. She tried walking faster, but Chrysalis caught up, expecting an answer. “Well…he…uh…maybe?”

“Aw, Luna in love. That’s so sweet.”

The alicorn made sure no other pony could hear them. “I’m not in love! I just took a liking to him. The first moments of my life when I returned from the moon were hard and he was one of the only ponies that liked me and treated me well. I will admit he had a certain effect on me, but that’s all I will say about it.”

“I’m surprised Celestia hasn’t tried allowing polygamy,” Chrysalis joked.

“Now you’re starting to sound like Nymph.” Both of them broke into laughter, drawing attention of the other citizens around them. “But speaking of Nymph, the poor thing is exhausting herself trying to convince the ponies into accepting her kind. She hasn’t had a day off in months.”

“I’m surprised she hasn’t finished by now.”

“Well ponies still think the changelings are out to get them and it doesn’t help when a rumor like them eating babies or something comes up. Even if ponies can look past their mistake, there’s always economy issues and their influence on politics. Maybe she would have been finished by now if it wasn’t for Chrysalis.”

The changeling mentioned noticed the harsh voice she used to say her name. She knew Luna didn’t like the real her, but maybe she had a change of heart since the last time she met. Besides, she needed to know Luna’s opinion of her to get an understanding of how difficult finding forgiveness would be. “If you do find Chrysalis, what are you going to do with her?”

“Arrest her,” Luna answered sternly.

The changeling felt an emotional sting from her answer. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“You’re not going to give her a chance?” she asked worriedly.

The alicorn shook her head. “A chance to what? Get revenge? I have to apprehend her before she does something dangerous. If she could overpower my own sister, there is no telling what she is capable of. I must do this for the good of all of us.” Luna looked to the distance. “I wasn’t there when Chrysalis invaded. I was asleep as her army descended onto Canterlot. I was not there to protect my home and I will never make that mistake again. I will take her down and make her understand what she has done.”

The fugitive started to feel afraid of her. “What if she feels remorse?”

Luna eyed her company with interest. “Remorse? Chrysalis? I hardly think that will happen with her.”

“I know it seems unlikely, but she does have a soul, Luna. Do you think it’s possible she has realized the error of her ways and is reflecting her life choices? Don’t forget, you went through this, too.”

Luna looked away and considered her words. “I suppose it is possible. If such a scenario does arise, I will show compassion. Nymph misses her terribly and I would like to see them make amends.”

Chrysalis smiled at her. “Thank you, Luna. You are very sweet.”

“Thanks, but we can only hope that will be the case with her. I am concerned with her trickery and I cannot afford to be deceived. My priority is to protect all that I hold dear: Celestia, the Elements, Equestria,” the alicorn looked at Chrysalis, “and you, Cherub.”

The changeling princess felt her face grow warm. “I really appreciate it, despite not deserving your kindness.”

“That is not true.” Luna extend her wing and wrapped it around the matchmaker, pulling her close. “You are my friend. I know you have been acting very rudely, but I still care about you. I don’t want to lose you again, Cherub. I will guard you with my life.”

Deeply touched by her words, Chrysalis reached up and kissed Luna’s cheek. “I feel safer already.”

Luna was completely surprised by what happened and it took her time to form words. “Did…did you just kiss me?”

“It’s just a little peck on the cheek,” the red unicorn teased.

The pony princess turned her head away. “No pony I have ever met would even dare trying something like that with Celestia or myself.”

“Well you don’t mind if I show how appreciative I am, do you?”

“No, I actually feel flattered,” she admitted. “It is not often I am shown such affection.”

“Well your subjects should appreciate you more. They do not understand how lucky they are to have somepony like you.” Chrysalis sighed. “Even I am guilty of this.”

“Please do not worry yourself about it. You were in a very stressful situation and you needed space. Besides, it is in the past. Let’s just move on and not dwell on past mistakes.”

“I hope we can,” said Chrysalis. “I really do.”

Chrysalis made the most of her free time and felt much better overall about her situation. It was actually now a common occurrence for ponies to see her smiling and her attitude improved to some extent. During the day and even night, she would spend her time with Pinkie, which often involved parties or her listening to Chrysalis’s woes and providing emotional support. In the evening, Luna would come over and they’d go out and do all the fun things Luna wanted to do, which the alicorn could do since night court provided her with a lot of free time. Chrysalis even met Celestia, who was as kind as Luna, but she couldn’t help but feel timid as she was sure the sun alicorn was still bitter about her defeat by her hooves.

Chrysalis’s time off was over when Cupid’s Arrow was relocated to a much larger building. The main room was three times the size of the original and had a back room where they dealt with clients. They decided to go all out with the romantic theme in the main room. The wall paper was in pink and red stripes with little heart decorating it. A few tables were set up in a corner for the speed dating they planned. Jelly doughnuts would be provided for free along with the other usual treats as it would help create romance between ponies who were waiting to be called upon, which the changeling told her friend to stop eating without explaining why. Chrysalis even purchased a record player to play music that would set the mood.

Pinkie and Chrysalis managed to convince Twilight and the rest to come work for her, which would help Chrysalis win their trust in the long run. Mainly she persuaded them with high paychecks, which she could do since she was making good income, but everypony had their own reason for joining her. Since they were also busy with other things in their lives, she had it arranged so they came to work every other day, with three coming in one day and the rest the other day.

So far, everything worked out well. Dash was more than happy to be allowed to inflict pain on ponies whenever she was told to while Chrysalis watched for amusement. Applejack brought her apples with her and made a good profit by selling them to the waiting ponies, who often got hungry. Rarity was able to advertise her clothes for ponies who were ready to start dating and Spike was happy to able to work on the same day as her. Fluttershy was eager to work with Pinkie, but she had trouble controlling the speed daters, thinking if it was too soon or too late to hit the bell since she was nervous about disappointing the customers and needed Dash to help her occasionally. Twilight felt left out for being the only one of her friends to not have a special somepony and came when Chrysalis told her it was a good way to gain research on love. She was still looking for a pony she would consider dating, despite getting many offers. It would be some time for her to develop enough trust for them to give the real her a chance, but she was well on her way.

Today, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were working in the other room while Chrysalis and Pinkie could talk to clients and even each other in privacy. The false unicorn pushed a button on her intercom, which allowed her to speak with Twilight. “Next!” The door opened and somepony familiar to her entered. Unfortunately, Chrysalis was not very happy to see this individual. “Mr. Jelly? Is that you?”

“It is.” He sat down in front of her.

Chrysalis sighed loudly. “Believe or not, there are still no profiles for jam making mares after all this time.”

“That’s all right. I have already found the one.”

She looked up at him with some surprise. “You have?” She wondered what sort of mad mare would have possibly taken an interest in this guy.

“Yes. I see a beautiful future for the both of us.”

Pinkie gasped. “That’s so great!”

“Yeah…congratulations. So I take it you’re here for relationship advice?”

“No.” The stallion reached into his bag and brought out a jar. When Chrysalis saw what it was, she just wanted to die. “I know this was made by you, Cherub,” he said, smiling. “It is truly the greatest thing to be ever brought into this world.”

Chrysalis slowly leaned away from him. “Um…thanks? Are you here just to complement my jelly or did you need something?”

“I am here to do something important.” He unscrewed the top of the jar and reached inside. When his hoof came back out, Pinkie shrieked happily while Chrysalis stared at him in absolute horror.

“Cherub, will you marry me?”

“You’re going to get married!? This is the best day ever!”

Chrysalis was actually scared of the creepy pony. However, she was prepared for something like this. She smiled and leaned towards him. “Let me give you my answer.” She placed a hoof on the button.

“SECURITY!”

The door flew open and Rainbow Dash appeared. She entered the room and started dragging him out. “Alright, let’s go, fella.”

Mr. Jelly struggled like mad to get back to Chrysalis. “Wait! You don’t understand! She’s my soul mate!”

“Excessive force has been authorized, Rainbow Dash! Zap him good!” Chrysalis sighed with relief when he disappeared and grew a crooked smile when she heard his yells of agony.

Pinkie frowned when he was gone. “Aw, I wanted to make your wedding cake.” Chrysalis pointed a hoof towards her mouth and made a gagging face.

Back in the main room, Fluttershy was biting her hooves nervously. “Oh, I know the timer says it’s time for them to switch, but those two ponies over there seem really happy.” She looked at another couple. “But then that mare doesn’t look very happy with that stallion. What should I do? I don’t think I have ever made such a tough decision!”

The door behind her rung and she heard familiar voices behind her. When Fluttershy saw who was there, she gasped very loudly. Rainbow saw the new customers and cracked her hooves. “Here comes trouble.”

Twilight was about to send another pony to see Chrysalis, but she saw the intruders heading straight for her office. “Hey, you can’t go in there! There’s a line!” Twilight hit the button on her speaker and said, “Cherub, we’ve got a problem!”

“A problem? What do you…” She fell silent when she heard two voices approaching her door and recognized them in less than a second. “Oh goodie, it’s…”

The door flung open and two familiar unicorns appeared “Ta-da!”

Pinkie waved her legs excitedly. “It’s the Mareio brothers!”

“That’s Flimflam to you!” corrected Flam.

When they took their seats, Dash appeared in the doorway. “Hey, jerk wads! I got a message from my friend Applejack!” She whipped out the tazer and approached them.

When they saw what she was holding, they both panicked and hid behind their chairs. “H-hold on a minute, missy!” pleaded Flim. “Watch where you point that!”

“Oh Celestia, not that thing again! My life is flashing before my eyes!” yelled Flam. “No, Mom, I don’t want to sing the silly sugarplum song again!”

Chrysalis, in a panic, stood up before the pegasus reached them. “Relax, Rainbow! They’re cool!”

She looked at the changeling with confusion. “Seriously? These two?”

“Yes, now put that away and leave us!” Rainbow hesitated for a moment, but then she obeyed, leaving the room and closing the door. With the situation handled, Chrysalis sat down. “I apologize for that. So what are you two doing here? Don’t tell me one of you got dumped already.”

They both let out a sigh of relief as they sat down. “Don’t be silly. We’re here for another business proposition,” said Flim.

Remembering how much work their last deal took, Chrysalis was not very thrilled. “Another? What could you possibly want now?”

“Don’t be so negative. This will bring in lot of bits!” said Flam.

“And lots of love!” added the brother.

Chrysalis immediately became interested. “Go on.”

Flam cleared his throat. “Given your talent and celebrity status, I think we can do something amazing for the ponies of this town.”

“As well as the rest of Equestria!”

Now Chrysalis was hooked. Pinkie’s plan involved using her celebrity status to help achieve forgiveness, so maybe this could help accomplish that. “So what’s this amazing plan of yours?”

“Question: What’s the most romantic day of the year?” asked the one without facial hair.

Pinkie jumped up. “That’s an easy one! It’s Hearts and Hooves day!”

“Correct you are, girlie! Now imagine if we could make it more romantic. A fair with music, dancing, food, and so many ponies determined to find love! And you get to host the whole thing! With your fame, ponies from all over the nation will come!”

Chrysalis was loving what she was hearing. They may have been jerks, but they were possibly some of the smartest guys she had ever met. “That sounds like a brilliant idea!”

“Of course it is, since we thought it up! Now we just need you to help us with some of the funding and we will do the rest!” stated Flam happily.

“That will be no trouble at all. I will go to the mayor and we can have everything sorted out with the reservation. I’ll also have the money ready in a few weeks.”

Flim rubbed his hooves together, picturing the money they were going to make. “Splendid! Just inform us when you have it all done and we will begin coming up with what we’d want.”

“Sounds good to me.”

The stallions stood up. “Glad to hear you’re on board, Cherub. Now I’m afraid we must go as we have business elsewhere,” said Flim.

“That’s fine.” She shook both their hooves. “I wish you luck on whatever it is you are doing.”

“Thank you. And now we’re off,” said Flim. “Enjoy you day!” The two stallions exited the room and closed the door behind them.

Pinkie looked at the changeling, completely excited. “Wow, Chrysalis, this Hearts and Hooves is going to be the best one ever!”

Chrysalis’s face mirrored her friend’s, lowering her voice to a whisper. “I have to agree. If I can make enough ponies fall in love on that day, it will easily be enough to feed my people for a long time. They will take me back for sure. The media will be all over the event, so I could use it to my advantage. After Hearts and Hooves, every magazine and radio station will be talking about me and then I can show all the new Chrysalis.”

“Are you excited?”

“Very. It will be some months before then, but the wait will be more than worth it. I will be home where I belong and all will be forgiven.” She gave out a sigh. “Oh, how I miss my home. When I go back, I will never leave Bugartha again.”

The pony steadily lost her cheer. “You’ll come visit me, right?”

She nodded. “Of course I will. You are too important to me, Pinkie. I’ll always be around for you.”

Pinkie was happy once more. “But are you ever going to tell my friends who you are?”

“Once everything is squared away, I will tell them. However, I just thought of something.”

“What?"

The princess grew a look of concern. “We’ve been thinking how your friends will react to finding me out, but what about you?”

“Huh?”

Chrysalis sat up straight and spoke in a serious voice. “Pinkie, when your friends find out you have known about me and kept me a secret from them, they are not going to take it well at all.”

“Well it doesn’t matter! You are my friend and I have made my decision to help you! They’ll understand!” She suddenly gulped. “I hope.” They both looked at each other, feeling the weight of the situation. It did not occur to either of them that Pinkie would be risking much for helping Chrysalis. She could lose all her friends or even be sent to prison in the worst case. The pony was whimpering, realizing how serious this was.

“Pinkie,” Chrysalis spoke comfortingly, “it’ll be okay. Fluttershy succeeded in helping Discord, so they won’t blame you for trying with me. You understand how Nymph misses me and wish to give her back the sister she lost. We just need to make the most of my time as Cherub to ensure they understand why you did what you did. Fluttershy would be so proud of you if she knew what you were doing.”

Pinkie sprang up out of her seat. “You’re totally right! It’ll all be ok! I can’t wait until we’re all friends!”

“Me too.” Chrysalis looked at the recent addition to her desk, which were two picture frames. The first one was her and Pinkie from her birthday. Pinkie made her get into disguise so they could get a photo and cherish the memory. The photo did provide her with an occasional smile, but it served as a reminder to her of what she did that day and to never make that mistake again. The other was of her and Luna during their night at the night club, each wearing sunglasses and carrying glow sticks. While Luna was a ruler of Equestria, that didn’t stop her from being a free spirit, doing whatever she pleased without giving the opinions of others any thought and knowing how to have a good time, which Chrysalis admired. She just hoped when the time came, Luna would accept her for who she was and they would remain friends.

When Chrysalis was done thinking, she placed a hoof on the button. “Twilight, please send in the next pony.” A unicorn mare entered her room and seated herself before her. “Welcome to Cupid’s Arrow, where true love blooms. How may I help you today?”

Author's Note

At last, Pinkie has accomplished her goal by discovering Ponyville's matchmaker's secret and in the end, made this poor changeling feel happier than she has in a long time and made a new friend. Well done, Pinkie Pie. Well done.

However, don't expect Chrysalis to be skipping through fields of flowers or baking cookies (those will probably kill you) any time soon. Although she is not evil any longer, she will retain most of her personality. But don't worry, Chrysalis will do something very, very, very evil in the next chapter.

Feeling Blue

“Ma’am, are you ready to order yet?”

“I’m still waiting for somepony,” Chrysalis answered. “She’ll be here soon.” When the waiter left her, she looked back out the window, watching the ponies passing by in the cold weather. She wondered how the changelings were doing with the winter and hoped they were keeping warm now that they were living outside. When she was bored with that, she looked around the restaurant. She was seated in a booth inside a cozy dinner where many other ponies were eating. As spoiled as she was, she actually felt comfortable in this place. Chrysalis was always surprised by what the world of the common folk possessed and started feeling like one because of her time away from home. She was deep in thought until she heard a voice call her name. Chrysalis looked and saw Pinkie coming towards her. “There you are. You know it’s not polite to keep a lady waiting.”

Pinkie quickly shook herself to get all the snow off and sat down. “I’m sorry, but Celestia just dropped us off,” she replied as she took off her front boots, earmuffs, and scarf.

After a minute, the waiter came back and they gave him both their orders. He collected their menus and left them alone. “So did you have fun?” the changeling queried.

The mare grinned widely. “We sure did! It was one of the best slumber parties ever! I still feel tingly when I think about it!”

“Did Celestia and Luna actually partake in it?” Chrysalis asked curiously.

“And Nymph, too! We all had so much fun and I wish you were there.”

Chrysalis sighed. “Me too.”

“What about you? Did you do something fun yesterday?”

The false unicorn smirked. “If by fun you mean sit at home all day and read, then yeah, I had fun.”

“Great!” Chrysalis sighed, knowing that Pinkie wasn’t catching on to her sarcasm. “So should we talk about you know what?”

The fugitive looked over her shoulder. “Not yet. Our food is coming and I don’t want to be interrupted. Besides, I can’t think straight on an empty stomach.”

While waiting, Pinkie just told her about what happened at the party and other things of interest when they were in Canterlot. Chrysalis felt a little down she missed out, but it was for the best, especially when her sister was there. After several minutes, the waiter returned while balancing a tray of food on his head. “Okay, so which one of you ordered the Celestia Salad?”

“I did,” answered Chrysalis.

The waiter set down her lunch and then looked at Pinkie. “And you had the holy-alicorns-how-is-this-legal sandwich?”

“That’s me!” she replied while rubbing her hooves and licking her lips.

The pony gave Pinkie a plate with a sandwich that stood over a foot tall, filled with various vegetables and cheeses. “Enjoy.”

With the waiter gone, they began eating their lunch. “How’s your food?” asked Pinkie with a mouth overflowing with sandwich.

“Not bad,” Chrysalis admitted. She didn’t mind eating pony food as much as she did before, but it didn’t come close to the quality of food she had when she was royalty. She looked up from her meal and watched her friend take a bite of her colossal sandwich. “So Pinkie, did you do what I asked?”

The mare just smiled and shrugged innocently. “What are you talking about?”

The changeling narrowed her eyes at her, unsure of what game she was playing. “Your friends. Did you ask them what I wanted you to ask them?”

“Oh, was I on a mission or something?” she teased.

Chrysalis groaned and rubbed her temples. “Are you really going to make me say it?” Pinkie nodded excitedly, so Chrysalis sighed and said, “Secret Agent Pie, how was Operation Girl Gossip?”

Pinkie had to keep herself from shouting from how excited she was. “It went super, Commander Chrysalis! They didn’t suspect me at all! I slipped in, got the goods, and slipped out without them ever knowing that I was an agent!”

The changeling rolled her eyes. While she was used to Pinkie’s shenanigans, she had other pressing matters to deal with and was not in the mood at the moment. “Enough playing around. Tell me about Nymph.”

“She’s fine. She was happy to see us, but she was pretty busy with stuff. All she did was talk to those other ponies by using those big words I don’t understand.”

“Did she mention the status of our kingdom?”

“She said the changelings were fine, but they’re getting grumpy with waiting. They really want to come to Equestria.”

“It’s no surprise they feel that way. They are at the brink of a new future and it is being denied to them because of my mistakes.” Chrysalis sighed. “Did she mention me at all?”

“She didn’t say anything until I brought you up and it wasn’t much,” Pinkie responded.

“I figured as much. I guess she feels there is no sense of worrying about me since she can’t do anything until I show up.”

“Are you going to talk to her yet?” the pony asked, sounding like she was pleading.

The changeling shook her head. “Not for a while, Pinkie. I need more time. Anyway, let’s get to the usual update. What did the others say about me as Cherub?”

Pinkie looked at her sandwich, dying to take another bite, but her friend loudly tapped on the table with her hoof, so Pinkie had to wait. “Well, we only talked about you for a little bit, but they said they like you. Dash thinks you’re super awesome because you let her beat up ponies and pay her too.”

Chrysalis just chuckled while Pinkie lunged for her lunch. “She’s easy to impress, but I think it will take more than that to keep her on my side. What about Twilight?”

Pinkie immediately swallowed and tapped her hooves together nervously. “Oh, she said that she’s happy you gave her a nice job and everything, but…”

Chrysalis paused and looked up from her salad. “But?”

“She sometimes feels like you don’t like her.”

The matchmaker took a bite of her lunch. “Well that’s pretty accurate,” she replied with a mouth partially filled with food.

Pinkie made absolutely sure no pony could hear them when she said, “Chrysalis, when I decided to help you, you were supposed to be nice to my friends, including Twilight.”

Chrysalis swallowed and looked her in the eyes. “I’m trying, but whenever I see or even think about her, I just get irritated. I know it was probably for the better she stopped me, but I can’t help but hold a grudge against her.”

“Well you need to try,” Pinkie ordered. “If you can’t like Twilight, how is she supposed to like you?”

Chrysalis groaned. “I know, I know, but it will take time for me to let go. Now let’s get to the good stuff. I take it you asked them about the real me, yes?”

She rapidly nodded. “Yep! They never expected a thing!”

Before Pinkie left, the changeling taught her how to extract information without drawing too much attention. She couldn’t afford to have the others wondering why she was asking so much about her. “Good work, Secret Agent Pie. So what did you learn?”

“Well, this is what they each had to say.”

“I don’t believe Chrysalis will change her ways, but I thought the same thing about Discord. I wouldn’t mind turning another enemy into an ally, but she is much cleverer and I’m scared of the possibility that she will deceive us. She has every reason to be mad at me for exposing her and we both know she wants revenge. My opinion is to lock her in a tight little cell somewhere far away and then try changing her. Even if she does change, I don’t think I can like her after what she did to my brother and Cadance.”

“That repulsive thing? Chrysalis is not on my mind in the least. With Celestia, Luna, and Nymph ready to apprehend her, we have nothing to worry about. I’m sure Chrysalis will realize she has lost and will turn herself in. I wouldn’t waste my time with her and just worry about helping the other changelings. After all, why should we be nice to her? She made Nymph wear rags! RAGS, PINKIE!”

“Ah don’t like ‘er none, but Ah don’t think we should just lock ‘er up and forget about ‘er. She must have some sense in ‘er head and Ah’d like to take a crack at ‘er. Family’s important and Nymph needs ‘er family.”

“Why are you asking me about her, Pinks? Who cares about her? If she shows up, we’ll just kick her butt. Now give me a water balloon. I see Blueblood coming!”

“Me? Scared? I’m not scared of her! I’m a dragon, and we are born for danger! We don’t even know what fear is! Wait, why are you asking about her all of a sudden? S-she’s not here, is she!?”

“Um…I don’t know. I mean Discord was kind of like her, but he was just a big kid while Chrysalis is an evil, unloving, cruel, scary looking changeling who could look like any pony and has a desire for revenge and Nymph may want me to help reform her and…and…meep!”

“I’ve met many foes in my lifetime, Pinkie, and I don’t think I will ever forget her. She is the first in a long time to defeat me in direct combat and carry out an invasion of my city. Kidnapping my niece and terrorizing my people without a shred of remorse makes me curse her name, but I will try to put these thoughts aside. Chrysalis was a skilled ruler who can still help better her kingdom and a good sister who has lost her way and I would do everything in my power to show her the error of her ways. Of course, Chrysalis’s ego may be too big for her to realize how wrong she is and my patience for her will be thin.”

“My sister still has a spot in my heart and every day I wonder if I should let her go. Your people and my people believe it would be best for us all to imprison her for life, but as much as I hold ill will towards her, making her suffer will not solve anything. However, if she decides not to accept our mercy and still wishes to disrespect me and cause trouble for us, she can kiss my royal rear.”

“What do I think? I wish the stupid girl was never born. Nymph was absolutely miserable around her and Chrysalis was sick enough to take delight in it. We need to find her and make her understand what she has put our queen through. But then again, no punishment will be enough for that worthless, heartless bit-”

“HORNET!”

Chrysalis just played with the lettuce leaves with her fork. “Better than what I was expecting, to be honest. I just might have a chance after all. Of course, you are leaving somepony out for some reason.”

Pinkie gulped and shifted her eyes around. “N-no! That was all-”

“You know better than that,” she interrupted calmly. “I will always know when you are lying to me. I really need to know what Luna said.”

“Um…are you sure?”

Chrysalis put down her silverware and looked at her. “It is important, Pinkie. Please tell me what she said exactly.”

“Well…”

“For months I couldn’t go a day without thinking about her, but any mention of her still gives me rage. It causes me absolute fury to think about what she did to Nymph and even more when I think about her invasion. Poor Cadance was traumatized by her and she still fears for us all, wondering if we are in danger from Chrysalis. But do not be afraid, Pinkie. We have been ready for her for a long time and she will be brought to justice. Nymph deserves better than her. The changelings deserve better than her. I don’t believe in any way she will ever understand how terrible she is. Chrysalis better pray I do not find her first, or I will give her a taste of her own medicine. She will face retribution and nothing will change that.”

Chrysalis placed a hoof on her forehead. “I should have expected something like that from her, but this is interesting. As Cherub, I am one of her closest friends and as Chrysalis, I am her mortal enemy. I just hope the former will overpower the latter.”

“So what’s our next move, Chrysalis? Everypony likes you as Cherub and still mostly dislike you as you, so what now?”

The princess wiped her mouth with a napkin taking a sip of her drink. “Continue as normal. With your friends working for me, it will be easier to win their favor when the time comes, but Twilight is the priority. If she refuses to give me a chance, your friends will most likely do the same. They didn’t listen to her about me before, so they would be scared of making the same mistake. Of course, Twilight is only second to Luna. I’m afraid the girl does not exactly carry restraint like her sister and may do something she will regret if she catches me. Even if I manage to reveal things on my terms, if she feels opposed to me and that justice is necessary, that will be it. I will be locked up for probably longer than your lifetime, Pinkie. Maybe I could show my change of heart with time, but they will see it as a method for me to escape. Besides, I’d rather be outside a cell and enjoy the fresh air.”

“Well Luna’s asleep and probably busy today, so you should see Twilight!” Pinkie suggested. “You two need to be like super friends!”

Chrysalis suddenly felt her eye twitch, so she quickly shook her head. “Not today. I will ask her tomorrow if she wants to do something next weekend. I can only imagine what boring thing she will want to do.” Chrysalis took another sip of her tea. “Besides, I need to focus on winning over Luna. She will have more influence on my fate when the time comes, so she is the key to my redemption.”

“That makes sense. At least you two are good friends now.”

“We are, but it’s not enough. Our friendship will more than likely not survive the strain of discovering my identity, so I need to do something to ensure that doesn’t happen.” Saying out loud that her friendship with Luna could end caused her to feel a tingle of anxiety, which she tried to shake off, but to no avail.

The pony finished off her meal and thought for a moment. After some thinking, Pinkie grew a smile. “Oh, I know! Let’s find her a coltfriend!”

Chrysalis grew a small grin. “That’s the plan.”

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go to Cupid’s Arrow and find her one!”

Chrysalis took the final bite of her salad, placed the fork down, and looked at her. “Easier said than done, Pinkie. First, we need to wait until she is ready. I will keep pestering her about her love life and hopefully she’ll give our services a shot. The second thing we would have to do is find a pony that could make her truly happy, which we probably won’t find here in Ponyville. The princess has been through many hardships since her banishment and finding her a pony that can give her the love and support she needs will do us both a lot of good. She will be grateful for my help and will consider showing mercy towards my true self.”

“Okay.” Pinkie quickly drank her soda and held in her burp when she saw Chrysalis stare at her. “Hey, remember when I always tried finding you a coltfriend?”

Chrysalis gave a quick laugh. “I do. You were very persistent and it amuses me whenever I think about it now.”

“Well what about now? Would you like one, Chrysalis? I actually know a few changelings!”

The royal changeling looked out the window, watching ponies pass by through the snow covered streets. “Unless you know an attractive changeling that has a thing for evil queens, no thanks. Besides, living a double life and romantic relationships are two things that should never mix.”

“Oh,” Pinkie said sadly.

Chrysalis saw how downed she looked, so she said, “But thank you anyway.” This caused Pinkie to smile, but then the pony sighed loudly. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

The former queen leaned closer to her. “Hey, you already hear enough about my problems, so let’s hear one of yours. What’s on your mind, Pinkie?”

Pinkie sighed again and said, “I just want to be like you.”

“As in a princess?” she guessed while scratching her head.

“As in a matchmaker.”

“But you already are one the last time I checked.”

The pony looked up and shook her head. “No, I’m just your partner who finds ponies for you to set up. I want to be a super-duper good matchmaker like you! I want to make ponies happy and spread love across Equestria!”

“Where’s this coming from all of a sudden?”

Pinkie’s frown grew. “I just realized that if you go home, you won’t be running Cupid’s Arrow anymore, which means no more matchmaking for us!”

Chrysalis’s eyes grew when she realized she was right. Cherub would be no more and Cupid’s Arrow would shut down unless she found somepony to replace her. The pony was absolutely in love with her job and would be crushed to lose Cupid’s Arrow. Chrysalis got up and sat on the side of the table with Pinkie. “Well Pinkie, I will try to think of something. And if it means that much to you, then maybe I could teach you how to get ponies together.”

Pinkie released an extremely loud gasp. “You will!?”

“Of course. Maybe you can take my place when I leave and help make ponies happy and even more food for my people. I knew from the day I hired you that you would take us far, so I think you should do it.”

Pinkie hugged her tightly. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

Chrysalis hugged her back, smiling. “You’re welcome, Pinkie.” Chrysalis loved it when Pinkie was happy. Her happiness was contagious and it usually affected her too. She knew it would hurt to leave her when the time came, but she promised to visit her often. Deep down, Chrysalis wished one of her future daughters would be just like Pinkie.

They separated when they saw the waiter approaching their table with the desert. “Ok, so I got a mint milkshake for…”

“Right here,” answered the fugitive.

He gave her drink and looked at Pinkie. “And you had strawberry?”

“You betcha!” Pinkie received her drink and then he left.

Chrysalis stared at the odd drink before her. “So what exactly is a…milkshake?”

“It’s like ice cream, but you drink it!” Pinkie then sucked heavily on her straw. The changeling gave it a sip, discovering how delicious it was. Satisfied, she began drinking it down and the pony next to her finished first. “Isn’t it great?”

Chrysalis put her drink aside when she emptied it. “Indeed.”

“I’m so glad you liked it! Maybe next ti-” Pinkie suddenly yelled and started rubbing her forehead. “Gah! B-b-b-brain freeze!”

That caused Chrysalis to laugh loudly. “Oh, Pinkie. When will you lear-” She was cut off when she felt her own brain freeze coming and groaned as she rubbed her forehead. Both the pony and the changeling sat there with intense headaches and Chrysalis made a mental note to stay away from the delicious treat from now on.

After they split the bill and shared a hug, Chrysalis and Pinkie parted ways. The only changeling in Ponyville was not used to the constant winter weather as she only experienced the cold when she went up to the surface. It was her favorite time of the year when she was a child since snow was always so mysterious and magical to her and it allowed more opportunities for fun. She and Nymph would just be flooded with excitement whenever their parents took them up for the winter. Chrysalis preferred to play in the private garden since there weren’t other changelings to bother her and the only time she went to see the other children was when she wanted to get into snowball fights. She was glad that Rarity helped make her own warm clothing for the winter that she found to be fashionable. She had a red coat, red boots, a pink cap, and much to the white unicorn’s reluctance, a dark green scarf. Because she didn’t carry a coat like ponies had to keep her warm, she needed to wear extra layers of clothing to keep herself from freezing.

Before heading home, she went to do some quick shopping. She arrived at a book store and browsed the shelves as she needed something to do when she went home. She scanned through the shelves and only found two books she considered buying so far. To her disgust, there were several anti-changeling novels being sold in the store. The propaganda was nowhere as bad as before, but it still made her sick to her stomach. She was disappointed to see there wasn’t anything else she could find and was ready to make her purchase.

As she approached the counter, she noticed something of interest. There was a section of the store she had not looked through and was definitely not included in Twilight’s home: the adult section. She stared at it for a while, wondering if she was really going to go in there and look. It had been a long time since she had been…intimate. She was a little curious and decided that a quick peek wouldn’t hurt. She was very grateful that barely any customers were in the store. Being a celebrity, she couldn’t afford any mistakes that could hurt her reputation.

She quickly entered the section and browsed through. All the books she saw were exactly as she expected. They were just sappy romance books that had cliché stuff like forbidden romance or love triangles. She was about to leave, but then she noticed several particular books. To her surprise and horror, they were about changelings. She looked through each of them, wondering what kind of sick minded ponies would write about them like that. They were stories about loved ones being replaced by changelings and even some stories where a pony and a changeling fall in love, which she found really weird. She hated how they depicted her kind as sexual deviants because of their need for love and how they often posed as lovers.

But nothing could have prepared her for what she found next. “Oh no, no, no, no.” She took the book and re-examined the cover, which was titled “In Service of the Queen.” Chrysalis was hoping her eyes were playing tricks on her, but it was all too real. On the cover was a royal changeling that looked very similar to Chrysalis herself with a very naughty expression on her face. She flipped the book over to see what it was about. It said something about a stallion finding a changeling named ‘Queen Clitoris’ during her banishment and somehow he warms her icy heart and they fall in love. It was almost enough to make her puke. “I swear that if I ever find this author, I’m going to beat him black and blue with this book and make him eat it.”

She couldn’t believe ponies wrote this stuff. Changelings were more creative when it came to erotic writing. Chrysalis just couldn’t let go of what she was seeing. She hated the book as it described her as a heartless monster who only wanted to be loved all along. She thought it was stupid and she wanted nothing more to do with it. She just needed to put it back on the shelf and never come back to this store. It was so simple.

She placed her purchases on the counter. “I would like to buy these two books.” The cashier rung her up and she paid him. She had her books placed in a bag and she exited the store. Almost a minute passed and a green pegasus entered. She immediately entered the adult section and brought over a certain book to the front.

Chrysalis closely guarded her shopping bag as she headed home. With her reputation, she would be a laughing stock if she were to be caught with such a novel. As she walked, she glanced into her bag to look at it, still shocked at herself for even going through with such a thing. She was just very curious about what story they could have possibly written about her and hoped it would provide her some entertainment. Maybe she could file a lawsuit in the future because they were using her without her permission. Since Nymph was the type to read this smut, she wondered if she had found this and could only imagine her laughing her flank off.

Because she was not looking at where she was walking, she bumped into somepony and fell on the ground, causing her to drop her bag and have its contents scatter across the snow. When she noticed what happened, she gasped and jumped onto the book of interest. She immediately threw it back into the bag and then proceeded to grab the rest, relieved that she had reacted quickly enough. “Watch where you’re going!” a voice yelled at her.

She turned towards the pony. “Well maybe you should do the same!” The pony she ran into certainly caught her interest. Despite never meeting her, Chrysalis felt like she knew her because of her outfit. “Have I seen you from somewhere before?”

The unicorn smiled. “You recognize the Great and Powerful Trixie?” she asked excitedly.

“Oh,” she replied disappointedly. She remembered Pinkie mentioning a certain unicorn who loved to showoff, despite being a complete failure. “You’re the unicorn that Twilight had to get rid of for being annoying.”

Trixie’s expression lit up once more upon hearing the name Chrysalis spoke. “Do you know Twilight Sparkle?”

“I’m her boss, as a matter of fact,” she said proudly. It was something she would never grow tired of saying.

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you.” She offered her hoof and Chrysalis shook it. “Would you happen to know where she lives? I’m afraid it’s been so long since I’ve been here that I’ve completely forgotten where she lived.”

Chrysalis shrugged. “Well I am currently not busy with anything, so I’ll just take you over there.”

“Excellent!” Trixie walked along with her as she pulled her massive carriage.

Chrysalis watched in wonder as the smaller pony pulled her home with ease, surprised at her strength. “So why do you want to see Twilight? I thought she embarrassed you both times you came here. Got some sort of revenge scheme in mind?” She noticed she was getting a little excited when she asked that, but she pushed away the feeling.

The magician shook her head. “No, I’m not doing anything like that. She’s the only pony who accepted me as a friend from when I took over Ponyville and I just want to see her and catch up on things. She must be curious of how my career has been doing after all these months.”

“I suppose. Maybe she could teach you a few things while you’re here,” she said as she remembered that Trixie was apparently terrible with hers. “That girl is pretty good with magic.”

“She is! I hear that she is a student of Princess Celestia herself!”

“That’s actually true,” Chrysalis responded without interest. Even though she had been much friendlier with Pinkie’s help, Twilight still rubbed her the wrong way. She knew that she would have to let go of the grudge eventually, but it was a very difficult process for her.

Trixie squealed with delight. “That is so amazing! Maybe she could make me good enough with magic so I could be a student too!”

The changeling smirked. “I would love to see that.”

“You mentioned that Twilight worked for you. What sort of profession does she do? Research? Teaching? Magic shows?” she asked curiously.

“She helps me with my matchmaking business.”

The blue mare blushed, surprised by her answer. “Oh my. I didn’t know she did that sort of thing. I assume she had been already taken for a while?”

Chrysalis suppressed her urge to laugh. Twilight was still doing research on love and seemed to be more interested in learning about relationships than being in one. Many stallions had come onto her, but since the purple mare had yet to pick up on the lingo, she never received any of their signals. “Actually, no. She is just doing it for other interests ad has yet to find a pony that catches her eye.”

“What a shame. She is pretty likable. Speaking of love, I heard that the husband of Princess Cadance is really her brother!”

The changeling sighed deeply. Any mention of the wedding was always a complete downer for her, bringing up memories of being banished and her near death experience. “You heard correctly. Princess Cadance was even her foal sitter when she was younger.”

Trixie gasped excitedly. “No way! That is such a coincidence! I’m so glad those two got married. Twilight is such an amazing pony for exposing that ugly bug, Chrysalis.”

Everything in Chrysalis’s mind came to a screeching halt and she slowly turned her head towards her, eyes filled with spite. “Excuse me?” she asked coldly.

“Well you know, how she found out that the queen was posing as the bride and planning an attack. I’m glad Twilight foiled her, otherwise she would have been related to that disgusting, heartless, repulsive, and unlovable thing. I was disappointed that Chrysalis didn’t get splattered on a side of mountain or something when she got launched out of Canterlot. The world would be so much better off without her. I really hope Celestia tells those big bugs to go bother somepony else. I mean, who seriously wants to let them live here?”

Chrysalis was flaring on the inside. She hadn’t felt this enraged since the day Pinkie found her out and bottling it all up was simply not an option for her. She wanted Trixie to hurt a lot. It didn't help that she was also blabbing about how great Twilight was. While Trixie kept talking, she thought intensely of what she was going to do with Twilight’s little fan. Beating her was certainly tempting, but she needed to be careful since she was friends with Twilight, so the consequences could easily bite her in the flank. Besides, physical pain was only temporary, whereas emotional pain could last a lifetime. All of a sudden, an evil grin spread across her lips. She had an idea. An awful idea. Chrysalis got a wonderful, awful idea. “You must be awfully tired from traveling while carrying your home around,” emphasized Chrysalis deviously.

Trixie just laughed. “Nonsense! I have a lot of energy within me. I’m not as weak as I look.” When she looked away, Chrysalis shot her with some magic. Trixie suddenly felt fatigue spread across her body and yawned. “Now that you mention it, I could use a nap.”

“Why don’t you go ahead and sleep?” the changeling suggested innocently. “I’ll leave directions with you for when you wake up.”

The pony nodded as she made her way into her home. “Good idea. Thank you for all your help, Miss?”

“Cherub, and it’s no trouble at all.” Chrysalis followed her inside, took some paper, and wrote directions to the library, which she gave to the magician. The changeling said goodbye to her and left. Once Trixie closed the door, Chrysalis sprinted across town. She needed to pick something up before she went to see Twilight for her scheme.

After dropping off her books at home to ensure no pony ever found out her dirty secret and purchasing an important item, she went over to see the lavender unicorn. Chrysalis eagerly knocked on the door of Golden Oaks Library, wanting to see her plan in action. She didn’t care how evil it was. Trixie’s words left her sour and she needed release. After several seconds of waiting, the door was opened by Twilight. “Hi, Cherub!” she greeted. “How are you doing today?”

“I’m doing wonderful!” she replied enthusiastically. “I came by because I have the most exciting news for you!”

“Well come on inside.” Chrysalis entered and Twilight closed the door. The changeling didn’t see or hear Spike, so she guessed he wasn’t currently home. “So what did you want to tell me?”

Chrysalis faced her with a very excited smile. “I found a match!”

Twilight was now as excited as her. “A match? For you? Congratulations!”

The former queen shook her head. “No, for you!” she corrected as she pointed a hoof at her.

Twilight was shocked by what she heard, turning from excited to panicked. “Y-you did? Already? But I need more time to research dating. I’m still not even sure what baseball has to do with love!”

Chrysalis released a hearty laugh, finding her argument hilarious. “Now don’t you worry, Twilight. I came by because I want to help you do everything right. It is about time you started dating, after all.”

Twilight paced around the room for a moment, considering whether or not she was ready for this. “So who is this pony?”

“Well here’s the thing. You see, it’s a she.”

Celestia’s student cocked her head in confusion. “A girl? But I don’t think I’m a lesbian.”

Chrysalis faked a chuckle. “Let’s not be so hasty. Pinkie didn’t realize it until she spent some time with Fluttershy. I have a feeling that the same will happen to you.”

The purple unicorn still felt uneasy. “I don’t know…”

Chrysalis could tell she was extremely reluctant, so she needed to word it in a way that would make her more willing. Luckily, it was Twilight, so that wasn’t difficult. “Let me put it this way: you don’t know that you like something until you try it. Just give her a shot and maybe she will grow onto you.” She could see Twilight was not convinced and decided to use a different approach. “Look, just think of it from a scientific point of view. If you want to learn about love, just try going with this mare and see what results you get. Remember to write a few notes here and there and maybe make some sort of conclusion out of all of it.”

Twilight became eager. “You mean like an experiment?”

The princess grinned at her. “Yes, that’s exactly it. You’re experimenting.”

The mare grabbed some blank pieces of paper and placed it on the table to prepare for her experiment. “But what do I even say to her? I’ve never done something like this before.”

“And that is why I came prepared.” Chrysalis reached into her bag and brought out a small box. She opened it up and showed her what was inside.

“Earrings?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“Actually, they’re some cheap communication crystals I got from the store. You just have to wear one of them and I will use the other to tell you what to say.”

“That’s a great idea!”

“It most certainly is.” An evil grin appeared on her face. “Now Twilight, I need to explain to you the concept of playing hard to get.”

Twilight paced around the room as Chrysalis patiently sat at a chair while sipping tea, acting calm. The pony couldn’t stop thinking about what mare she could have possibly found for her. She tried asking, but Chrysalis kept a tight lip about her. Twilight had hoped it was somepony who had as much interest in knowledge as she did. Chrysalis looked out the window once more and became excited, seeing Trixie’s wagon in the distance. “Here she comes, Twilight. Are you ready?”

Twilight averted her gaze. “I’m a little nervous.”

The changeling chuckled. “Don’t be. Just do exactly as I say and everything will be fine.” She then went upstairs to hide herself, ready to spring her trap.

Twilight waited for about a minute until she heard loud knocking on her door. She slowly walked over to it and placed her hoof on the handle. She let out a gulp before turning it and seeing her visitor. And like how she expected, she was not prepared for who was on the other side. “Trixie!?”

“Yes, it is I!” She stood on her hind legs and made fireworks appear behind her, providing a dazzling entrance. “Are you surprised to see me? I bet you are! Did you like my entrance? I bet you did!” Trixie started jumping in place. “Oh, it’s so good to see you, Twilight! We have so much to talk about!”

Twilight stared with her mouth hanging open, trying to process the situation in her head. Out of the mares she could have been set up with, it was Trixie of all ponies? She then heard a voice in her ear, snapping her out of her confusion. Listening to the orders from the changeling, a smug smile grew across her face. “I must admit, I’m surprised to see you come back here.”

The magician giggled. “Do you mind if I come in?”

As Trixie tried making her way inside, Chrysalis ordered Twilight to stop her. The oblivious unicorn put a hoof on the magician’s face and pushed her back outside. “Actually, I do mind. I don’t want you ruining my nice home with your worthlessness.”

Trixie gasped in horror. “Excuse me!?”

“You heard me.” Twilight stood up and leaned against the doorway. She looked at her hoof and pretended to be uninterested in the mare. “So why did you bother showing your face around here? I can’t think of a single pony who would be happy to see you.”

The mare became very confused. “I-I came to see you, Twilight!”

“And you have. Are you going to leave now?” she asked in an uncaring tone.

The magician was incredibly distraught as she fell on her knees and crawled towards her. “B-b-but I thought we were friends!”

Twilight got down from the doorway and looked at her, laughing smugly. “Oh, about that. I only said that so I could look good in front of Princess Celestia. I must admit, I’m a pretty good actress. Speaking of the princess, I heard you wanted to be her student.”

Trixie’s heart jumped and she sprung up onto her feet. “I do!”

“Here, let me help you with that.” Twilight brought to her a quill and a piece of parchment with her magic. She cleared her throat and said aloud as she wrote, “Dear Princess Celestia, I want to tell you about a pony named Trixie. She is the most worthless, annoying, ugly, idiotic, loud mouthed, unlovable, wretched, laughable, and most importantly, talentless pony in all of Equestria. She is so unlikable that if she were to suddenly drop dead, the world would be a better place. If you ever happen to have the misfortune of coming across this poor excuse for a pony, please kindly banish her from Equestria for being such an embarrassment to her species. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” When she finished, she made the letter disappear with her magic. “How do you like that?”

Tears were falling across Trixie’s face. “Why are you being so cruel to me!?” she sobbed.

Twilight got up in her face, angry. “Because the last two times you came here, you embarrassed my friends and took over the town, so I have no reason to like you, Trixie!”

The destroyed mare grabbed Twilight’s foreleg. “I-I’m sorry, Twilight! Forgive me!”

The purple unicorn pulled away. “Sorry means nothing from you. Now you better take your little, stupid house and get out of Ponyville. And if I ever see you again, I will make the rest of your life a living nightmare!” She stepped back into her home and slammed the door. She could hear Trixie crying from the other side and it fading as she ran away.

Chrysalis then came down the stairs. When she got to the bottom, she slowly clapped her hooves. “Bravo, Twilight. That was astounding. Best I had ever seen. You are a real natural at this.”

Despite her praise, Twilight was filled with doubt and regret. “I don’t feel so good about what I did. I think I really hurt her feelings.”

The changeling just laughed and patted her on the back. “Don’t worry. It’s all just a game in dating. You did exactly as you should. And if for some reason it didn’t work, there are still plenty of other ponies for you.”

“I guess,” she muttered.

“Great! Now I’m going to go home. Enjoy your weekend, Twilight.” As she started leaving, Twilight suddenly got in front of her.

“Cherub, are you sure we didn’t do something wrong? I think Trixie’s really hurt by what I said and I want to talk to her.”

Chrysalis just kept smiling at her. “Twilight, it will be fine. Just take my word for it. Now have a nice day.”

The purple pony sighed. “You too, Cherub.” When the false unicorn left the building, Twilight went upstairs and lied on her bed. She couldn’t stop thinking about what happened between her and Trixie. Even though Cherub had said that she had done everything correctly, she still felt guilty for what she did. Trixie was completely devastated by how she treated her and she really wanted to apologize. What was also bothering her was Trixie being a potential love interest. But she pushed these thoughts away, much more concerned about the mare’s emotional state. Twilight got up, dressed in her winter clothing, and left the library. She was going to need a second opinion.

“Hi, Twi!” greeted Pinkie. “Do you want some delicious gingerbread ponies?”

“Thanks, Pinkie.” Twilight took one and bit into it. “I came because I need to talk to you about something important.”

“Like what?” asked the pink mare.

Twilight sat at the table in the kitchen and her friend joined her. “Earlier today, Cherub came by and told me that she found a pony that would be perfect for me, which turned out to be a girl.”

The earth pony gasped loudly and kicked her legs excitedly. “It was a girl? Are you a lesbian like me!?”

“Pinkie, let me finish. So anyway, finally the pony comes to my house and it turned out to be Trixie!”

Pinkie and her cookies gasped. “What!?”

“I know, right? So she seemed really happy to see me, but then I started saying really mean things to her because Cherub told me to.” Twilight hung her head and closed her eyes. “By the time I was finished, she was crying and she then ran away. Cherub said I did everything correctly, but I still felt like it was wrong. I came by so I could get your thoughts on the situation.”

Pinkie stood up. “Well I think you should go over to apologize. No pony should ever treat another pony like that. Why would you ever do that to Trixie? She’s your friend.”

“Because Cherub made me do it!” she argued. “I trusted her because she’s an expert on dating. It’s not like she would have me hurt somepony on purpose, right?” Pinkie darted her eyes around and was laughing nervously, generating suspicion from Twilight. “Is there something I should know?”

Pinkie jumped. “N-no! I mean, maybe she just made a mistake. That happens sometimes, right?” she suggested hastily.

“I suppose.” Twilight assumed that was the reason for it. Cherub was very serious about creating real romance and held no grudge against her as far as she knew, so a mistake would have been the most likely reason for what happened. The unicorn stood up and sighed. “I better go find Trixie and say I’m sorry.”

Pinkie waved goodbye to her, but then froze. After realizing what the situation was, she gasped extremely loudly and bolted to her friend. “WAIT! I want to help!”

Twilight smiled at her. “Sure. It would be nice to have somepony with me. Come on, Pinkie. Let’s go find Trixie!”

As they ran out the door and onto the snow covered streets of Ponyville, Pinkie said, “We should totally bring the other girls. I’m sure they will want to help as much as I do.”

“Good point. I wonder if Cherub would like to help too.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” Pinkie whimpered while slowing down.

Twilight noticed her decrease in pace and came to a stop in front of her. “Huh? Why not, Pinkie?”

The pink pony was shaking and darting her eyes all around. “Because…she…uh…”

Twilight narrowed her eyes at her friend. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“She’s speaking to some super important ponies for her holiday thing,” Pinkie lied. “She’s really nervous because these ponies are like super famous and she really wants them to come.”

That was enough to convince her friend. “Oh. I guess we shouldn’t bother her then.” Twilight walked ahead as Pinkie wiped the sweat off her forehead. Tomorrow, she would be sure to have a talk with Chrysalis.

Over time, they convinced the rest of their friends to lend a hoof in helping Twilight find Trixie. They were very surprised to hear that Trixie had returned once again and were even more surprised to hear about what happened between the two unicorns earlier. Twilight was more focused on repairing their damaged relationship than trying to get into one with her, which was what all of her friends were thinking about as she was the last of the group who was single and Cherub seemed to believe they were good for each other.

The six ponies and dragon wandered the streets, asking ponies for her whereabouts. While following one of their leads, Pinkie stuck her head in the snow and began sniffing the ground as she walked. “Pinkie, just what in the hay are ya up to?” asked Applejack curiously.

Pinkie lifted her head and carried a large pile of snow on top. “I’m trying to get her scent so we can find her!”

Dash rolled her eyes. “Do you even know what she smells like?”

She nodded excitedly, shaking off all of the white fluff. “Of course I do!”

All of her friends became surprised. “Really? What does she smell like?” asked Fluttershy.

“She smells like Trixie!” Her friends groaned as Pinkie kept trying to acquire her scent. “I smell three scents. There’s flowers, wood polish, and somepony who hasn’t take a bath! We need to split and see where they take us.”

“Or we could just follow the wagon tracks,” suggested Rarity while pointing a hoof.

Pinkie looked up. They were currently standing between a pair of wagon tracks. “Oh.”

They followed the trail to the outskirts of Ponyville. They eventually found Trixie’s home sitting alone, but no sign of the mare. Twilight gulped as she approached the door. “Guess I better see her.”

“It’ll be okay. We’ll be right here if ya need us,” reminded the farmer.

Twilight nodded and stood in front of the door. She tapped on the door and called out, “Trixie?” There was no answer. The door was unlocked, so she entered the carriage. “Trixie, are you in here?”

“I am,” the magician responded coldly. She was sitting at a table and was facing away from her.

Twilight closed the door and slowly approached. “Can we talk for a moment?”

“Talk? We did plenty of that already and I am not interested in talking anymore,” she replied in a hostile tone.

“Look, I’m sorry about-“

“Sorry? Oh trust me, you’re going to be sorry!” Trixie leapt from her seat and got in an aggressive stance. “I am done with you, Sparkle. We’re going to settle this once and for all!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You want another duel?”

“I do! But this time, it’s going to be a fight to the death!”

“What!? Trixie, you are seriously overreacting.”

“I am not! Prepare to die!” Twilight saw her horn glow and a stream of magic coming towards her. Twilight closed her eyes and prepared for the impact. But what happened was what she didn’t expect. All she felt was a few sparks mildly irritating her. She looked and saw Trixie still shooting magic at her with a face filled with rage.

“Uh…what are you doing?” Twilight asked.

“I am making you pay for everything you have done!”

The purple unicorn was completely uninterested by her assault. “Trixie, stop it. This is just embarrassing.”

“Oh, you want me to stop torturing you?” the showmare taunted.

“It feels more like somepony’s rubbing leaves against me.”

“Well how about this?” Trixie shot another bolt of magic at her and Twilight just rolled her eyes.

“Seriously, stop it.”

“Well why don’t you make me, Sparkle?” Twilight shot her own magic at her, throwing Trixie against the wall and she fell onto the floor. “Okay, you win.”

Twilight sighed and shook her head. “Can we talk now?”

Trixie got up from the floor. “Have it your way.” They both sat at the table, where the magician crossed her forelegs and looked away. “So what do you want, Twilight? You’re not exactly the pony I want to see.”

Twilight also looked away, feeling very guilty. “I just wanted to talk about what happened earlier and say that I am really sorry about the whole thing and never meant any of it.”

The blue unicorn looked at her angrily. “Well why did you say those things to me? I just wanted to say hi and you treat me like garbage! And worst of all, you sent that letter to Celestia!”

Twilight quickly shook her head. “Actually I didn’t. I just hid it somewhere.”

“I suppose that’s a load off my mind. But back to the point,” Trixie slammed her hoof on the table, looking like she was ready to cry again, “why did you say those things!?”

The Element of Magic closed her eyes and said, “I got some bad advice.”

“What do you mean?”

Twilight looked at her and admitted, “You see, I was told that you were kind of a possible love interest and-”

Trixie held a hoof up, silencing her. Her expression was now filled with absolute shock. “I’m sorry, what?” Twilight flinched, knowing this was going to be a very awkward conversation.

Back outside, Twilight’s friends were listening in, trying to make out what they were saying. They heard Trixie threatening Twilight, but they knew her power was laughable. After the loud slam, they only heard mumbling until Trixie shouted. After that, there was brief silence. “I wonder why it got so quiet,” said Spike.

“Don’t know, but I think we should investigate.” Rainbow Dash went up to the door and quietly opened it enough so she could see inside and then her friends piled around her.

“So that’s the story,” Twilight concluded. “Again, I’m really sorry I put you through all that.”

“So you never meant anything you said? It was all fake?”

“Yeah.” The purple pony sighed. “You’re not still mad, are you?”

Trixie slowly paced around the carriage. “I am still a bit angry, but I think I need to see Cherub and give her a piece of my mind.” She stopped and looked at her company. “Look, I think we should try putting this incident behind us. Every time you and I have met, it got pretty bad and I don’t want to repeat history. Besides, I feel like I should give you another chance as you have done so for me, especially since you didn’t intend to hurt me. I want us to be friends, Twilight.”

Twilight smiled at her and they approached each other for a hug. “Thank you, Trixie. I promise to make it all up to you.”

“And Twilight?”

“Yeah?”

Trixie pulled away from her. “You don’t make a girl like you by being mean.” When Twilight turned her head away, Trixie took it and made her look at her. “You should do something like this.” Trixie leaned forward and kissed her lips, stunning Twilight with intense confusion.

Twilight’s friends all gasped loudly, causing the two mares to stop and Twilight to immediately pull away. “GIRLS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?”

“I think that gives a whole new meaning to kissing and making up!” said Pinkie happily as she jumped inside.

Twilight laughed nervously as well as blushed as her friends held devious smiles. “Trixie sort of caught me by surprise. Speaking of which, why did you do that?”

Trixie chuckled at her. “I was just giving you some friendly advice. Besides, I thought you said you were trying to get me to like you.”

“H-h-hang on a second!” Twilight stammered as all her friends became giddy. “I didn’t say that! I just said my friend suggested that I tried to get in a relationship with you. I’m not even sure I like girls.”

“Well…I kind of like you,” Trixie admitted while blushing.

Everypony looked at her with wide eyes. “You…do?” Twilight asked in shock.

“Yes. You have given me forgiveness for my previous actions and were the only one who was willing enough to accept me as a friend. I have also learned much about you and you are sort of my inspiration.” Trixie stroked her cheek. “There’s also the fact you’re pretty cute.”

Twilight could not believe what she was hearing. Trixie was a pony she barely knew as they only met three times, yet here she was calling her cute. “W-well, I’m glad we can be friends again?”

The white unicorn pushed her forward. “Don’t you want to be more than friends?” she asked suggestively.

“Rarity!”

Rainbow also pushed her. “Come on, Twilight! You should totally go out with her!”

Twilight immediately shoved them both away. “Hold on a minute! This is just too much for me. I mean, one minute we were fighting and now we’re going out on a date? That really doesn't sound right at all.”

“Love is strange, isn’t it?” asked Pinkie.

The purple mare immediately turned towards her. “That’s the other thing. As far as I know, I do not like girls.”

“I didn’t know either, Twilight. You just sort of find out, like a surprise party!” She hopped on Fluttershy’s back and hugged her. “And ever since, I’ve been happy with the best pony ever!”

“Just do it, Twi. You’re the only one of us who has yet to have a date,” Spike informed.

“Twilight, I really think you should try. You don’t want to be lonely for Hearts and Hooves, do you?” Fluttershy asked. “That would be so horrible!”

“Come on, Twilight. I totally promise you will like her too!” added the pony on the pegasus’ back.

Twilight was getting annoyed by all of her friends’ constant insisting. She just wanted to take things at her own pace, but her friends were having none of it. She then looked at Trixie. The blue pony had a look of hope in her eyes, expecting her to accept. Twilight didn’t want to hurt her anymore, but she still felt skeptical about going out with her. However, she wondered if they were all onto something. Cherub, Pinkie, and the rest thought it was a good idea for her to get romantically involved with Trixie and she thought more about what Pinkie said about her coming out. After much debate with herself, Twilight decided to run with it and see where it took her. She cleared her throat. “Alright, Trixie, I’ll do it.”

Trixie squealed and hugged Twilight’s neck to the point her air supply was being cut off. “Oh splendid! We’re going to have so much fun!”

“What are ya going to do?” asked Applejack, pleased that Twilight was actually doing it.

Twilight got Trixie off of her to catch her breath. “We’ll just stroll through town and I’ll show her around, maybe go to my place. I kind of want to know Trixie better and make up for what happened.”

“Alright, have fun, you lovebirds!” shouted Pinkie, which annoyed her friend. They exited the carriage and waved goodbye to the two unicorns and when they were out of sight, Pinkie suddenly jumped in the air and expelled a shriek of joy, startling her friends.

“What in the world is with ya?” asked Applejack while covering her ears.

Pinkie didn’t hear her, jumping around and repeatedly yelling, “This is my chance!”

“Chance to do what?” asked Spike in annoyance.

Pinkie landed in front of them. “I’ve always wanted to do matchmaking without being an assistant! Even better, my first chance is to help Twilight! I’m going to make sure they fall in love and you all get to help me!” All of her friends gasped excitedly and she motioned a hoof. “Come on, everypony! Let’s go make some love!”

“Please don’t ever say that again,” said Rarity with a frown.

“How exactly are we going to help?” asked Spike while walking with the others.

Pinkie happily rubbed the top of his head. “I’ve been doing this for a long time. I know exactly what to do!”

A certain changeling was most certainly not pleased with her current activity. This had to be the absolute worst book she had ever read in her life. She admitted she liked stories with some spice, but this story was childish. The sex scenes just made her want to gag and they happened often since it barely had a plot, which she should have expected. What made it all so much worse that the book used similar names to ponies she knew. The story involved Clitoris’s life after being banished by her sister Queen Nymphomaniac. While living in secret in the land of Estrusria, she has to keep away from the watchful eyes of Princess Celustia and Princess Poona. Chrysalis couldn’t stand it anymore and threw the book down onto the floor. Maybe she shouldn’t have picked a book of this genre that involved ponies she knew. But then again, she remembered sneaking a peak at Nymph’s stash and still felt her stomach churn.

Suddenly, she heard somepony knocking on her door. Chrysalis assumed it was another one of her fans coming to take pictures or ask for an autograph, which wasn’t uncommon. As she walked from her couch, she remembered she left the book on the floor. The fugitive panicked, knowing she had to hide it to ensure she didn’t face public embarrassment. She grabbed the book and shoved it under the couch cushions. Satisfied, she answered the door, only to find no pony in sight. “Stupid kids.” She turned around and was about to walk back in.

“Boo!”

Chrysalis gasped loudly and flew back, only to fall into the snow. She quickly got back on her feet and looked angrily at the pony laughing at her. “Oh, you’re too easy, Cherub!” taunted Luna.

The changeling reentered her building and grabbed a blanket off the couch to wrap herself in. If she got a cold from this, she would pretend it was much worse and make Luna her servant until she was better, taking advantage of her as much as she could. “Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise,” she muttered bitterly.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist pulling a fast one on you. Your reactions are always entertaining,” Luna said while maintaining her grin.

Chrysalis sat herself down on the couch. As she got comfortable, something dawned on her. “Luna, what are doing up so early? Shouldn’t you be asleep this time of day?”

Luna nodded as she sat on the other end. “Normally I would be, but Celestia’s workload has increased quite a bit recently, so I offered to stay up and help.”

“And here you are goofing off.”

Luna feigned a gasp. “Not true! Celestia is with Nymph and they’re dealing with the ponies while I deal with the paperwork. I just thought you could keep me company as I did it. The only ponies who see me today are those who complain about Nymph and her guards over some stupid reason.”

When Chrysalis realized that Luna was staying for a long visit, she couldn't help but feel happy. The more time she had with her, the more it would help her future. There was also the fact Luna was such a good friend to her and being with her was always a highlight of her day. “Well, I’m not doing anything, so sure. You can use my office to work in.”

“Excellent.” Luna followed her to the backroom and placed her bag on the desk Chrysalis used. “I’m afraid it will be quite some time until I finish, so any fun we can have will have to wait.”

Chrysalis sat at Pinkie’s desk and put her hooves up on it. “I understand. At least paperwork is easier than ponies coming at you nonstop with their requests, right?”

Luna smirked at her and opened her bag. Chrysalis immediately realized it was a magic bag when a tower of papers that nearly touched the ceiling came out. “You were saying?”

She slowly looked down from the tower and at Luna. “You’re a brave pony for volunteering to do this.”

“Thank you.” Luna pulled one from the top and began reading it thoroughly.

As the alicorn worked, Chrysalis whistled to herself while scanning the room. She tried to think of what exactly she could do to give herself a better image in Luna’s eyes. Since Nymph was in town, changelings were on everypony’s mind, so that would be a good place to start. “How is Nymph doing?”

“Good. She’s with my sister in another attempt of convincing the people of letting her kind in. I can’t wait until this is all over with. All these ponies complaining about changelings when they know nothing about them annoys me. I just want the changelings to be happy and ignorance and fear is preventing that.”

“I see. It is inevitable that changelings will be coming to Equestria, isn’t it?”

Luna tore a document in half and threw it into the trash, clearly dissatisfied with it. “Of course, so you better get used to them soon. With your business, they will practically be breaking your door down for love.”

Chrysalis laughed, imagining that happening in the future. However, this joke suddenly gave her a big idea. “So…I was wondering if I could perhaps…help them.”

Luna signed a bill, placed it down, and looked at her. “What’s this? Cherub actually wishes to help the changelings? Clearly this is the work of Discord,” she teased.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes while smiling. “Well, I know they have been through a lot and food has always been an issue for them and since they’re coming, I thought that maybe I could let them feed here in Cupid’s Arrow,” she offered. “Maybe even get to know them.”

Luna gave one of her heartwarming smiles. “Well that’s very thoughtful of you, Cherub. I’m so glad you are willing to give them a chance.”

“What can I say? I’m a bleeding heart. I just think it would be best if I were to help them in any way I can.”

“If you wish to do more, then I could take you to see Nymph and we could-”

“NO!” Chrysalis shouted, startling the alicorn. “I-I-I mean that it sounds nice, but I’m sure she has more important things to worry about.”

Luna sighed. “Oh, Cherub, must you always be so nervous about meeting royalty? You’ve met me and my sister and yet nothing has changed.”

Chrysalis sighed as she recalled her embarrassing display when she first met Luna. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I will need some time to get used to the idea of changelings, but I could perhaps give Nymph a gift to congratulate her for all her efforts and to help ease things up for her.”

“What kind of gift?” Luna asked.

The matchmaker grinned, finally realizing something that she had that would create a powerful impact on Luna’s and even the changeling’s opinion of her. “My Hearts and Hooves event is meant to be for charity by donating some of the money we make, but perhaps I could take it a step further. Since there will be so much love there that no pony will be using, maybe Nymph could get her people to collect it for food.”

Luna, gasping, stood up and quickly went to Chrysalis to hug her. “Oh, that is a wonderful idea, Cherub! I’m so glad you wish to help them! You are a saint!”

Chrysalis felt her face become warm from the close contact. “Like I said, I’m a bleeding heart. I have been selfish before, so it’s now time for me to start giving. I’m a new Cherub, remember?”

The alicorn got off of her. “And I’m very fond of her. Speaking of your holiday event, you must be excited to be actually doing something like this. Not everypony gets to do something like this.”

“You have no idea. I’m going to have a holiday about me, just like you!”

Luna laughed and tussled her hair. “Don’t let it get into your head. Cadance is the Princess of Love and I am sure she wouldn’t let anypony else take charge of Hearts and Hooves. Besides, I think my holiday is better.”

“Only because you gorge yourself on treats,” teased Chrysalis as she poked Luna’s belly.

The pony squealed as she covered her midsection defensively. “Stop that! You can’t touch me like that, I’m a princess!”

“Sometimes I forget you are, fatty,” she jested while making a second attempt.

Luna backed away and became angry. “I am not fat! Continue to tease me and I shall make you sorry!”

Chrysalis just scoffed at her and poked her again. “Oh, what are you going to do about it, tubby? Eat me?”

One minute later, Chrysalis was grumbling as she lied on the floor with Luna sitting on her. “Are you going to get off? You’re heavier than you look.”

“Only when you take everything you said back,” she answered.

“Tempting, but your weight is reinforcing my argument and your butt actually feels nice,” Chrysalis taunted. While she laughed, Luna rolled up a magazine with her magic and began smacking her in the face. The changeling struggled as much as she could while stuck in her place. “Hey, knock it off!” Luna just laughed as she read through another document while continuing her assault.

For the entire time they were together, Twilight and Trixie barely spoke, each feeling slightly embarrassed from their date. What they didn’t know was that a few certain ponies and a certain dragon were keeping watch of them from afar. “What gives? They just gonna not say anythin’?” asked Applejack.

“Do they not like each other? Are they going to fight again?” Fluttershy started to absolutely panic. “What should we do, Pinkie!? Everything is a mess!”

“Don’t worry,” said Pinkie while patting her marefriend on the back. “I have an idea.”

Twilight wasn’t sure of what to talk about with Trixie. If they were just friends, it would’ve been much easier for her to make conversation, but the truth was she knew almost nothing about her. She thought about asking her, but she felt nervous since Trixie was attracted to her. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash flew past them from behind at top speed, creating a sudden gust of wind. The wind blew against the mares and caused Trixie’s hat to take flight. “My hat!”

The lavender mare saw what happened and quickly grabbed it with her magic. She brought it back down and gave it to her friend. “Here, Trixie.”

Trixie took it and rested it on her head. “Thank you. This hat is an important part of my act. It’s one of a kind and I’d be so devastated if something happened to it.”

“I really like the design. It looks cute on you,” Twilight complimented, feeling shy from the fact she called her cute.

“I’m sure it looks good on you, too.”

“Probably not,” Twilight admitted. Just then, she saw Trixie put her trademark hat on her head.

“You’re right, it doesn’t,” said the blue mare, smirking.

Twilight frowned angrily. “Gee thanks.” After a moment, they just cracked up and Trixie took it back. “You know, I wished you visited me sooner, Trixie. I really wondered what happened to you the last time we met.”

Trixie sighed. “I know I should have visited, but I was embarrassed about what happened. News had already spread what happened in Ponyville and I was having a tough time making business. I was hoping to make a more positive image for myself before I saw you. I didn’t want to bring your reputation down from hanging around me.”

“It’s okay, Trixie,” she said in attempt of comfort. “I don’t care what ponies would think. I would never abandon my friends.”

The magician blushed. “Really?”

“Of course. Besides, I’m pretty sure no pony remembers-” A large patch of snow suddenly flew from behind and covered Trixie in an instant.

Twilight gasped and began digging through the mound of snow. As she tried to free Trixie, two colts came up to them. “Oops! We’re sorry, Twilight,” said Snips. “Snails accidentally launched our snow catapult the wrong way.” He looked at the other unicorn. “I said to fire it east!”

“No, I’m pretty sure you said weast,” argued Snails.

“Weast? That’s not…never mind. Is your friend okay, Twilight? It was totally an accident and-” Finally, Trixie was freed for her prison. The sight of her caused both of the boys to yell in terror. “Holy Celestia, Trixie’s back again!” They both got on their knees and began bowing to the blue mare. “Please, your omnipotence! Have mercy!”

“Wheels are our friends! You have to believe us!” cried Snails.

Trixie was becoming incredibly uncomfortable with what was going on and Twilight took action. “Relax, you two. She’s not doing anything evil.”

They both stopped and looked up at her. “She’s not?” asked Snips.

“No. She’s completely harmless. She’s an all new mare as well as my friend, so there’s no need to be afraid of her.”

Snips and Snails got up from the ground. “Phew! I’m glad that I don’t have to drag anything heavy again.” He looked at Trixie. “So what are you doing in Ponyville? Doing another magic show or something?”

Trixie suddenly wrapped her forelegs around Twilight. “I’m having a romantic date with Twilight!”

“T-Trixie!”

Both colts stared at them with wide eyes and opened mouths. “Y-you two are both girls and you’re on a date?” asked Snips.

“Is that legal?” quarried Snails.

With a blush on her face, Twilight cleared her throat while pushing Trixie off her. “We’re not on a date. We are simply spending the day together as friends and nothing more.”

“But Trixie said you were on a date,” countered the taller colt.

“Dude, we should tell everypony in school about this!”

“H-hang on!” Twilight shouted in a panic. “Guys, I would prefer you two to not tell anypony about this, so how about I give you both mustaches in exchange for your silence?”

Snips and Snails gasped and their eyes were gleaming. “R-really?” asked Snails.

“Yep. Just remember your end of the deal.”

“Could we have ones that are long and pointy?” asked Snips. “We want to sword fight with them!”

Twilight just rolled her eyes as her horn glowed. A few seconds later, long, pointed facial hair grew on the faces of the two colts. “There.”

They both gasped happily at their new possessions. Snips looked at his friend and said, “Awesome! Let’s go show all the other kids and fight with them!” They both ran off. “Thanks Twilight and bye Trixie!”

“I get to be Mustache-Beard the pirate!” called Snails.

When they were gone, Twilight sighed with relief. “Glad that’s done with. Let’s get back to what we were doing.”

Trixie was still staring in the direction that Snips and Snails ran off. “I see they’re doing well.”

“Yeah. Pretty surprised we ran into them of all ponies.”

She looked at Twilight, mildly annoyed. “And you bribed them to keep silent about us?”

Twilight averted her gaze. “I-it’s not like I’m ashamed of being with you, Trixie. I just don’t want anypony to get the wrong idea about us when I’m not even sure what the truth is.”

Trixie sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “I guess. And Twilight?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for standing up for me,” she cooed. She then pecked her on the cheek.

Twilight gulped as she warmed up. “J-just doing what I’d do for any of my friends.”

When they were out of sight, the two colts carrying facial hair went up to Pinkie and the crew. “Okay, we did it like you asked,” said Snips.

“That was great, guys! Everything is going according to plan!” exclaimed Pinkie. She pulled out a few bits and gave them to Snips and Snails. “Thanks for the help, guys. And you can keep the snow catapult!”

“Bye, Pinkie!” they both said as they ran off.

Once they were gone, the party mare and her friends pursued the couple. “That worked out totally great! Twilight totally stuck up for her and then Trixie kissed her!”

“She was like a knight in shining armor that jumped in to save her poor damsel.” Rarity sighed happily. “Who knew Twilight could ever be like that?”

Applejack tossed a patch of snow at Rarity’s face, bringing her out of her daydreaming. The farmer just smirked while her victim looked angrily at her. “We ain’t finished yet, so let’s keep after ‘em.”

Once they found the two ponies again, something occurred to Spike. “So do any of you girls feel weird that we’re kinda forcing Twilight and Trixie to get together despite the both of them barely knowing each other and even having a rough patch in their friendship?”

The ponies looked at him and thought about what he asked for a moment. “No,” they answered at the same time.

Spike smiled and hopped on Rarity’s back. “Alright, awesome. I was just making sure.”

Several citizens of Ponyville noticed who was accompanying Twilight and either stared or just walked away quickly. As much as Trixie liked being with Twilight, she wanted to do something to keep her mind off the ponies remembering her. “So Twilight, what’s there to do around here in Ponyville?”

“Not too much because it’s winter, but I’m sure we can find something."

“Well what do you usually like to do?” asked Trixie.

“I always love to read,” Twilight stated proudly.

“I should have guessed from the fact you live in a library. But what else do you do exactly?”

Twilight’s confidence swayed when she tried thinking of another hobby. “I…uh…read?”

Trixie snickered at her. “I should have known you were a real book worm, but what’s all this about you working in a dating service? I never expected something like that from you."

Twilight blushed a little. “I’m just a secretary, really. I never get involved with clients.”

“So you don’t actually help ponies find the one?”

She shook her head. “No, that’s all Pinkie and Cherub. They do that while I keep everything tidy.”

“So how in the world did you end up there?”

Twilight found a nearby bench and seated herself and Trixie sat next to her. “I’ve known Cherub for a long time and Pinkie has worked for her almost as long. One day, Cherub made some money and was able to hire some ponies and Pinkie wanted me to work there since I’m her friend. I get paid pretty well and it’s a simple job. But enough about me. I want to know more about you, Trixie. What happened to you after you left Ponyville? I heard almost nothing about you and I got a little worried.”

Trixie sighed and leaned against her seat, looking up towards the cloudless sky. “The truth is I sort of put my show on hiatus. I knew every newspaper in Equestria would talk about what I did and I didn’t want my face to be seen,” she said gloomily. “So I bought a train ticket and headed to the open country to make bits. I’ve been working on a cherry ranch all this time, making an honest living while also practicing my magic. Sadly, I haven’t really improved.”

“So why did you come visit today?” Twilight questioned curiously.

“I’ve been meaning to see you again for a while, but I wanted the news to die down first. There’s also the fact the ranch is closed for the winter season, so I’m not working there anymore. It’s been a while since the whole incident and I thought maybe it was time to get my show up and running again, but I still need to work on my act. I then remembered how you were very talented in magic and decided to pay you a visit.”

Twilight put a hoof on her own forehead. “I’m sorry I didn’t give you a better greeting.”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Let’s not worry about that now. I just want to enjoy our time together right now.”

While they spoke, a bird flew off a nearby tree branch and descended onto the shoulder of Fluttershy, whispering into her ear. “What’s he saying?” Rainbow asked.

Fluttershy shushed her and continued listening. After a moment, she turned towards her and said, “He says they’re just talking right now.”

“We know that, but about what?” asked Spike.

“He doesn’t know. He couldn’t hear them.”

Pinkie pulled on her mane. “Well we need to know. It is super important! They could be talking about boys for all we know!”

“Well what can we really do, Pinkie?” asked Applejack. “Ah don’t think we can just ask them.”

Pinkie grew a devious smile on her face and rubbed her hooves together. “Or can we?”

While Twilight and Trixie were talking, they were interrupted by a voice calling, “Hey there, ya two!”

The two unicorns looked at the direction of the voice, finding Applejack and Caramel approaching them. “Hey, Applejack and Caramel. What are you doing here?” Twilight asked, sounding slightly suspicious from their sudden appearance.

The farmer scrunched her face and shifted her eyes away. “We was just walkin’ by and we just happened to notice the both of ya and wanted to say hi. Ain’t that right, hun?” she asked while nudging her coltfriend.

“Yeah, we were just walking by,” he answered quickly. He looked at Trixie and said, “Hey, aren’t you that crazy magician who-” Applejack shoved a hoofful of snow into his mouth.

Both unicorns stared at her, causing her to laugh sheepishly. “Don’t mind him none. He’s just bein’ a dolt.”

Trixie groaned as she already heard enough of what he was trying to ask. “For your information, yes, I am that magician, but I am not trying anything.”

The stallion got the last of the snow out of his mouth. “That’s good. So what are you doing then?”

“Not much,” answered the magician. “I’m just spending the day with Twilight and catching up on things.”

“So what were ya both talkin’ about?” asked Applejack. “Everythin’ goin’ well? No problems or nutin’?”

“We’re just fine,” Twilight answered while watching her carefully. “We were just talking about some of the adventures we and the other girls had in the past.”

Having retrieved what she wanted, she pulled Caramel with her. “Alright, sorry for botherin’ ya. See ya two later.” Applejack and Caramel walked away from them and waited until they were far enough before they spoke. “Ah really appreciate ya comin’ out here on short notice.”

He chuckled and looked back in the direction they came from. “It’s no problem, but I’m not even sure what we did exactly.”

“It’s complicated. Ah’ll tell ya all about it later.”

He looked back at her. “Okay. I guess we’re done for now?”

“Ah’m afraid so.” Applejack leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. “See ya tomorrow, lover boy.”

He kissed her back. “I can’t wait. Good luck with whatever you’re doing, Applejack.” He then walked away, heading back towards his job.

It took several minutes for the cowgirl to loop back to where her friends were without having Twilight notice. “Well?” asked Fluttershy.

Applejack smiled. “It’s all good. They’re just talkin’ about normal stuff. No problem at all.”

Rarity took another peak at the two mares on the bench, noticing that each one was smiling. “Well, Pinkie, it seems like they got it under control. I guess we can go home now?” Rarity noticed Pinkie wasn’t happy at all. “Pinkie?”

“Girls, this is bad! This is really, really, really bad!”

All of her friends were feeling nervous. “What do you mean? I thought things were going great!” Spike pointed out.

Pinkie rushed over and frantically shook him. “It’s not great at all! They’re acting like…like…friends!”

The group became absolutely silent. Each pony and Spike slowly looked at each other and then back at Pinkie. “And…what?” asked a very confused Rainbow Dash.

“That means if they keep this up, Trixie will be in…” Pinkie suddenly pulled out a flashlight and pointed it at her own face, “the friend zone!”

All of her friends gasped loudly. “Oh no! What do we do!?” asked Fluttershy.

Pinkie paced back and forth rapidly, slowly causing a hole in the snow for her to sink in. “I don’t know! They need to do something romantic, but I can’t think of anything! Twilight’s not planning on anything special, so we need to plan it for them! But the problem is I just don’t know what Twilight is going to do so I can’t prepare it in time!”

The gang all thought about what they could do to end this crisis and save the romance between the two mares. Suddenly, Spike spoke up. “I have an idea.”

Luna paced around the room, growing more and more restless. She was no longer able to focus on her work and could only think about her current needs. It was unbearable. She had an uncontrollable craving coming from inside of her and only one pony could satisfy her. She was dying for Cherub to return, wondering when she would return to her before her primal urges were unleashed. She wanted, no, she needed Cherub more than ever. If she didn’t come soon, Luna would go mad. Her desire was beginning to overpower her and she was pulling on her own mane.

Just then, the door opened and the matchmaker appeared. “Food’s here!” she announced cheerfully.

The alicorn yanked the bag from Chrysalis’s grasp with her magic and placed it on the desk. “It’s about time you showed up! I was just about ready to eat some legal documents.”

Chrysalis sat herself next to her while her friend dug through the large bag looking for what she ordered. “Sorry, but I decided to do a little window shopping on the way there.”

Luna opened a large box of noodles and picked up some chopsticks. “You were shopping while I was suffering? Why would you do that to me!?”

“Relax, it was only for a few minutes.” Of course, Chrysalis did that on purpose for Luna sitting on and attacking her, making the girl starve and go crazy. However, she wasn’t finished with her yet, but she would take her time before making her next move.

“A few minutes is too long! What if you came back and found me dead from starvation? What would you do then?”

The changeling smirked at here as she took a bite of some fried rice. “I would be more confused than anything, considering I have plenty of food here.”

“But Cherub, when I need Hoofinese takeout, I need Hoofinese takeout! Every other type of food tastes so bland when I get this craving.” When Luna got everything she ordered, she noticed there was still a lot of food leftover. “I hope you didn’t buy all that just for me.”

Chrysalis used her magic to bring the remaining food to her side. “Nope. Those are for me.”

Luna looked at her in shock. “But that’s about how much I eat!”

The shapeshifter shrugged with a smile on her face. “What can I say? A girl’s gotta eat.” While eating her dinner, Chrysalis thought about her time back home. Hoofinese food was actually a favorite of hers and she had it quite a lot as the restaurant in Bugartha had meat included in its food. The food she was eating now was pretty good, but nothing bested the taste of meat. Her thoughts were put on hold from the sound of extremely loud slurping. The source was Luna herself, devouring her noodles as fast as she could and making a bit of a mess. It took less than a minute for the Princess of the Night to finish her noodles and move onto the next meal. “I didn’t realize I was eating with a barbarian.”

“What? I’m hungry,” Luna answered while prying open a container.

“You are a princess. Shouldn’t you have manners of some sort?”

“Sorry, but I love this type of food. I couldn’t get enough when I first discovered it when I returned.”

“Well if you love it so much, why don’t you marry it?” the changeling teased.

“Because I would be a widow in two minutes.”

They both laughed loudly and then resumed dining. While eating, Chrysalis thought of something and decided to give it a shot. “Speaking of love, I wond-”

“No.”

Chrysalis sighed. “Well that answers that. I hope you don’t plan on going to my event without a date.”

Luna paused from her eating. “I don’t, actually. I will try to find a date myself, but if I am unable to do so, I may ask you for your help.”

Chrysalis smiled. “I like the sound of that,” she said while taking a bite of teriyaki vegetables.

“But just so you know, Cadance has been making the same offer,” Luna added.

The former queen slowly swallowed her food. “She has?”

Luna saw her reaction and smiled. “Are you surprised? She is the Princess of Love and I am her aunt. She knows all about me and has also been slightly determined in finding me a special somepony, so you may have some competition.”

“Well that’s really nice of her to care about you.” Chrysalis didn’t care that she wronged Cadance. If that girl ruined her chances of finding Luna love, there would be Tartarus to pay.

The two of them took their time with their dinner and continued talking while making an occasional joke. Once they finished, Chrysalis gathered all the trash and tossed it into the garbage can outside. “I’m afraid it’s back to work for me,” muttered Luna as she gazed at the remaining pile.

“Sucks to be you,” taunted Chrysalis while filing her hoof.

Luna chose to ignore her and continue her work. While reading, she heard Chrysalis whistling to herself and saw that she was just sitting there and doing nothing. “Don’t you have something to do?”

“In my line of work, not at all. I’m always free, but I can put on some music if you wish,” Chrysalis suggested as she got up and went into the main room.

“As long as it’s not that really sappy stuff you always play,” the pony teased.

“Hey, I do that for the customers.” The changeling returned with the record player and set it on a chair. She brought out a record from its case and placed in on the machine. She put the needle on the record and after a few seconds, jazz began playing. “Is this good?” she asked.

“Yes it is. Thank you.” Luna moved one of the bills aside, dissatisfied with it. “How do you stand it?”

“Stand what?”

Luna waved a hoof around. “Living in such a big place all by yourself? I think I would go mad to feel so alone.”

Chrysalis leaned back in her chair. “It often feels lonely, I will admit that, but I’m fine. Five days a week I have many ponies here and I just go out during the weekends. Not to mention Pinkie also provides fantastic company whenever I need it.”

“That’s good. I’m relieved to hear that this place won’t be crawling with cats any time soon.”

Chrysalis laughed. “Oh, I don’t think that will be problem. I don’t even like cats.” It was actually Nymph who loved cats, provided there was some ketchup available.

Time passed as they both sat in the office and listened to the record. Luna was managing to reduce the size of the pile, but her pace was slow. Chrysalis couldn’t think about what to talk about and was getting impatient while waiting for Luna to finish. “I’m so bored!” she whined some time later, flopping herself on the desk.

Luna chuckled. “Welcome to the life of a princess.”

Chrysalis most certainly did not remember her life as royalty being so dull. She remembered simply making stuff happen through will alone and taking action for many occasions. “How do you stand doing this, Luna? This is absolutely dreadful and I think the boringness of your work is spreading onto me.”

The princess smiled. “I have patience and I love what I do. Still, I wish I could have more vacation time.”

Chrysalis eyed the clock again and saw that hours had passed since the alicorn started. “I think if you actually finish this today, we need to celebrate you completing such an achievement.”

Luna looked over at her and was quite excited. “That sounds like fun. What do you have in mind?”

The changeling pondered this. She already went with Pinkie for food, so she wanted to do something else. Getting drunk was always fun, but she didn’t desire to do something too primitive. That’s when it hit her and she said, “I say we head back to your palace, get drunk, and enjoy ourselves to some lovely concubines. Great way to end the day, am I right?” The record screeched to a halt and Luna’s quill flew off the paper and its tip dragged across the desk. The alicorn was completely stunned, not moving an inch. “Was it something I said?”

Luna slowly turned to her, exposing her extremely shocked expression. “Yes, it was something you said! What else did you think was the matter!?”

Chrysalis realized what must have been the problem and blushed. “So you don’t have any concubines?”

“No! Celestia, I, and everyone I currently know have never, ever had any! Why did you even think such a thing!?”

She lowered her head, feeling so ashamed she made such an assumption about the princess. It also occurred to her that Nymph and the other changeling royals may have made great effort to give their race a positive image in the eyes of the alicorns. “Uh…I don’t know.” They just looked at each other in awkward silence. After what felt like an eternity to the both of them, Luna slowly returned to her work without saying a word. Chrysalis, on the other hoof, just rested her head on the desk and sighed.

After several hours of touring the town, the two unicorns were ready to call it a day. Trixie retrieved her home and followed Twilight as they headed back to the library. Twilight was more than certain her friends were following them, but she found no trace of them, so she guessed she was just being paranoid. “What a day,” spoke Twilight with some exhaustion in her voice.

“A fun day, I must say,” Trixie replied happily. “It was so nice of you to show me around.”

“It’s no problem.” Twilight still held a bit of uncertainty in terms of Trixie as her marefriend, but she also still felt guilty about hurting her feelings. “Do you want to stay over at my place for the night? I wouldn’t mind having a friend over and we could just talk some more if you want.”

Trixie gasped and hopped like Pinkie did whenever she was excited. “Do I ever! It would be so nice to live somewhere bigger than my carriage.”

Finally, they reached Twilight’s home. The purple unicorn was relieved to be home after her day and just wanted to lie down. However, she was certain Spike would be pestering her about her time with Trixie, but she was sure she could handle him. When she opened the door, Trixie’s jaw dropped while Twilight put a hoof on her face. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The inside of her home was decorated to look like a fancy restaurant. The window curtains were shut and the room was dimly lit with candles. Her friends were there, all of them with eager expressions and wearing waiter uniforms. “A romantic dinner? Oh, you shouldn’t have!” Trixie squealed as she hugged her date.

“Yeah, I shouldn’t have,” she growled as she looked at her friends, knowing exactly what they were up to.

“Well what you two waiting for?” asked Pinkie, barely able to contain her excitement. “Take a seat!”

The two unicorns sat down at the table, covered with a white cloth with a large candle in the middle and a small bowl of salad for each of them. “So what’s for dinner?” asked Twilight when she realized there was no menu to order from.

“Spike thought somethin’ up that ya’ll both like,” answered Applejack. “We guarantee ya will both enjoy it.”

As if on cue, the dragon exited from the kitchen with a plate with a top over it. He carried it to the table and revealed the large amount of spaghetti underneath. “Enjoy.”

Both of the mares looked at it hungrily as they hadn’t eaten almost all day. “Thank you, Spike,” said Twilight. Spike was a good cook and Twilight knew she was in for a real treat. They both took a fork and began eating. Rarity brought over her violin and began playing elegant music, trying to set the mood. As Twilight and Trixie were sucking on some strands of pasta, the other ponies saw that they were sharing one and they watched with anticipation. As they continued eating, the strands were growing shorter in length. The two mares than noticed that were pulling on different ends and Trixie increased her pace. Twilight quickly bit down, severing the connection. Her friends and Trixie were not happy that she did that, but then the magician just went over and kissed her. The waiters made sure not to make a sound as Twilight froze, unsure of what to do. Once she snapped out of it, she continued eating while furiously blushing.

It took about ten minutes for them to finish their dinner. Once done, Trixie put her fork down and rubbed her belly. “That was so good and I want more, but I couldn’t possibly eat another bite.” She sat up and took Twilight’s hooves. “I really enjoy everything you’ve done for me, Twilight. It has been such a nice day with you. Today I felt like we’ve gotten to know each other so well. I don’t hate you for what happened and I know you didn’t mean it, but the fact you cared so deeply about my feelings after both our encounters and wanted nothing more than to make me happy touches my heart. You are definitely the type of pony I want to be with.” Trixie put her hooves on Twilight’s and their faces merely inches apart. “I…love you, Twilight Sparkle.”

All of Twilight’s friends giggled and then looked at the other unicorn, who was blushing uncontrollably. “That’s great, Trixie. I…”

“Go on, you can say it,” the blue unicorn encouraged.

Twilight could feel her heart pounding like a drum. It didn’t help that her friends were all staring and it just made it feel a lot more embarrassing. She looked deep into the mare’s eyes and spoke.

“I like you, Trixie.”

Rarity stopped playing the violin and the whole tree fell silent with no pony moving an inch for about a minute. Trixie’s mouth was hanging open, quivering. “W-what?”

Twilight pulled away and took a bite of leftover spaghetti. “So how about this food? It’s pretty good, right?” she asked nervously.

Trixie swept her hoof across the table, sending everything onto the floor. “You like me!? Is this some sort of joke!?”

The lavender unicorn calmly wiped her mouth with her napkin using her magic. “No. I'm sorry, but it’s the truth.”

“Oh come on, Twilight!” shouted the blue pegasus. “You two get along so well! She's practically your soulmate!”

“How could you just turn her down like that after everything we had done for you!?” yelled Rarity. “You’re so ungrateful!”

Pinkie flopped onto the floor and bawled loudly, “I’M A TOTAL FAILURE! I AM THE WORST MATCHMAKER EVER!” Pinkie pulled out a suitcase and started putting books and other things inside. “I’m running away so you girls won’t have to deal with me anymore!”

Spike was the only one who noticed what Pinkie was doing as the others were more focused on Twilight. “Uh, Pinkie? That’s Twilight’s stuff.”

The sad mare picked him up and placed him in the suitcase. “I’m going back to my parents’ rock farm. I don’t deserve to live here and be friends with any of you!” She tried to close the suitcase, but Spike pushed against her.

“That’s not cool, Twilight,” added Rainbow with her forelegs crossed. “I mean, you lead her on about liking her and then dump her at the last second?” She glared at her. “I question our friendship.”

Everypony was shouting at her except for Pinkie and Spike, who were fighting over the suitcase, and Twilight’s patience had just run out. “QUIET!” They all stopped and allowed her to speak. “Look, Trixie. I’m sorry to disappoint you, and apparently the rest of you, but it’s honestly how I feel. I mean, this whole thing was just too fast for me. In one day we’ve been trying to date and get together and everypony was pushing us, but I still don’t think I feel the same way about mares as you do. And even if I did, there’s still some rough patches between us that I would want to smooth out first.”

Trixie sighed and stared at the table. “I see.”

Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder and Trixie looked at her. “Don’t be upset. I still like you as a friend and we can still hang out. I still want to get to know you better. And maybe in the future, and I mean maybe, I might actually feel the same way about you, but don’t be disappointed if I don’t.”

The magician crossed her forelegs and smiled weakly. “Well thank you for being honest, but what happens between us now?”

“We can just stay friends, Trixie. I wouldn’t mind if you stayed with me for a few days and we just hung out.”

“But Twilight, what about me becoming a student of Celestia? I still want to do that.”

The purple unicorn laughed nervously as she rubbed her hoof behind her head. “I don’t think I can convince her right now. You really need to improve magic before she would consider taking you.”

Trixie quickly stood up. “Then I will! From this moment on, I shall dedicate myself into improving my magical abilities! But what should I do to make myself better?”

“I’ve got several books you can check out,” Twilight offered.

“I don’t have time to read through a bunch of books!” Trixie complained. “I need to become better as soon as possible and get my show back on the road!”

At that moment, inspiration struck Pinkie and she became very excited. It wasn’t exactly romance, but it would still help fix the damage Chrysalis caused and maybe even make something happen in the future. “Twilight, isn’t it obvious what you need to do?”

“Find a tutor to make her their student?” guessed the mare.

Pinkie shook her head. “No, make her your student, silly!”

Twilight and the others were surprised. “Me? A teacher? I don’t feel so sure about that. I’ve never done anything like that before. Maybe I shouldn’t.”

“Well why not?” asked the seamstress. “You always like learning and I’m sure you are more than capable of helping Trixie improve. You would make a great teacher, Twilight.”

“But doesn’t she have a show to perform?” reminded Rainbow.

Trixie sighed. “Not many ponies come anymore, so I’ll need more tricks to bring them back,” she admitted glumly.

Twilight could see her friends looking at her, expecting her answer. Once again they were pressuring her to do something she was uncertain about, but this was a lot less stressful. She knew that Trixie needed help and actually did like the idea of being a teacher. After thinking things over, she looked at the magician. “Alright. From now on, you are officially a student of Twilight Sparkle!”

Trixie and Pinkie jumped into the air and shouted, “Hurray!”

“Class will start after work tomorrow and we can begin by reading about the history of magic.” Twilight pulled out a massive book that when she dropped it on the table, the tree slightly shook.

Seeing the size of the book made Trixie realize what most of her time with Twilight was going to involve. “Hurray…”

Luna threw down her quill and shouted, “Huzzah! Everything has been finished! I am a free pony once again!”

Chrysalis looked at her clock and saw how late it was. “I can’t believe it took you so long. Your subjects need to go lighter on you.”

“I agree. I may be immortal, but I am still one pony.” Luna sighed. “I apologize for not having enough time to do something fun with you. Today must have been a letdown for you.”

“Oh, it’s no problem. I understand you were busy and we did actually have some fun. My day has certainly improved since you came.”

Luna stood up and stretched. “I hope you don’t mind if I go into your kitchen and grab a victory snack.”

Chrysalis opened the door to her office and walked out. “Go ahead. You deserve a treat, Princess,” she called back.

Luna entered and returned from the kitchen with a pastry, signifying her victory. “Sometimes I envy you, Cherub. A royal life is not an easy one.”

Chrysalis sat on her couch facing the window, witnessing the snowflakes fall outside. “I think I’d actually be happier if I was royalty.”

The pony finished her treat. “Your funeral.” They both chuckled as Luna sat right next to her. “So what’s next for us to do?"

Chrysalis looked at her with some surprise. “Next? It’s late and I need to go to bed soon. Some of us ponies have work, as you should know.”

Luna rolled her eyes. “Very well, but perhaps we could talk before we turn in?”

Chrysalis nodded as she laid herself down on the couch. “Sounds good to me.”

“Excellent, because I’ve been thinking about your upcoming holiday event and I have realized you have quite a problem.”

Chrysalis quickly sat straight up. “What problem?” she asked very worriedly.

Luna wore a smug smile. “Your date,” she answered while poking a hoof at her friend’s chest.

“Pardon?”

“Well it’s a romantic event on a romantic holiday, so why not have a date?” Luna suggested.

The changeling relaxed and went back down. “Nah.”

Luna was not happy she declined. “Cherub, I really think you should,” she said while sounding more serious.

Chrysalis looked at her curiously. “Why? What’s going on in that head of yours?”

Luna cleared her throat. “You’ve pestered me about this plenty of times, but have you ever thought about getting back into the dating world yourself?”

Chrysalis looked away. She had actually thought about it for a while, but she tried her best to avoid thinking about it. She was going to wait until she didn’t need to hide herself anymore before finding someone to settle with. With her current reputation, it would probably be years before any changeling would give her a chance. “I will admit I have,” she replied, feeling a little uneasy.

Luna scooted closer to her. “Cherub, don’t you think it’s time you moved on? I know it was hard to deal with your wedding, but I think it will do you a lot of good if you started dating again. You’re still so hung up on your wedding and it’s still affecting your life.”

Chrysalis sighed while shaking her head. “As tempting as it sounds, I don’t think I’m ready. I already have a lot of things I need to take care of. Being in a relationship will only complicate things.”

“I see. But while we’re on the subject, what’s your ideal guy?” Luna asked suddenly.

Chrysalis looked at her in surprise, never expecting the alicorn to be interested in that. “I’ll tell you if you tell me.”

Luna laughed. “Oh no, that’s not how this works. If I tell you, I bet you’re going to find a stallion who matches what I want and have him show up at my door with flowers.”

Chrysalis smiled and faked a gasp. “Luna, I am shocked you would think I would do something like that! I’d actually have him wait on your bed with some scented candles, some sexy music, and a bottle of the best champagne.”

They both laughed hysterically and Luna was even blushing. “Cherub, you have to be the biggest child I have ever met.”

Chrysalis playfully nudged her with her hoof from her hind leg. “Come on. You know deep down you want something like that to happen.”

Luna averted her eyes. “I admit nothing. Besides, we’re talking about you, so out with it. I don’t even know that much about your last lover, so I’d like to at least know what your taste is.”

Chrysalis took a moment to think about it as she never gave this much thought in a long time. “Well, I prefer having a nice guy, but not somepony who is a push over. They need to have some backbone and know when to take charge, but they need to remember that I am always in charge. Also…” Chrysalis could feel herself blushing heavily. She hadn’t talked about guys like this since she was with her sister. “It would be nice if they would sometimes swoop down and rescue me from my troubles." Chrysalis could hear Luna giggling like a filly, so the changeling moved her head to move her hair to hide her face. "Alright, your turn. What do you want?”

Luna tapped her chin. “Normally I chose stallions of wealth, class, and intelligence as I was expected to marry a pony with these qualities since I am royalty, but I live in a different world now. I don’t think ponies would care too much if I married a commoner. I suppose I want somepony kind who understands me, has charm, and is at least decent looking.”

“Sounds like a winner. I bet I can find you somepony like that before Hearts and Hooves,” Chrysalis offered with a sly smile.

“Don’t you dare. If I want your help, I will ask for it. Until then, let me worry about it. Besides, I want you to at least think about finding your own date.”

“I will.” Chrysalis didn’t feel bad that she would be by herself for her event. The point of it was to make a name for herself, not to find love. The only pony she held the slightest interest in was the princess in the room with her, but she didn’t take the idea seriously at all as she knew dating Luna could only end in disaster. That’s when Chrysalis got the perfect idea of how to get even with her friend. “Actually...there is this one pony I kind of have a crush on.”

Luna immediately turned to her, eyes filled with curiosity. “Really? Who is it?”

The bait was set. Now she had to lure her into the trap. “One of my friends. They have been so good to me and I don’t know where I would be if I never met them.”

The alicorn was becoming more interested and leaned closer, smiling widely. “Well what’s he like and why haven’t I heard about him before?”

The former queen giggled. “I will admit that I feel embarrassed to have such a crush on him. Plus, I didn’t want him to fall for you as you’re a much better pony compared to me, so I kept him a secret. He’s really kind, insightful, and not to mention extremely good looking. He may look intimidating on the outside, but he’s just a big softie who always knows how to make me feel better.”

“So who is this stallion, Cherub? I am dying to meet him.”

Chrysalis used her natural ability to fake a blush. “Actually, it’s a mare,” she admitted in a whisper.

Now Luna was very surprised. “A mare? I did not realize that you were gay, Cherub.”

“I didn’t either at first, but there’s something about this pony that makes me feel so warm and happy. Whenever I’m with her, my chest feels so light and I just want to spend my life with her. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so in love.” She then pretended to be depressed. “However, I don’t think she feels the same about me. I feel like I’m chasing a dream that won’t come true.”

Luna placed her hoof on Chrysalis’s leg. “Well I think you should tell this pony how you feel. Anything could happen.”

It was time to spring the trap. “What a good idea,” she said with a grin. Chrysalis sat up, put a hoof around Luna, and leaned closer to whisper in her ear, “You’re the most beautiful pony I have ever laid my eyes upon.” It took several seconds for Luna to realize what Chrysalis was implying. Her eyes grew as wide as they possibly could and she couldn’t produce any sounds from her mouth. The changeling, however, was not done teasing her. She leaned more towards Luna, who leaned away. “Did I also mention you look so adorable when you get embarrassed?”

Finally, Luna managed to form a sentence. “W-w-wait a second! What are you saying!?”

Chrysalis giggled loudly. “Isn’t it obvious? You’re the pony of my dreams, Luna, which is fitting since you can control dreams. You are the most beautiful, caring, and fun pony I have ever met and I want you so bad. I get so lonely here and all I think about is being with you.” She rubbed her hooves on Luna’s shoulders. “That’s why you came today, isn’t it? You just couldn’t stay away. If only I knew you felt the same way sooner.”

Luna jumped away and got as far as she could while still remaining on the couch. The alicorn’s facing was burning like her sister’s sun and she was just about ready to faint from embarrassment. “P-p-p-pardon!? I…uh…w-w-what…y-you…huh!?”

Chrysalis grabbed Luna’s hind legs, pulled her towards her, and climbed on top of her. “You know, I have an idea! We should take this moment to celebrate! I know you still won’t let me find you a date, but why don’t you just try to see what it’s like to be with me? Let’s go into my bedroom and have some fun. I want to hear you scream in your Canterlot voice, Luna!”

When she leaned in for a pretend kiss, Luna suddenly disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared on the other side of the room. She slowly took some steps away and was breathing heavily. “C-C-Cherub! Slow down! I’m flattered, really! It’s just that I…uh…not really…er…”

Satisfied from her reaction, Chrysalis broke into laughter, confusing the Princess of the Night even more. “Oh, Luna, you are too easy to fool!”

Luna snapped out of her shock, realizing she had been played. “W-what was that about, Cherub!? That joke went too far!”

“Oh, I’m just getting back at you for your cheap trick from earlier today and even for hitting me with the magazine.” She began to crack up. “You should have seen the look on your face. It was absolutely priceless!”

Luna just sighed loudly as she sat on the other couch, rubbing her temples. “You are too much for me sometimes. I actually thought you were serious.”

“Well what if I was serious, Luna?” Chrysalis then made a kissing face at her.

Luna picked up a pillow and threw it into her face. “Then I would have to politely decline.”

The matchmaker smirked at her. “Fair enough.” Chrysalis watched the snowflakes falling outside the window behind Luna. “I hope this hasn’t changed your mind of staying for the night. I was only messing with you and I would be upset if I caused you to leave.”

Luna got back onto the couch and stared at the ceiling. “Almost. Just don’t do anything like that again. Jokes are meant to be fun.”

“Sure thing. I just hope you don’t mind sharing a bed with me,” Chrysalis teased happily.

Luna lifted her head and stared at her. “If you do anything like that again tonight, I’ll take the bed and you can sleep on the couch. In the snow.”

Chrysalis chuckled, but when she saw her stone cold expression, she gulped. “I actually believe that now. I should probably get ready for bed, but I was kind of hoping you knew some scary stories. I haven’t found any good books lately and need something to entertain me.”

Luna gasped and became very giddy. “I love scary stories! I have so many books about them from times I was away. I bet I know a few that will scare you right out of your pants, Cherub.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes as she stood up and made her to the stairway. “Oh, please. I’m not going to be afraid of stories from a time where writing with your left hoof made ponies run for the hills. Modern horror is so much better.”

Luna teleported herself to the second floor. “You’ll be surprised what old school horror can deliver. I bet by tonight you’ll need me to enter your dreams and save you from a scary monster,” she taunted.

“After working here for so long, I learned that sometimes ponies are the real horror.” Both of them giggled as they stepped into the bedroom.

It was close to opening time and Chrysalis was busy adding kindling to her fireplace. The book she had read was a complete disappointment and that was no surprise to her. While Luna was in the shower, she took the book from its hiding place and quickly skimmed the ending, which involved something too vulgar for her to think about. Never once did the thing put her in the mood. The way it depicted her as a gentle and even slutty changeling really made her blood boil. She just needed to dispose of the evidence and try to not ever think about it again. While she stared into the flames, she heard the front door open. Pinkie, Rarity, Spike, and Applejack entered and she was happy the book was only ash at this point. “Hello, all of you. Enjoyed your weekend?”

“We did, but I think Twilight had the best time out of all of us.” Spike replied happily.

Chrysalis turned from the fire to look at them. “Oh? And why would that be?” Twilight entered next but she was not alone. Accompanying her was Trixie.

“Because Trixie and I made up!” she announced.

Chrysalis froze completely on the spot. She was having difficulty believing that the two unicorns were now friends again after what she had tricked Twilight into doing. “What…huh…how…when…?”

“Me and my friends helped them get together!” exclaimed Pinkie. “Isn’t that great, Cherub?” she asked through gritted teeth as she stared coldly at the changeling.

“Yeah, Cherub,” added Trixie in a tone that showed hostility. “Isn’t it great that we’re good friends instead of trying to hurt each other?”

Chrysalis hung her head, sighing. “Y-yeah. It really is.”

“I think that as well.” They all looked towards the stairway. Much to the surprise of the ponies and Spike, Princess Luna appeared. “Nothing is worse than losing a good friend. I am glad to see you have repaired your relationship.”

Trixie stared in awe, mouth hanging open and her legs shaking. “P-P-Princess Luna!? Whatever are you doing here in a place like this?”

Luna walked down the stairs and stood beside Chrysalis. “I’m just visiting my good friend. We had so much fun yesterday and I wanted to spend the night here.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “It’s too bad the Princess of the Night actually prevented me from sleeping.”

“How did she do that?” asked the farmer.

Chrysalis grinned at the smaller ponies. “Ever hear a princess use their royal Canterlot voice when snoring?”

Luna blushed as the ponies laughed at her. “I do not snore!” she protested.

“You shook my entire house,” teased the changeling.

“I did not!”

“My broken lamp says otherwise.”

“That was a coincidence!” The ponies kept laughing, so Luna knew she couldn’t lie her way out. “But since you’re my friend, I will give you money to pay for another.”

“Thank you.”

“Anyway, I need to return to Canterlot and work with my sister. I will see you all again soon. Have a good day.” As she headed for the entrance, she looked at Trixie. “It was also nice to meet you, young unicorn.”

Trixie dashed to the alicorn and shook her hoof. “My name is Trixie and I’m Twilight’s faithful student!”

Now both of the older mares were curious. “Oh? Twilight’s teaching now?” asked Luna while looking at Celestia’s student.

“I’m teaching her to be better at magic so she could do her shows and maybe someday be taught by Celestia.”

“But aren’t you a magician, Trixie?” asked Chrysalis. “Why would you need help with magic?”

“Because she sucks.” Twilight and Trixie simultaneously smacked the back of Spike’s head, causing him to grumble as he rubbed it and the others to laugh.

“I see. Do not worry, Trixie. Twilight is very knowledgeable and shall make an excellent teacher,” ensured Luna.

“Thanks. If things don’t work out with Celestia, I-I was kind of hoping to be your student, i-if that isn’t too much trouble.”

Luna reacted with surprise. “My student? No pony has asked me for that in a very long time, so I would be honored to teach you when you are ready.” Trixie gasped loudly and looked like she was ready to pass out from excitement. “Well I need to be on my way. Goodbye, everypony.” Luna stepped out the door with Chrysalis following. They stood at the front of Cupid’s Arrow and faced each other. “Thanks for keeping me company, Cherub.”

“It’s always such a pleasure to have you over, Luna. You are always welcome here, so drop by any time.”

“I will. Goodbye, Cherub.” In a flash of light, Luna vanished. Chrysalis returned inside and began brewing a pot of coffee. She felt a bit exhausted as she and Luna both had difficulty sleeping the night before, which was because of Luna’s snoring and the fun they had telling stories and certainly not because they were afraid of made up monsters from the stories they told.

Trixie immediately went to Chrysalis when she returned to the main room with her mug filled. “You actually had Princess Luna stay over here?”

The changeling nodded as she took a sip. “She has done so in the past. She is one of my closest friends and we like to spend a lot of time together.”

“Wow. I become a student of Celestia’s student and I even meet Princess Luna! Can this day get any better?”

“Yes, it can,” answered Twilight. She looked up at Chrysalis. “Cherub, is it possible you could find her a job here?”

Chrysalis managed to prevent herself from spitting out her brew. She hated Trixie very much and now Twilight, who she also had trouble liking, was expecting her to hire the brat. “H-here? But I thought she was a traveling showmare.”

“Not for now. I am taking a break and I’m currently staying at Twilight’s for my studies,” answered the blue mare.

Chrysalis raised a curious eyebrow. “You two are actually living together?”

Twilight smiled as she threw a foreleg over the blue mare. “Yep. My house is a lot roomier than her carriage, so I thought it would have been nice to invite her to stay with me. It’s been a lot of fun so far.”

“Trixie was teaching her how to kiss last night,” Spike blurted out.

“SPIKE!” shouted Twilight while furiously blushing.

Twilight’s friends and Chrysalis giggled by her reaction. “What ever happened to not liking girls?” remarked Rarity.

“I-It wasn’t my fault! I-I ate one of those doughnuts and then one thing led to another…” Twilight quickly looked at Chrysalis. “What do you put in those things!?”

The changeling grinned at her. “The secret ingredient is love.”

“So did you have fun?” asked Pinkie deviously.

“It felt weird,” Twilight admitted while looking away.

“Well maybe ya should have found a stallion instead of using Trixie for practice,” Applejack joked.

“I really don’t know any.”

Chrysalis laughed at her. “Big shock. As for Trixie, I suppose I could have her entertain the customers while they are waiting or something similar. Would that be alright for you?”

“That sounds reasonable,” answered Trixie.

“Good. You start today.” She turned and headed towards her office. “Come along, Pinkie.” The earth pony skipped her way into the other room.

When the door was closed, Pinkie asked accusingly, “Chrysalis, did you make Twilight hurt Trixie’s feelings on purpose?”

Chrysalis smiled and looked away. “Maaaybe,” she replied in an innocent tone.

Pinkie showed her disappointment and folded her forelegs. “I thought you said you were going to be nice from now on.”

The changeling snarled loudly while looking at the door. “I tried until that brat Trixie had the nerve to insult me. Also I just love how dense Twilight can be sometimes. It was too good for me to pass up.”

“You still don’t like her?”

Chrysalis averted her gaze. “She foiled my plans, enough said.”

Pinkie sat at her desk. “But she had a good reason for doing that. I know you don’t like her, but you really need to try getting over it. Yesterday I had to convince all my friends, especially Trixie, that you didn’t do all that stuff on purpose. What if they didn’t like you anymore because of that? If you want everypony to forgive you, you need to forgive Twilight and really try to act nice. She’s my friend too, so at least do it for me.”

Chrysalis placed a hoof on her forehead. As much as she hated to admit it, Pinkie was right. Chrysalis’s takeover would have resulted in the enslavement of all of Equestria, so Twilight had every right in stopping her. Twilight was a nice girl, but Chrysalis still had trouble getting over the past. But then again, if she couldn’t get over what Twilight did all those months ago, how could the unicorn and other ponies do the same for her? “I will…try.”

The pony’s mood immediately restored to its cheeriness. “Good! Why don’t you go see her right now and apologize? You need to make it up to her.”

Deciding not to argue, she walked out of the room and went up to Twilight, who was only staying during her day off to help Trixie settle. The unicorn looked up at her and asked, “Yes, Cherub?”

Chrysalis cleared her throat. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry about what I had you do yesterday. I have clearly made an error in judgment and I apologize for what I had put you and Trixie through. Please allow me to make it up to you sometime.”

Much to her surprise, Twilight’s smile didn’t sway. “It’s alright. I know you were trying your best and you just made a mistake. I can’t stay mad at one of my friends.”

It felt weird to hear those words, but Chrysalis still smiled. “We are friends, aren’t we?”

Suddenly, Trixie appeared, ruining the moment. “So Cherub, what exactly was this plan of yours that involves being mean to a girl to make her like somepony?”

Chrysalis could feel herself tense up and it worsened when she saw the others staring at her. “Well…it’s this complicated method…” She looked towards Pinkie for help, but the mare closed the door to the office, leaving the changeling to fend for herself. Chrysalis wore a nervous grin, wondering how she was going to pull herself out of her own mess.

Author's Note

Poor Chrysalis. She really needs to learn how to control that temper of hers if she's expecting a second chance. She should be glad that Luna did not catch wind of what she did to a pony who is actually in a similar situation as the changeling. And Pinkie needs to learn how to properly get ponies together if she is expected to take over the business. With Trixie now part of Chrysalis's workforce, things are definitely going to be more interesting in Cupid's Arrow.

Closer than Most

It was almost impossible for Luna to resist the urge to break into laughter. “S-so what do you think?”

“I look ridiculous.”

The alicorn’s snickering became louder. “I think it suits you just great! You should really show your friends!”

“And how exactly does this suit me? It looks terrible!”

“Do you know what that hairstyle is called?”

“Enlighten me,” replied the changeling.

“Beehive hair!” Luna broke into laughter and slammed her hooves on the desk.

In the crystal ball that sat on Luna’s desk, the changeling queen’s hair towered about a foot above her head and her small crown was sitting on top. “I can tell you have been planning this for a while.”

“Hey, I think it looks great on you. It even has a special use! If the changelings get too cold, they can live in your hive hair to keep warm!” Luna fell out of her stool and onto the floor, kicking her legs as she laughed uncontrollably.

The changeling hadn’t even cracked a smile as she magically restored her hair to its original style. “The history books are wrong; this is the true terror Celestia sealed away for a thousand years.”

The princess was laughing hard enough to produce tears, which she wiped away when she got back in her seat. “Oh don’t be such a spoiled sport. Everybody loves a good joke.”

Nymph sighed. “This is what I get for taking fashion advice from a pony who is a thousand years behind the times.” She took her brush with her magic and proceeded to straighten her mane. When she finished, she looked back at Luna with a much friendlier expression. “So besides some cheap jokes, what is our Princess of the Night up to this evening?”

“I am taking a day off from my duties so Tia and I can spend some time together as it is not often we are so light on work. I’m also bringing Cherub with us since I know she needs somepony to keep her company and I’d like to keep an eye on her. What about you? Any particular plans for the rest of your day?”

Nymph had her attention focused on a small mirror as she overlooked her mane. “More court for me, I’m afraid. It’s the holiday season, so many of my subjects tend to use that to push for what they want. Maybe I should do the same with your people and get some Equestrian citizenship already. It would be a great holiday gift for us changelings, don’t you think?”

“You could try.”

“I most certainly will.” She clapped her hooves together. “I can feel it, Luna. We’re getting so close to ponies accepting changelings and putting this mess behind us, allowing the birth of a new age.” The queen licked her sharp fangs. “Not to mention all of that love waiting for us. I still don’t understand why you and Celestia can’t just allow us to your country and make your subjects suck it up. We all know it is inevitable.”

“That is not how we do things in Equestria. Even if we wanted to do such a thing, I’m afraid the ponies will do something drastic if they still feel any tension. You will just need to be patient, Nymph.”

“I swear you two need work on putting your hoof down. My changelings always respect the wishes of their very beautiful queen.” She flicked her hair and Luna rolled her eyes in response. “Anyway, what are your plans for the holidays, Luna? Hearth’s Warming Eve is just next week.”

The princess shrugged. “Nothing special. We’re just having Cadance and Shining Armor stay for Hearth’s Warming Eve and then they leave in the morning. After that, Tia and I will just relax at home and enjoy our time together.”

Nymph produced a look of disappointment. “That’s it? Oh Luna, you need to do something fun! You two should come to Bugartha and attend my garden party. Every changeling is talking about it and I’d love to have you both there. You know how much they adore you.”

Luna couldn’t help but smile, recalling how the changelings treated her upon her first visit. Since Celestia had visited before and put their fears to rest, the insectoid race was very happy to meet her, learn all about her, and they even pleaded to see her raise the moon, having absolute admiration for the night sky. “Thank you, but I’m afraid I must decline. I just want to be with Celestia and relax.”

“Fine, but you better come to my next one. So what did you get me for Hearth’s Warming Day?” the changeling asked eagerly.

Luna’s heart jumped and tried her best to not show it. “It’s a surprise, Nymph. You’ll just have to be patient.”

The queen saw right through her and crossed her forelegs. “You didn’t buy gifts for anyone yet, didn’t you?”

“O-of course I have! I have them wrapped up and everything! Honest!”

Nymph chuckled loudly. “I had all mine done quite some time ago, slowpoke. Canterlot has so many wonderful things to offer and it was easy to find gifts for my friends. You should probably do some today since you’re going out already.”

Luna felt a bit ashamed she was so behind and it didn’t help her friend was mocking her, but she knew a way to make Nymph drop the subject. “So which form did you use to get those gifts?”

The question immediately put the queen in a sour mood. “Mine.”

“Oh, so you actually paid for things?” Luna taunted.

The changeling pulled on her own hair. “I don’t get why you two make such a big deal about that one time. I’m royalty!”

Luna couldn’t help but chuckle at her reaction. “Just because you think you deserve something doesn’t mean you can simply just take it. You may have actually hurt their business.”

“My subjects let me have free things,” she grumbled.

“And you thought you could do the same with our forms for your ‘shopping'.”

Stressed from the conversation, Nymph stood up. “Excuse me, but I need a snack.”

“Go on ahead. I’ll be here when you return,” Luna said in a teasing voice.

Nymph left Luna’s line of sight. The princess was expecting her to simply fetch a crystal filled with love until she heard the queen open her window. Luna sat there with an unsettling chill as she heard the sound of chirping, which gradually became quieter until it disappeared all-together. “Hmm, I guess I’ll leave the nest and see if I get lucky again.” Nymph then reappeared in front of Luna. “So what were we talking about?”

Luna slowly pointed a hoof at her own mouth. “You have little something there.”

Nymph wiped the red liquid off her mouth and licked it. “Did I get it all?”

“Yeah.” Luna then shuddered. “I hope you also stayed away from pet stores like you promised.”

“Yes…” groaned the queen, sounding very annoyed. “But it’s not my fault I love animals.”

“In your stomach,” remarked the princess. “Have you ever thought of going vegetarian?”

Nymph gasped. “I would rather die! I couldn’t possibly give up manticore or phoenix and there are still so many types of seafood left to try. You’re just going to have to deal with my diet and accept us for who we are.”

“I just hope the other ponies can,” Luna muttered. “Speaking of food, I am quite excited for Cherub’s event as I’m sure it will contribute quite a bit of love to your kingdom.”

Nymph rubbed her hooves together. “I’m sure it will! My changelings were so pleased when you allowed us to feed secretly and even more so now since we have a hotspot to harvest from on our favorite holiday. You must give Cherub my thanks.”

Luna thought about it, but she would wait until the matchmaker wasn’t so uncomfortable around changelings. “So are you going to personally attend, Nymph?”

“Of course I am! I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I always did admire that romantic holiday and now I can celebrate it instead of using to it to feed in secret.”

“And I assume you will have a date?”

All of a sudden, Nymph’s mood dropped. “We’ll see.”

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

She shook her head with a hoof on her face. “I’m just having a little crisis, that’s all.”

“Crisis? What’s going on?”

Nymph groaned loudly. “This is so embarrassing.”

Luna grinned, realizing it wasn’t a serious issue. “Now I really want to know. What is it?”

“I might as well tell you now. No doubt you’ll hear about this anyway if you come back here and the fact you’ll just pester me until I tell you.” Luna shrugged innocently and Nymph cleared her throat. “So remember how young Twilight came here about a week ago for more research? For this visit, she decided to study changeling mating habits.”

Luna froze on the spot. “Twilight wanted to study that!? I didn’t think she would ever work up the courage to research such a thing, even if she was with somepony she loved.”

“I think she was just picturing us as more of creatures for study rather than people. Anyway, so while she was doing research, although I’m not entirely sure how she went about doing it, she starts telling some changeling researchers about mating habits of bugs since we seem to be related and…ugh!”

Luna’s curiosity was getting the better of her. “Oh, I am flooded with excitement. What happened?”

Nymph shifted her eyes to the side as her cheeks shifted to a green color. “Twilight mentioned to them that the females of certain bug species actually eat their mates!” Luna immediately figured out what was coming and laughed like wild. “She tells them this usually happens when the female is much bigger, so guess who they all suddenly thought was a cannibal! This idea about me spread through my kingdom like a plague and I didn’t find out for days! I decided to invite one of my guards to my bedroom one night and he just breaks down and begs me not to eat him in front of so many changelings! It was so humiliating!”

The princess was panting after managing to control herself. “Oh come on. I’m sure you’re just making it sound worse than it was.”

“All of my guards and friends were terrified of me! They even sent investigators here to look for changelings who have gone missing from when Chrysalis was the queen! Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to have every changeling think you eat the ones you sleep with? Do you!?”

Once Luna had gotten every laugh out of her system, she just smiled at her. “Kind of. During my first Nightmare Night, the children believed that I ate small children and when they caught me holding Pip in my mouth, they all screamed and ran away, thinking I was eating him!”

The changeling cracked up and that caused Luna to do the same. “I guess we have more in common than I thought. I just hope Twilight isn’t planning another visit any time soon. I don’t think I can handle it.” She turned towards a small clock on her desk and sighed. “I’m afraid I’m running short on time before my duties resume, so I will see you tomorrow. Goodbye, Luna.”

“Goodbye, Nymph. Take care.” Nymph’s image disappeared from the orb, leaving only Luna’s reflection. Luna got off her seat and went to her closet for her winter clothes. As she dressed, she started thinking of a way to once again mess with Cherub. Luna loved the occasional prank, but she couldn’t help but to keep doing them to her friend, mainly because her reactions were always worth it. Within a minute, an idea formed in her head. She spent the next few minutes thinking it over and shaping it to perfection. When she had her prank all thought out, she giggled loudly and hopped a little. It was a little harmless prank that would be worth the look on the unicorn’s face. Maybe it would be going a little too far, but she simply could not resist.

With her magic, Luna was covered in a blue glow. A few seconds later, she was in the form of Celestia. After befriending Nymph, the queen allowed the two princesses to study her magic so they could prepare themselves for Chrysalis’s return. One spell she and her sister developed was the ability to shape shift, which was much harder for a pony to pull off. The alicorns often used this spell when they were in public so they didn’t get hassled by the citizens and when they wanted time to themselves. With everything ready, Luna casted her teleportation spell, transporting herself in front of Cupid’s Arrow. It took a moment for her to keep herself from snickering and to keep a straight face. Once that was accomplished, she knocked on the door. The door opened and several ponies stood before her. “Howdy, Celestia,” greeted Applejack. “What brings ya here? Lookin’ for a date?”

“I’m just picking up Cherub for my sister,” Luna replied. “Are you all heading home?”

“Yeah. It’s been a long day and I just want to crash on my basket,” said Spike as he stretched and yawned.

“Go ahead and get some rest. I would love to stay and catch up with you all, but I’m afraid my time here will be brief, so I will see you all another time.” Spike, Applejack, and Rarity left as Luna waved goodbye. When she turned around, she was greatly startled by a unicorn grinning widely at her. “And you must be Trixie.”

“I am! Has Twilight told you about me!?”

“Yes, she has mentioned you plenty of times,” she answered, unsure if that was even true. “How are your studies going?”

“A little boring, but I’m doing great. I can easily say I am the best student Twilight Sparkle ever had!” she proclaimed with a hoof on her chest.

“You’re the only student she’s ever had,” she reminded.

Trixie waved a hoof. “Still, with her help, I shall soon be the greatest entertainer in all of Equestria, if not the world. With her access to the Canterlot archives, I may even be the next Hoofdini!”

“Those are some big goals you have there, Trixie.”

“If you want to make it big, you got to dream big!” the unicorn declared loudly. “I don’t care how long it takes. I’m going to be the best magician ever! I just wish she would tell me where she put that stupid amulet,” she muttered to herself in a voice quiet enough for Luna not to hear her.

“Well I hope it all works out for you, Trixie. Good day.” When Luna walked past her, she felt her tail being pulled on.

“So when I do become the best magician ever, could I do shows at your palace? You will be amazed by Trixie’s tricks!”

Luna managed to pry the pony off. “I would be honored. Just remember to practice first.”

Trixie squealed with delight. “I will get right on it!” She then trotted away with a skip in step, humming to herself.

When Luna stepped inside Cupid’s Arrow, Pinkie appeared from the backroom, hopping as she usually did. “Hi, Celestia!” Luna watched as the pony went right past her. “Bye, Celestia!” Pinkie went out the door and soon disappeared from sight.

When Luna opened the door to the other room, she found Cherub looking at her from her desk, already dressed for the outdoors. Cherub was an interesting mare to Luna. When they first met, Cherub was much different, where she possessed a negative aura and was easy to annoy. Despite this, she had proven herself to be a supportive pony and Cherub even managed to change herself for the better. She was now often happy, loving, and even very entertaining to be around. However, there were moments where she would become stressed over something about her old life and become absolutely miserable. Luna wanted to help her with her problems, but she knew little about them, so there was only so much she could do until she opened up. “Oh. Hello, Celestia,” greeted the mare in surprise. “I was actually expecting Luna.”

“Luna had something come up and asked me to pick you up,” she lied.

“I see. Shall we go, then?”

“Of course.” Luna’s horn glowed and she teleported them to the Night Princess’s room. The room was similar to Celestia’s, but it carried décor of the moon instead of the sun. “You may wait here until she returns. She should be only a few minutes.”

“Sounds good.” Cherub immediately headed to the large bed and threw herself on it, giving out a relived sigh as she landed on it, which was of massive size and its sheet had stars all over it with several constellations drawn out.

Luna smirked from her action, amused. “You’re just going to make yourself comfortable?”

The unicorn stretched herself. “Luna’s my friend, I’m sure she won’t mind. I’d let her do the same.”

Another thing she liked about Cherub was how comfortable she was with her. Ponies would never dare act this way around her, whether from respect to her as a princess or from fear of her as Nightmare Moon. Only the first time they met was Cherub afraid of her, but now the unicorn treated her like any other pony, which was why Luna felt so close to her. Of course, this would not stop Luna from pranking her. “Get off the bed, Cherub,” she said in a commanding voice.

Cherub grabbed a pillow and placed it under her head. “No thanks, I’m good. This feels heavenly. Is this bed magical or something?”

“I said get off!”

The mare quickly jumped off the bed. “Okay, okay, I’m off. What gives, Celestia? Luna doesn’t mind.”

Luna cleared her throat. “That’s Princess Celestia to you, subject! You may be Luna’s friend, but I still demand your respect, which you don’t seem to have any for me.”

Cherub was steadily becoming nervous. “I get the feeling this isn’t about the bed.”

Luna gave her angriest look. “You would be correct, Cherub. There is something of more importance we must discuss, which is why I came to get you myself.”

“A-and what would that be?”

Luna took some stops towards her and said, “I know everything about you, Cherub.”

A look of absolute horror grew on Cherub’s face. “I-I-I-I don’t know what you are talking about! I-it’s all lies! I’m not hiding anything! It was Pinkie’s idea!”

The fake Celestia leaned towards her friend, causing her to back away even more. “You cannot hide anything from me, pony. My sister and I share everything.”

For some reason, Cherub seemed to be less panicked, but still on edge. “And what did she tell you?”

Luna looked dead into her eyes and said, “You make fun of my butt.”

Cherub stared at her blankly and slowly tilted her head. “Could you repeat that?”

Luna backed away and paced around in front of her. “You like to crack jokes about me and my ‘large’ behind. I can tolerate some jokes, Cherub, but this has gone too far. I find it completely disrespectful and foolish to talk about your ruler in such a way.”

Like a child being scolded by her mother, Cherub looked at the floor. “I’m sorry, Princess Celestia. Please forgive me.”

“I will not let this go of this so easily. I am very tempted to make you face punishment for this insult by throwing you in the dungeon!”

The unicorn was now panicking. “I-I’m sorry! Please don’t punish me! I’ll do anything!” she begged.

Luna rubbed her chin. “Well, there is one thing you could do for me. If you do this, I will forget this whole thing and never bring it up again as long as you don’t either.”

“I’ll do it!”

“Excellent. Now simply repeat what I say exactly and I will forgive you.” Luna cleared her throat and said, “Princess Celestia does not have a fat butt.”

“Princess Celestia does not have a fat butt,” Cherub repeated.

Luna was very pleased that she had gotten this far, so it was time for her to go all out. “Princess Celestia has a flank that all ponies crave.”

Cherub just looked at her like the mare in front of her had gone insane, but Luna remedied that by loudly clearing her throat, which made the unicorn jump. “P-Princess Celestia has a flank that all ponies crave.”

The blue alicorn had to hold in the urge to laugh when she said, “Princess Celestia has the most fabulous booty in Equestria.”

Cherub was extremely baffled by the request. “E-excuse me?”

Luna stomped her hoof, causing everything to briefly shake. “Say it!”

Cherub quickly scrambled away from her and yelled, “P-Princess Celestia has the most fabulous booty in Equestria!”

The way she yelled that while acting like she was scared for her life was too much for Luna to handle. “Princess Celestia is…is…” Luna exploded into laughter and fell onto the floor, rolling around and kicking her legs.

Cherub was not sure what to think of what she was witnessing and slowly backed away. “A-are you okay?”

She sat up and pointed a hoof at her. “You should see the look on your face!” Luna then removed her disguise, greatly startling her friend.

“W-what the buck is a changeling doing here!?”

“Silly Cherub, I’m no changeling. It was just me the whole time!”

The unicorn shook her head. “I just saw you transform right in front of me! You’re a changeling!”

Luna calmed herself and got off the floor. “If I was really a changeling, then explain why my magic is blue, how I teleported us here, and how would I know what we gossip about.”

Cherub pondered this for a moment and then put a hoof on her own face, groaning. “I should have known something was up, but I was too confused and afraid to think straight. Still, how could have I fallen for such an obvious charade?”

“Because I am an excellent prankster,” the alicorn gloated proudly. “I just thought it all up before coming and I simply could not pass it up. Was I a good Celestia or what?”

“You’re the worst friend ever,” Cherub grumbled.

Luna threw a hoof around her and pulled Cherub to her, still smiling. “Lighten up. I thought it was pretty funny.”

“Of course you would, since you aren’t the victim,” she muttered, followed by a sigh. “Honestly, what’s with you pranking me so much lately? It’s so childish of you, especially since you’re so old.”

“What about when you made kissy faces at me?” the alicorn reminded with a little bit of seriousness in her voice.

“That was more of a calculated joke. At least I didn’t make you talk about how great my sister’s butt was,” Cherub said while pointing a hoof at her own behind.

Luna sat down and crossed her forelegs. “Oh, and putting me in an incredibly awkward and uncomfortable situation is somehow better?”

“I was expecting you to make me kiss your butt.”

“You tried to kiss me!”

Cherub chuckled and walked past her. “Would that really had been so bad?” Luna froze on the spot, completely caught off guard by what she asked. She then noticed Cherub was not in the room and quickly followed her. She didn’t need to run far as the unicorn was standing near the door. “So which way to Celestia? I still haven’t figured out how to get around this place.” Luna suddenly teleported them, placing them in another hall with a pair of golden double doors and two pegasi guards in front. “Right. You seriously have to teach me how to do that.”

The guards saluted the princess as she knocked on the door. “Sister, it is I. I have Cherub with me.”

“Come in.” Luna and Cherub opened the doors and went inside, finding Celestia wearing a pink coat, yellow boots, and a white scarf. “Hello, Cherub,” she greeted warmly. “How are you today?”

“I am fine, thank you.” She gave Luna a cold glare, who grinned in return. “Luna certainly knows how to welcome somepony.” She suddenly became uneasy as she looked back at the other alicorn. “You are Celestia, right?”

Celestia cocked her head. “What a strange question. Of course I am Celestia. Why do you ask?”

Luna giggled, confusing her sister even further. “Oh, it’s nothing. Are you ready to depart?”

“I was just waiting for you. Let us get going.” They approached Celestia as her horn glowed, who then teleported the three of them far out in the wilderness. They were standing on a trail in a forest area located at the lower part of a small mountain, surrounded by snow. Far off in the distance in front of the setting sun was Canterlot, where they were only seconds ago. “And here we are.”

Cherub took a few steps away from them and looked around. “Very lovely place. So what are we going to do here exactly?”

“We’re going to take a nice walk through the forest,” answered Luna as she pointed towards their path.

“We came all the way out here just to hike?”

“I promise you will find it enjoyable,” said Celestia. “Come.” Celestia and Luna walked ahead and Cherub followed. Luna knew she was disappointed, but hopefully she would like the surprise they had in store for her. “So how is business, Cherub?”

“Interesting as usual. Ponies keep hitting on Twilight or me, Trixie puts on an adequate performance and brings in a little extra cash, and I needed to call security yet again. Who knew the dating business was so insane?”

“Sounds fun,” Luna said with a smirk. “Anything really interesting happen that you want to share? We’re going to be here for a while.”

Cherub thought for a moment. “As a matter of fact, I do remember something. I actually had this pony going through my garbage the other night.”

“Your garbage? What on earth was he looking for?” asked Celestia.

The red mare snarled loudly. “He was a nosey journalist looking for something juicy. When I tell him to beat it, the jerk starts asking me for a story while flashing me in the face with his stupid camera. I don’t get why I have to deal with this manure. My life is my own business and it is not for sale.”

“It comes with the life of fame, I’m afraid,” commented Celestia. “Ponies take much interest in celebrities and royalty and even Luna and I sometimes deal with harassment because of it.”

“So what did you do?” asked Luna.

“I tell the guy to leave me alone, but he doesn’t take the hint that I didn’t want him there. He then has the nerve to ask about my love life and I sort of,” Cherub trailed off for a moment while motioning a hoof around, “lost it.”

Luna stopped and turned around. “Define lost it.”

The unicorn was startled by Luna’s sudden turn around, but continued her story. “I will admit that I was tempted to shove his camera down his throat, but my celebrity status could be compromised if he were to go whining to his boss. So of course, I decided to take a smarter approach.”

Luna studied her. “Cherub, what exactly did you do?”

Cherub chuckled and walked on ahead. “I put on a pleasant face and invited him inside for a drink. The gullible sap agrees and I get out my strongest drink and offered him some. After two drinks, the poor guy can’t get enough, so I let him have as much as he wanted. I simply watched as he drank and rambled about stuff I could care less about. Finally, he passed out and fell right onto my floor.”

Luna sighed and shook her head. “I can’t believe you got him drunk, Cherub.”

“Oh, it gets better. So I drag the idiot outside and put him next to one of my garbage cans, which I knock over. I then take his camera and snap a nice little photo of him passed out next to a garbage can with a bottle of alcohol in his hoof.”

“Goodness,” spoke Celestia, shocked from her actions. “I hope you didn’t leave him out there.”

“No, I brought him inside and locked him in my closet. Afterwards, I went to bed. The next morning, I can hear the guy banging on the door downstairs. I let him out and he was completely hung over. He asks me what happened, but I just told him what the deal was. I had his roll of film, which contained the picture of him I took, and I told him if he or any of his friends ever harassed me again, I would release the photo and add a nice little story of an innocent mare being sexually harassed by a drunken reporter. I don’t think I’m going to have any more problems for a while.”

Luna sighed in disapproval. “Honestly, Cherub, that’s too mean. I do not approve of blackmailing anypony for any reason.”

Cherub only smiled at her slyly. “I think I was entirely justified.”

In Luna’s opinion, Cherub was sort of like a coin. She could either be a fun mare who could brighten any of Luna’s dark days or a wicked pony that knew no mercy and sometimes she even scared the princess. Luna was glad that the latter had become a rarer occurrence, but it still happened too often in her opinion. She knew why Cherub was usually angry; she just wished she would try to control it. “Just promise me next time you will not stoop so low. You’re better than that.”

“Oh come on. He was asking for it!”

“Please, Cherub, promise me.”

With some reluctance, Cherub nodded. “Very well. Next time I will try something a little…friendlier.” They continued their walk in silence, taking in the scenery around them. Luna looked at her sister, who had her tongue stuck out as she attempted to capture some of the falling snowflakes. The sight caused Luna to giggle, which caused Celestia to blush when she realized she was being watched. Cherub, on the other hoof, was only focused on the surrounding environment. “You know, sometimes I forget how beautiful Equestria really is.”

“Most ponies do,” Celestia replied. “We have ruled this land for thousands of years and I am glad most of it has been retained. Luna and I always like to tour through the untouched lands whenever we get the chance, which is not often unfortunately.”

“I really admire it. I kind of wish Pinkie was here right now to enjoy it too.”

“Then why didn’t you invite her?” Celestia asked.

“I tried, but she said she had to work today at Sugarcube Corner. Plus she said she was in the middle of some research and could not be interrupted.”

“What research?” the blue pony asked curiously.

The matchmaker shrugged at her. “Beats me. All she said was it had something to do with love, but knowing her, I worry of what that means.”

The pony mentioned was currently on break from work at Sugarcube Corner and sitting in her bedroom. She had the door locked and all but a small light off to ensure no pony knew her secret. Pinkie reached into her box, randomly selecting two items. When she had her picks, she pulled them out. “Rarity and Discord? That’d be so funny!” She cleared her throat and proceeded to speak like Discord. “Rarity, ever since I became good, I can’t stop thinking about you. Your hair, your generosity, and even your organized chaos! My heart is a chaotic storm when I think about you!”

“Oh, Discord,” said Rarity, “I’ve always admired you as well. You are such a…rarity!” She then proceeded to make them kiss while imitating the sounds. After a few seconds, she threw them back into the box and began digging again. “That was fun. Who’s next?” Her next two selections caught her by total surprise. On one hoof was the Princess of Love herself, Cadance. On the other hoof was her newest friend, Chrysalis. “Ooo, this is gonna be fun!” She cleared her throat and began using Chrysalis’s voice. “Cadance, my changelings are hungry for love and stuff and I need your help to feed them. Also, I can’t take my eyes away from you because you are so pretty, but I know you think I’m weird looking.”

Pinkie giggled. “Oh Chrysalis, of course I will help you. Also, I don’t think you look weird at all. I think you’re very beautiful and…” The mare all of a sudden gasped. “Wait a minute! Cadance is married!” She couldn’t make her and Chrysalis get together. She was with Shining Armor and it would have been weird to split them up, especially since the changeling nearly ruined their wedding. That’s when an idea hit her. She pulled out the Shining Armor figure and spoke with Cadance’s voice. “Chrysalis, I love you very much, but I also love my husband. That is why I will cast one of the best spells ever to make us all happy.”

“What spell is it?” asked the stallion.

“The spell of polygamy!” Pinkie made magic sounds with her mouth. “It is done! We are all now double married!” She moved the figures up and down, making cheering noises. She reached back into her box and pulled out two other ponies. To her surprise, it was Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. “Oops. I can’t do anything with them. That’d be way too weird!” She was about to put them back, but she halted. After darting her eyes around, she slowly pulled them back out.

For nearly fifteen minutes, the three ponies ascended the trail. Celestia and Luna were happily gossiping with one another while Cherub was left out as she dragged behind from the steady climb. “Falling behind already?” teased Luna when she noticed they were short one mare. “You need to get in shape.”

“I am in shape,” Cherub shot back. “I’m just a little worn from this morning. Trying to catch up with Applejack and Rainbow Dash on a run is impossible and I still don’t understand how Pinkie moves so fast or even keeps her shape with her diet.”

“Trying to understand Pinkie is something I would consider to be impossible,” Celestia jested. “She is definitely one of a kind.” A moment after she said that, they heard a strange sound, causing them to become quiet and slow their pace. “Do you two hear something?”

“I thought I was the only one,” answered Cherub as she looked around. When they walked a bit further up the path, the sound became louder and clearer. “Is that…music?”

“Who else could possibly be up here?” Luna wondered aloud. They walked along until they reached a clearing with a frozen lake. However, something did not fit the picture. Near the ice were a beach chair and an umbrella, with a certain draconequus resting with a pair of sunglasses and a speedo equipped. “Discord?”

The chaotic god sat up and removed his shades. “Oh hello, princesses! What are you doing in my super-secret tanning spot? Came to get a quick tan?”

“Tanning spot? It’s winter at the moment, not to mention sunset!” reminded Celestia.

“Well the sun still kind of there, so I’m just getting a last minute tan. I need to absorb as much sunlight as I can to stay warm for winter!”

Celestia sighed, knowing it was completely pointless to argue logic with him. “We’re just passing through. We usually go up this trail for walks, especially during this season.”

Discord looked at her companions, noticing one who stuck out, and became excited. “Oh hi, Turnip! How have you been?”

“Cherub,” the mare corrected in annoyance as the two princesses giggled.

“Whatever. How was work? Anything interesting?” he asked while leaning towards her.

The unicorn stuck a hoof in his face and shoved him back. “No.”

Luna stepped closer to him and asked, “Discord, why are you interested in her business, anyway?”

He sprang onto his feet, towering over them with his massive height. “Because by my calculations, her home is one of the most chaotic spots in Ponyville! I just love waiting nearby and watching as madness is unleashed on its own!” He suddenly gained a tuxedo, a top hat, and a monocle. “Truly some of the best performances I have ever seen.”

“Do you sometimes give this madness a little push?” Cherub asked hatefully.

He shook his head and gave off a hearty laugh. “Heavens no! It’s so much better to just let it happen on its own. It’s like painting a picture. It’s better to just sit there and watch the painting make itself than to draw your own.” He bent over and pulled on her cheeks. “You are just a magnet for trouble, Trumpet!”

He quickly pulled away when Cherub tried to bite his fingers. “Cherub!”

Luna could see her friend grinding her teeth. “Discord, shouldn’t you be looking for Chrysalis? That is what we assigned you to do.”

The draconequus snapped his fingers, making his outfit disappear and creating a telescope, which he looked through while sticking it in Luna’s face. “I’m just taking a little break! All that searching with nothing happening really drains my stamina. Besides, I can see quite a lot with this thing from here. Don’t you worry, the moment this changeling girl comes, I’ll know!”

“I’m sure you’d be just as useful if you stuck that telescope where the sun doesn’t shine,” grumbled the unicorn.

Discord then pressed the telescope against her face. “You mean like in a rabbit hole? Great idea, Chernobyl!”

“My name is Cherub, you dolt!”

Celestia put a hoof on her face. “Well it’s been nice seeing you, Discord, but I’m afraid we must be going before things get out of hoof.”

“Of course. See you all later!” He watched as the two alicorns walked away and then turned around, finding Cherub still standing there. “Yeeeessss?” he asked innocently.

The mare grabbed the telescope and bashed it over his head, which Discord didn’t react to at all. “Stop spying on me, you creep!” She then stormed off to catch up with the others.

Discord waved to her as she walked away and when they were all out of sight, he turned towards his radio. “Now for some peace and quiet.” He hit the power button and relaxed as death metal played in reverse blasted out.

Several minutes after encountering Discord, the three ponies made it to the end of the path, arriving at an open area with a steep drop on the left, where the trees were few and they could see some of Equestria in the distance. “And that concludes our tour,” said Celestia.

Cherub wiped some sweat off her forehead. “That felt more like a workout than a tour.”

“Really? Neither of us have broken a sweat,” teased Luna.

The unicorn rolled her eyes as she walked ahead. “I will admit I enjoyed being out here but now I am just exhausted. Can we go back to Canterlot now?”

“Not yet. We’ll rest a little before heading back, so take a moment to relax,” spoke the older sister.

“Alright.” Cherub approached the steep drop and sat down to look at the view of Equestria and was soon joined by Luna. The princess noticed that Cherub was panting, so she magically produced a water bottle and held it to her friend, who took it. “Thank you.”

“I’m sorry our little trip wasn’t as exciting as you were hoping for and that we even had to deal with Discord,” Luna said as the mare greedily drank every drop she could get.

Cherub wiped her mouth after finishing. “It’s alright. It was actually quite enjoyable. Thank you for bringing me.”

“It is always a pleasure to have you around,” the princess complimented.

“I can tell, considering you’ve been visiting every day for a while now.”

“I’m sorry if I’m bothering you.”

“No, I always love it when you come by. Sometimes I wish I lived in the palace with you.”

“Me…too, honestly.” They both looked back at the view in front of them with Luna occasionally shooting a glance towards her. After a moment, she yawned and stretched a foreleg towards her.

“Sister,” spoke Celestia, causing the younger alicorn to immediately retract, “I believe it is time to bring about your night.”

“R-right. Of course.” Luna got up and stood next to her sibling. With her magic, Celestia ended the sunset. With the sun finally down, Luna stood near the edge and brought the moon into view. The three ponies sat and watched as it slowly climbed the sky. Since they were far from civilization, they witnessed Luna’s sky in its full beauty. “Another perfect night for the creatures of the world,” Luna said happily.

“It’s so beautiful,” spoke Cherub in awe as she gazed into the heavens. “Of course, it’s only second to the pony who made it.”

Luna quietly gasped. “Cherub…”

The matchmaker turned towards her with a taunting smile. “Yes?” Rather than speak, Luna just looked into her eyes, finding it difficult to find what she wanted to say. Their stare lasted until a loud growl was heard and Cherub looked at herself. “As much as I love sitting here, I think I have done enough relaxing.”

The two princesses felt their own hunger approaching. “I suppose it is time we return home,” spoke Celestia.

“So let’s teleport out of here,” suggested Cherub.

Celestia shook her head. “Actually, there’s one more thing we need to do while we’re here.”

“What?”

Luna pointed a hoof behind her. “We need to go back down.”

Cherub grew a look of disbelief on her face. “We have the walk all the way back down with empty stomachs?”

“Walk? Don’t be ridiculous.” Celestia’s horn glowed and she made a gigantic sled appear in front of her.

Upon seeing what Celestia brought, Cherub looked down to the slope she was sitting by, finding it to be very steep. “No way.”

Celestia grinned in response to her protest. “Yes way, Cherub.”

Luna took the sled. “Tia, I believe it is my turn to drive.”

“You’re right. Get in front.”

Luna placed it on the ground and sat herself on the front and then Celestia sat behind her. They looked at the red pony, who just stood there with a look of horror. “Are you coming?” asked Luna.

Cherub backed away. “I am not getting on that death trap.”

Both of the alicorns laughed at her, causing her to scowl. “Well either you get on or you can just walk back,” Luna offered.

“You’re kidding me!”

“Nope! So hop on and enjoy the ride. I guarantee it’s safe.” The blue alicorn held out a hoof to her. Cherub was hesitant, but she slowly walked over and took her hoof, seating herself between the alicorns and wrapping her forelegs around Luna’s chest. “All set?”

“I hope so,” the unicorn whimpered.

“Good.” Luna moved the sled so they were over the edge. As the sled slowly tilted forward, Luna said, “Hold on to your flanks!” The sled then moved forward down the hill, accelerating as Luna steered to avoid any obstacles they came across. She had produced magic lights on the front allowed her to see what was ahead in the dark and provide them a good view of the environment around them.

“How are you holding up?” Celestia asked Cherub.

The mare looked around while still clinging to Luna. “Not bad, actually. This is nice and relaxing.”

Celestia chuckled. “Too bad that’s about to change.”

“Huh?”

“Lulu!” the elder sister called. “I think it’s time we showed her how we do things the alicorn way!”

Luna looked back at her with a grin. “I like the way you think, Tia! Preparing the turbo!”

Cherub gasped. “Preparing the what!?”

Both of the alicorns’ horns glowed and their vehicle was covered in light, causing it to vibrate as it was being prepared to go at a much higher velocity. “Get ready, Cherub!” yelled Luna. “We’re going light speed!”

“Light speed on a sled!? That’s ludicrous!”

The blue pony put a pair of goggles over her eyes, ignoring Cherub’s loud protests. “Here…we…go!” The sled exploded forward, turning into a rocket that plowed massive amounts of snow before it. The nature was disrupted by both the snow that was sprayed everywhere from their high speed and by the sound of a unicorn screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Having fun, Cherub?” Celestia called mockingly.

“You two are bucking crazy!” she shouted while her face was dug into Luna’s back. “I want off this wild ride!”

“Sorry, but the ride doesn’t end until we get to the bottom!” Luna responded in a teasing manner.

While Cherub whimpered, Celestia tapped on her sister’s shoulder and pointed. Luna looked in the direction she was pointing and was baffled. Near them was Discord, going downhill at the same speed as they were. However, he was upside down and sliding downhill on his face and his head was buried in the snow. As the two alicorns stared in disbelief, he gave them a thumbs up. A ramp suddenly appeared in front of him and he launched off and flew into the sky, gaining acceleration as he disappeared into the blue yonder.

The two princesses slowly looked at each other, unable to find the words to describe what they just witnessed. Giving up, Luna turned her focus back to driving. She kept avoiding the trees and making every jump she could make, loving the air time. After a couple of minutes, they reached the bottom of the hill and they slowly came to a stop. With the ride over, Luna and Celestia stood up. “Not bad, Lulu. I think that was record time.”

“I never get tired of that, but I think all that jumping did something. My back feels funny.” The older sister sniggered and pointed. Luna looked behind her, only to find the red unicorn still clinging to her. “Cherub?”

“I want off this thing right now, Luna! This isn’t funny!”

Sighing, Luna tapped her on the head. “Cherub, the ride’s over.”

Cherub slowly opened an eye to look around. She then opened both eyes and saw they were off the sled. Embarrassed, she climbed off of Luna. “So did you have fun?” Celestia asked playfully.

Cherub walked with a sway in her step. “Let me think about that.” She then fell over into the snow as she fainted, causing both alicorns to crack up.

After enjoying some dinner, Celestia and Luna led their guest to a room with a large couch and a film projector mounted on a tall table behind it that was pointed towards a screen and a shelf filled with a collection of film reels. Luna tried to sit next to Cherub, but she scooted away. “Do you watch many movies, Cherub?” asked Celestia.

“Not really. Pinkie took me to one of her movie dates with Fluttershy. They seemed to have enjoyed it while I thought it was stupid.”

Celestia smiled as she pulled out a reel. “Well I hope you will enjoy this one, but I need to ask how you would feel about watching a changeling movie.”

Cherub immediately straightened her posture. “Well I would love to know why we’re watching a changeling movie.”

The princess walked behind her to set it up in the projector. “It’s a movie Luna and I like a lot, despite its low budget. I hope you don’t mind that it was created by and stars changelings.”

The unicorn relaxed on the couch. “I suppose it should be alright.”

“Excellent.” Celestia put the film reel labeled “Arachula” in the projector as Luna got up and prepared some popcorn and soda for them.

“So how did you find this movie?” Cherub asked while watching Celestia set everything up.

Luna brought the snacks to the table near the couch and handed one to her friend. “We found out about changeling movies a long time ago from Nymph. I was surprised they even had such a thing since they were behind on technology, but films were and still are a big thing in the changeling culture. This movie is a classic, but I’m afraid its technology is behind Equestria’s by quite a bit, so it may seem a little cheesy.”

With everything ready, the two alicorns sat down and Celestia turned on the projector. With the lights off, they could see the title on the screen as the music played. The film was about a changeling count named Arachula, who possessed a curse that prevented him from draining love normally, so he had to suck it out of his prey by biting their necks. However, this caused ponies to turn into changelings with the same curse that would obey him against their will. The film began with Count Arachula seducing a mare in a nearby pony village and then showing her his true form when he was ready to feed. “W-what do you want from me!?” asked the terrified mare.

The changeling grinned, showing his enlarged fangs. “I vant to suck your love.”

Celestia and Luna sniggered loudly. Despite how good the acting was, that line was very corny to them and they loved hearing it every time. Several minutes passed since the scene and Luna asked, “How do you like the movie so far, Cherub?”

“I actually like it quite well,” she replied happily. “Has anypony else seen this?”

“We have shown Twilight and her little friends one time and they liked it too,” answered Luna.

“Except a certain pegasus,” added Celestia, causing them both to laugh.

Cherub turned to them. “You actually made Fluttershy watch this? That was rather mean.”

Celestia quickly shook her head. “We would never drag poor Fluttershy to a horror movie. It was actually Rainbow Dash who became afraid.”

The mortal pony developed a look of absolute disbelief. “Rainbow Dash got scared by this movie?”

“Very, but I have no idea why. Watching her freak out was certainly more entertaining than the movie,” commented the blue alicorn.

“I'm not surprised since you seem to love putting your friends through complete terror.” Luna flinched from Cherub’s harsh comeback and said nothing more.

After a while, they finished their snacks and watched the film in silence. Changeling guards were investigating reports of ponies from a nearby town disappearing at night and they found one with bite marks on her neck and similar features of a changeling. “Sir, I think there may be a vampling among us!” cried one of the guards.

“A vampling?” asked the captain in complete horror. “We must get to the queen at once! The kingdom is in danger!”

Luna looked away from the film towards Cherub, who was leaning against the edge of the couch a good distance from her. She tried to continue watching Arachula, but she was too distracted by her friend’s sour attitude and she said, “Cherub?”

“What?”

Luna extended a wing towards her. “Why don’t you sit next to me?”

The unicorn immediately looked back at the screen. “Pass.”

“Come on.” No response. “Cherub, I’m sorry about earlier. It was wrong of me to tease you for being scared. But please, sit next to me. I want your company.” The unicorn was hesitant at first, but she scooted closer and Luna brought her wing around her. Luna noticed the way Celestia was looking at them and chose to ignore it, trying to enjoy the moment with her sister and her friend.

“Have you ever thought about being in a movie, Luna?” the matchmaker asked as she rested her head on the alicorn’s shoulder.

“I have occasionally as I find them very fascinating, but I don’t think I would make a good actress,” she admitted.

“Considering how good looking you are, I don’t think any pony would mind.”

Luna blushed, flattered by her compliment. “I remember that Queen Nymph said once if she could do one thing if she wasn’t royalty, she’d be an actress.”

The princess could feel her friend’s body tense up, which she assumed was from the name she spoke. “Really? I…never knew that.”

“Yes. She simply loves performing arts and thinks she would be one of the best. She would love bringing stories to life with thousands of fans watching and cheering for her. She already has a wonderful singing voice, so I can sort of see it.”

“I can too.” Cherub looked at both of them. “Now that I think about it, have either of you ever thought of something like that? Like what would you do if you weren’t a princess?”

It was then Luna’s turn to tense up. She tried to quickly come up with something, but was thankful when Celestia spoke first. “I actually have. If I wasn’t a princess, the one thing I would do is be a teacher.”

Cherub looked at her funnily. “Aren’t you one already? You have a school named after you and everything.”

“Yes, but I would become one full time. I would devote myself to giving children an education they deserve. I simply love teaching students and the kind of education they receive can affect who they become when they age, so I would be shaping their lives and my country for the better.”

“That sounds lovely, Tia. Maybe you should let me take over more so you could spend more time with your students.” Luna looked at her friend. “What about you, Cherub? What would you do if not matchmaking?”

“Modeling.”

Luna smirked. “That didn’t take long.”

“What can I say? I did it a while back and I simply love the thought of being a goddess among the ponies, being the ultimate desire of the stallions and the source of jealousy for the mares.”

“Hearing that from you somehow doesn’t surprise me,” Luna commented as she rolled her eyes.

The unicorn shrugged. “Try it for yourself and see if you feel any different. I promise you won’t.” Luna wondered to herself if she should take up her advice. She knew there were still a few ponies that were afraid of her as they still saw her as the monster she was before and maybe dressing up and looking cute for a few pictures may help ease them into accepting her. Remembering they were in the middle of a film, she returned her focus onto it. She was glad they stopped discussing alternative careers as she did have one secret passion and she was not willing to share. She couldn’t imagine what they would say if she told them.

“Luna?”

The princess flinched. “Yes, Cherub?”

“What would you want to do?”

Luna put on her most believable face. “Um…I’m not sure. I’m afraid I spend too much time doing work to consider such things. I’ll let you know when I think of something.”

“Take your time, Lulu. You don’t have to think about it now.” Luna then relaxed and watched the movie, glad the whole thing was blown over.

“She’s lying.”

Luna felt her heart jump. “E-excuse me?”

Cherub sat up and turned towards her with a sly smile. “Little Luna’s lying to us.”

“I-I am not!” Somehow, Cherub was very good at reading her, even more than her own sister. Whether Luna was lying or bothered by something, the unicorn would know about it. It was as if she had a sixth sense of how she was feeling. While it was great for when she needed her support, this moment made her resent it.

Celestia leaned at her sister. “So what is it you're hiding, Luna? We don’t often keep secrets from each other.”

“Can we just watch the movie, please? I don’t want to talk about it.” She turned back towards the screen and tried to maintain a straight face and prayed they would do the same.

“If you will not tell me, then you leave me no choice.”

Luna looked at Celestia and backed away. “Tia? What are you going to do?”

Celestia magically pulled out a loose feather from her wing. “I think I shall force the truth out of you. There can be no secrets between us.”

The blue alicorn’s eyes went wide when she realized what was in store for her. “Oh, please don’t, Celestia! It’s personal!” As her sister crept closer, Luna crawled away from her. Suddenly, she was grabbed from behind and held in place. “Cherub!?”

“Let her have it, Celestia! I want her to sing!” The feather went straight for Luna’s side and commenced its assault. The alicorn flailed like mad as it tickled her but could only move so much as Cherub maintained a good grip on her. “Tell us your secret!” ordered the matchmaker.

“N-n-never! Stop it!”

Celestia moved the feather towards her chest as Luna kicked her legs. “You know I won’t stop until you fess up.”

Knowing she was serious, Luna said, “Alright, alright, I’ll talk! Please just stop!” Cherub released her and Celestia ceased her action. Luna was breathing heavily as she moved away from them. “You two are terrible.”

Celestia playfully tousled her hair. “Sorry. So what are you hiding, Luna? I am dying to know what you’d want to do.”

Luna faced the screen in front of her, unable to look at them when she admitted, “If I wasn’t a princess, I…would want to be…a…rock star.” She just watched the movie and tried to ignore their reactions. However, Cherub’s sniggering was making it extremely difficult.

“A rock star!?” She pointed and laughed at her, causing Luna’s face to turn crimson.

“Cherub, calm down,” said Celestia, who also found great amusement in her confession. “I had no idea you were interested in something like that, Lulu.”

“I have been interested in rock music in a long time. I attended a concert with Rainbow Dash once and I was simply blown away by what I heard and saw. Never in my life had I ever seen music such as that and I was just enthralled. I’ve been collecting records and listening to them in my spare time.”

“But why haven’t you told me about this before? We don’t usually keep these things secret from each other.”

“I figured it was not very princess-like to enjoy such music, so I was not entirely sure you’d aprove.”

Celestia put a foreleg around her sister. “While it is most certainly unexpected, I am fine with it. Besides, there are much worse careers you could have chosen.”

“At least my guess was in the ballpark. I figured Luna would want to do something involving entertainment.”

Luna looked at Cherub with a frown, knowing she was about to crack a joke about her. “What were you thinking?”

Cherub smiled deviously and turned back towards the movie. “You might be better off not knowing.”

Luna sat up and got in her face. “Cherub, what in the world did you think I would want to do?”

“Pole dancing.”

Both alicorns looked at her in absolute shock. “Pardon!?” Luna shouted, almost using her Canterlot voice.

“Come on. All the fun things happen at night and I know you love dancing, so why not?”

“I would never partake in such a lowly activity! How dare you think of me that way!”

The crimson pony kept smiling at her, causing Luna great annoyance. “It’s not lowly at all. It’s a great way to express the beauty of your body and to have fun. I can imagine you would be a natural.”

The princess had enough of being teased, so it was time for her to turn the tables. She pointed a hoof in Cherub’s face and shouted, “Well let’s see you do it then!”

Cherub’s smug expression immediately shifted into one of surprise. “Say what?”

“If you think pole dancing is so great, then why don’t you show me?" Luna demanded as she continuously jabbed a hoof into the pony's chest. "It shouldn’t be too much trouble since you already love showing off your body to other ponies.”

“I…”

She moved Cherub off the couch. “Go on, Cherub! Convince me why I should partake in such a thing! Dance for me! Shake that money maker! If you perform well enough, perhaps I shall toss bits at you! Give me a show of a lifetime!”

Cherub nervously shifted around in front of the alicorns, bringing a stroke of satisfaction to the younger sibling. “Luna, did you just ask Cherub to dance sexually for you?” Her words struck the alicorn like a sack of horseshoes and her face reddened. She rested her head on her hooves with a look of anger on her face as the audio of the movie was drowned out by the sound of laughter.

“And then they thought she was a cannibal!”

Celestia cracked up and her sister couldn’t help but join in. “Oh, the poor thing. I had no idea Twilight did that.”

“I think you wouldn’t have believed her if she knew and told you.” At the moment, the sisters were bathing together in Celestia’s private bath. The room was covered with tiles and wallpaper that shined of golden color and the wall was decorated with images of the sun and other symbols representing the alicorn. The small window showed the world outside as daytime, even though it was currently night. Luna preferred her own bath, where it was not as bright and had a more soothing environment in her opinion. “You really shouldn’t allow Twilight to run around there without supervision. I can only imagine what else will happen.”

“I would love to join her in seeing the changelings and Nymph, but it has been too busy here lately.” Celestia sighed and rested her head against her hooves as she stared at the ceiling. “Sometimes I dislike being a princess because of all the work.”

“I can agree with that. Cherub doesn’t realize how lucky she is to have such a simple job.”

Celestia then sat up, smiling at her sister. “So I came up with a great idea and I want your input.”

Luna grew a look of great anticipation. “I’m listening.”

“Okay, so you know how we can disguise ourselves and even other ponies with magic? What if we found two ponies to disguise and act like us while we go around in their forms to do fun stuff?”

Luna gasped. “You want to hire doubles so we can ditch work and have fun? How scandalous!”

“What can I say? I want more vacation time like you do,” she said while poking Luna’s chest with her hoof.

Even though she wasn't being serious, Luna cringed a little. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m glad you’ve made such a good friend, Lulu. She’s very delightful.”

Luna smiled. “She is. But if we’re going to find doubles, we may as well use changelings as they are raised to perfectly imitate ponies. So how long do you think it’ll be until this whole changeling thing is over with? Nymph is getting eager and I can only imagine how her subjects are feeling with all this waiting.”

“Months before they are allowed here and years until they are fully accepted, just like all the other races before them. It doesn’t help that their first appearance in the world was in the form of an invasion that almost succeeded.”

Luna nodded, knowing this was unfortunately true. “I just want them to be able to feed freely and see how beautiful the world is. I feel bad for them that they have to survive of the emotions of other species and I can only imagine how difficult it was for them to acquire it back then.”

“I feel the same way. We must continue in doing what we can to undo the damage caused by Chrysalis. Speaking of Chrysalis, I hope she is safe after all this time.”

“I don’t,” the other alicorn muttered bitterly.

Celestia gave her a look of disapproval. “Luna, don’t say that. I know you don’t like her, but do not forget how much she means to poor Nymph.”

“I guess,” spoke Luna as she thought about going to her workout room and giving her special punching bag another round. “I also can’t help but worry of what she’ll do when she shows up. The more days pass, the more anxious I feel. She could be right here in Canterlot and we wouldn’t know it.”

“We’ll find her and foil her if she is in fact planning revenge. With her own kingdom ready to take action against her, I doubt she will prove to be much of a threat, so let us not worry about her until the time comes.” Celestia’s horn glowed and brought up the temperature of the bath water. The princesses sighed with pleasure and they lowered themselves until their heads were above the surface. “Besides, there’s something else I wanted to talk about.”

“Tell me, sister.”

“Cherub.”

Luna raised a curious eyebrow. “Cherub? What about her?”

“Well there is something about her I’ve been wondering for some time. Other than myself or Cadance, I’ve haven’t seen you get this close to anypony since your return.”

The younger alicorn crossed her forelegs. “And?”

“I’m just curious, that’s all. You seem so drawn to her, even when she had a mean streak. You leave the palace often so you can see her, you always write to her, and you even talk about her a lot. You have even invited her to come with us during our personal time together. Why is that?”

Luna opened her mouth, but she didn’t have an answer. Why was she so drawn to that mare? Even when she saw how mean she was during their first meeting, she became interested in learning more about her. She realized that Celestia was right about her spending so much time away from home to be with her. Was it because she was curious of her past? Did she secretly want Cherub to help her find love? She didn’t want to say it, but Cherub had been on her mind a lot lately. It wasn’t entirely clear to her, but she believed she knew some of the reasons why she liked her. “Well, I guess in all honesty, I saw a bit of me in her.”

“A bit of you? What do you mean?”

Luna rested the back of her head against the edge of the bath. “She is a pony who made terrible mistakes in the past and is trying to put her life back together, sort of like myself. I don’t know why, but after meeting her a few times, I just felt that I had this…duty to watch her. I saw this sorrow buried deep within her and I wanted to help her in any way I could. She also acted so differently towards me compared to anypony else and I admired that. Even now, I still feel that I should keep her close to ensure she is doing well. I can’t explain this feeling, but I just feel so happy around her. She’s kind of my best friend.”

Celestia hung her head and sighed loudly. “I…see.”

Even one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders could tell what was bothering Celestia, so Luna moved closer to her. “However, there’s this one pony who will always be my true best friend.”

“Oh?” The older alicorn asked playfully. “Now who would that be?”

Luna hugged her. “You. Now and forever.” Celestia hugged her in return and they both laughed.

“I wish every day was like this, where I can spend so much time with you,” Celestia spoke softly.

“Me too, but we know that cannot be. There is still much work for us to do in running Equestria.”

Celestia tightened her hold and Luna could hear her sniffling. “It’s not fair. There’s still so much time to make up and our roles keep getting in the way. It’s just not fair, Luna.”

The younger princess ran her hoof through her hair. “Sister, I am here and I will never leave you again. Please do not be upset. We will always be together. I’ll even stay up sometimes just for you, okay?” Celestia nodded and pressed her lips against the top of Luna’s head. Luna closed her moist eyes as her sister quietly wept, deciding that after tomorrow, she would spend more time with her family.

“Yeesh, get a room, you two.” Both princesses turned towards the source of the voice, finding Discord in the bath with them while wearing a shower cap, holding a brush in one hand and a rubber ducky that resembled him in the other. He whistled loudly to himself as he scrubbed his body until he noticed the two hateful glares he was receiving. “What?”

Luna and her friend sat on the large bed in her bedroom as they ate some ice cream straight from the containers. Luna was enjoying her chocolate flavored treat while Cherub had vanilla. “I believe this is my favorite way to wrap up the day.”

Cherub swallowed and wiped her mouth. “Agreed, but this is not exactly a habit a princess such as yourself should have. I find it to be very improper.”

The alicorn shrugged and continued eating her frozen treat. “It’s not like they’ll ever know. Besides, it’s fun to act like a normal pony sometimes. Being royalty has too many rules while being a commoner has more freedom.”

“I’m guessing you like to act like a normal a lot with that new spell of yours,” spoke Cherub, remembering the prank from earlier today.

“Oh yes!” she answered excitedly. “I simply love infiltrating any town and saying hello to strangers. They never have a clue of who I am and I can do whatever I want without being judged for it! Just the thought of being in disguise and fooling everypony gets me thrilled!”

“I envy you for your new trick, but promise me you will never take the guise of Pinkie and pull a fast one on me.”

“Promise.” Luna had enough of her dessert and placed it on the nightstand. “Now that I think about it, ponies don’t usually run away anymore when I approach them as me. They’re really treating me the same way as my sister.”

Cherub lied down next to her while keeping the container on her stomach. “I’m glad. They’re finally learning that you aren’t Nightmare Moon anymore and just a sweet princess.”

“It’s been a long time, but things are finally becoming normal for me.” She looked at her friend and grinned at her. “Of course,” she said suddenly, “I can still be quite evil.”

Cherub chuckled, but when she saw how Luna was looking at her, she slowly removed the spoon from her mouth and asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Luna sat up, causing the red mare to gulp. “You teamed up with Celestia when you wanted to know about my passion and teased me about being a dancer. You betrayed me, Cherub.”

Cherub slowly crawled away from her, laughing nervously. “H-hey now! There’s no need for you to do anything! We were just having fun! Nothing wrong with that, right?”

Luna’s horn glowed. “Not at all. I always enjoy fun and I think we shall have a little more. That is why,” she removed two feathers from her wing, “it shall be doubled for you, Cherub.”

“No, no, no-” Luna’s revenge was unleashed. The next thing the unicorn knew, she was laughing like a madmare as she rolled around in attempts to escape from the feathers. “L-L-Luna, ha-ha, s-stop! I submit!”

Luna shook her head. “Not yet. I’m having fun, just like you two were earlier!”

Cherub tried hiding under the covers, but that did nothing to protect her. “W-what do you, ha, want me to say!? I’ll do anything!”

Luna waited about a minute, pretending to think of what she wanted while Cherub kept laughing. “How about you say sorry for what you did? Then I’ll let you go.”

“Okay, okay! I’ll say it but let me breath!”

Luna stopped her punishment, allowing the mare to catch her breath. The alicorn wore a smug smile as Cherub took deep breathes. Once she caught her air, Luna said, “Go on. I’m waiting.”

Cherub, finally finished, cleared her throat and sat in front of her. “I’m sorry, Luna.”

“For?”

“Sorry you’re so gullible!”

“Wha-” The matchmaker launched herself at Luna and then proceeded to tickle her and Luna was in hysterics. After a moment, Luna fought back and the room was filled with the sound of their laughter as they fell onto the floor and rolled around. After several minutes, both of them laid exhausted, unable to do any more.

“Hey, Luna?” Cherub panted.

“Yes?”

“I propose a truce.”

“And I accept.” They both forced themselves up and faced each other. Luna stuck out her hoof and Cherub took it so they could shake on it. With the war over, they climbed back onto Luna’s bed. “Well that was very fun.”

“Yeah, but I think we’re too old for this kind of stuff.”

“Says who? We’re free to act however we choose.”

“I swear you are a bad influence, Luna.”

The princess nudged her with her elbow. “You just need to loosen up. Besides, you sure it’s not Pinkie?”

Cherub laughed. “You both are. I wouldn’t have ever dared to act that way if I hadn’t met either of you.”

“That is true. If it weren’t for us, you’d be a grump.” Cherub glared at her and Luna nudged her once more. “Oh, lighten up. You know it’s true.”

“Whatever.” Cherub went back to her spot and stared at the ceiling. “So what should we do tomorrow? Believe it or not, I haven’t grown tired of all the craziness we usually go through, which may not be a good thing for my mental health.”

“Nothing, I’m afraid. Not only will my workload have piled up, but I think Celestia has been feeling a little neglected and I want to be with her. There’s also the fact Nymph will be here again soon and I know how you feel about her.”

“Oh,” Cherub said disappointingly.

“Would you like to meet her?”

The unicorn fidgeted her hooves. “Maybe later.” Luna sighed, disappointed that she once again declined. She wanted Cherub to meet the queen so it would help her feel more comfortable around changelings, but she would have to wait for another time. “So I guess the fun times are over until she leaves?”

Luna laughed and shook her head. “No, the fun will begin again when she visits.”

Cherub stared at her intently. “So you and Celestia hang out with her off duty?”

“Yes, and we do things similar to what we did today. She’s a very fun person and we just love messing around.”

The matchmaker retrieved her ice cream and began digging through it with an increased pace. “I…didn’t think Nymph would grow on you so much. I still remember when you didn’t trust her or the changelings at all.”

“I didn’t think so, either. I’ve grown sympathy for her when I heard about her and Chrysalis and she really is a nice changeling. After a few months, I started to warm up to her. The way she’s usually around and how she gets along with Celestia and me, not to mention her long lifespan, I sometimes think of her as a…little sister in a way.”

The spoon in Cherub’s magical grasp was released and fell into the container. “You…do?”

“It’s strange, but it’s true. It’s nice to have a younger sister who looks up to me. I honestly think I will make a better sister than Chrysalis has, don’t you?” Rather than give an answer, Cherub placed the ice cream on the night stand and turned away from her. Luna already had an idea of what was wrong and was quick to respond. “Please forgive me. I shouldn’t have said those things while knowing about your issues with your own family. It was very thoughtless of me.”

“It’s all right, Luna. You didn’t mean it.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just give me a moment.” Cherub sighed deeply and looked off into space.

Luna couldn’t imagine what was going through her head and felt bad for bringing it up, so she put a hoof on her shoulder. “I wish you would talk to me.”

“I want to, Luna, which is why I plan on telling you everything.”

Luna shot up, very surprised by what she heard. “Truly?”

“Truly.”

Luna couldn’t believe it. After all this time, she was going to learn everything about Cherub. What were her sins? Was Cherub even her real name? She could feel herself shaking with excitement, wanting to know everything that made the mare tick. “Well go on. I’m listening. I want to know everything about you, Cherub.”

Cherub laughed and turned towards her. “Awfully eager, aren’t we? No, I didn’t mean today, but after Hearts and Hooves Day.”

Disappointment crashed down on Luna and she fell back onto the bed. “I have to wait that long? That’s forever from now!”

“I’m sorry, but my holiday takes priority. Once that is out of the way, I will spend all of my time and energy in repairing everything that is wrong with my life, starting with telling you everything about me.” She sighed. “I will admit I feel very scared.”

“But why?”

Cherub clenched her eyes and her voice was shaky. “I’m scared that you won’t want to be my friend anymore.”

Luna would have been lying if she said she wasn’t a bit afraid of what her dark secret was. Cherub only told her it was something very awful and delayed telling her as much as she could. The princess sometimes worried it was something along the lines of murder, but she knew Pinkie knew her secret and was still her friend, so it couldn’t have been that bad. Still, she couldn’t help but worry. “Cherub, I’m here for you. I am your friend and I’m not going to abandon you. I will be there at your side when you need me.” Luna took her hoof and looked into her eyes. “We will always be friends, no matter what.”

Cherub giggled. “Luna, I think you’re easily the most wonderful pony I have ever met.” Luna’s cheek turned crimson. “And that’s why I want you to let me help you find a special somepony.”

Even in a moment such as this, Luna saw the offer coming from a mile away. “Oh, you were just waiting to say that, weren’t you?” she jested.

The red mare shrugged innocently. “I know. You want to do it yourself, but listen. Yes, I originally wanted to do it to help increase my reputation, but now it’s for a different reason. I want to do it because I want to help make you happy, Luna. You and I have been through so much hardship in our lives and we have an understanding of each other, you know? I know you sometimes feel lonely despite having Celestia and your friends around; like something is absent in your life. Since your return, you have not felt love in the romantic sense and you are nervous of beginning again, wondering if somepony you have feelings for will only see your past instead of you.”

“How did you…” A hoof pressed against her lips was enough to silence her.

“I want you to give me a chance. I want you to let me pay you back for all the kindness you have shown me before. Somewhere out there is somepony who will appreciate everything you do and will love you for you, saying, ‘Luna’ instead of ‘Princess'. I’m going to find this pony for you, Luna, and I’ll do everything it takes to do it, just for you.”

Luna was speechless. Not in a long time had somepony been so willing to go above and beyond to make her happy. The way she spoke about finding her this very special pony made her heart beat faster. “Cherub, I don’t know what to say, but what about your own special somepony?”

A shake of the head was her answer. “It will have to wait. I still have things to do before getting involved in such a thing.”

“I see.” Normally, Luna would have just declined once again, but this felt different. In Cherub’s eyes she could see powerful passion and determination and Luna wasn’t sure if she could say no. She knew her friend well and was confident she was more than capable in accomplishing her goal. Imagining what sort of pony she could find to be her lover flooded her with excitement, so Luna chose not to wait any longer. “Cherub, I can’t believe I am saying this, but I think I actually want to take you up on your offer.”

Cherub gasped loudly and threw herself at the princess, hugging her tightly. “Thank you! I promise I won’t let you down. I will get right on it tomorrow.”

“Take your time. There’s still plenty of time before Hearts and Hooves, so you better make sure you look over every potential pony.” Luna yawned as Cherub released her. “Let’s talk more about it tomorrow. Goodnight, Cherub.”

“Goodnight, Luna.” Luna turned off the lights with her magic and pulled the covers over herself. She couldn’t believe she actually said yes and was filled with nothing but excitement. She could only imagine what kind of pony Cherub would end up finding for her. However, since she had said yes to her, it would only be polite to accept Cadance’s offer as well and hoped Cherub wouldn’t be mad about it.

The princess tried to fall asleep, but she thought of something else and it made her feel less excited. It was a shame that poor Cherub would be running her own romantic holiday event and have no pony to be with. Already she had brought so much love to others and even experienced her own heartbreak, so Cherub not having a date would have been just wrong. Even though she was asleep, Luna took her hoof as an attempt to show her how much she cared. Cherub kept saying she would have been fine by herself, by Luna didn’t believe it. She must have been so torn up about the whole thing and Luna thought this would be the perfect opportunity to help her. She would work out the details later, but she at least had a backup plan for the both of them. “Cherub?”

Her eyes slowly opened and she looked at Luna. “Yes, Luna?” she asked tiredly.

The princess suddenly felt timid, finding it difficult to maintain eye contact. “If you can’t find me a pony in time, would you…like to be my date? As friends?” She immediately flinched, wondering if she should have even asked her such a question.

“I would gladly accept,” Cherub replied warmly.

Relief flowed through Luna as she worried she would have said no. Their eyes were locked as they found warmth in the presence of each other. Luna smiled at Cherub and she smiled in return. Their faces were inches apart and Luna could feel her breath tickle her muzzle. The princess couldn't help but move closer to her. To her surprise, Cherub did not back away. Luna then reached over and gave Cherub a quick peck on the lips, thankful that the darkness hid her blushing. “Thank you, Cherub.” She then closed her eyes with a smile on her face, excited for what tomorrow would bring.

Eventually, Luna was asleep and she entered the realm of dreams, unaware that her physical body was still holding Cherub’s hoof.

Role Reversal

Hearth’s Warming Eve was the most popular of Equestrian holidays, where ponies would get together with their families and exchange gifts as well as celebrate the founding of Equestria. The concept was so popular that other races celebrated their own similar holiday during this time of year, including minotaurs, griffons, and even changelings. Ponyville was flooded with the holiday spirit, where one could hardly go down the street without seeing some sort of bright decorations or even carolers. It took a while for Chrysalis to get into the holiday cheer as the last several winter holidays were not entirely joyful for her. However, she knew this year would be different with her new friends, but she still wished she could be with her family.

The changeling decided to do something new by giving gifts instead of receiving them. For this year’s holiday, Chrysalis spent a fortune of her own bits to acquire tickets for a concert in Canterlot, played by four notorious musicians. It cost a hoof and a leg to pay for all of them, but she wanted to reward her employees for everything they had done for her. While she could have easily had Luna or Celestia pay for them, she wanted her gift to be personal. Chrysalis had put them all through so much and wanted to give them something to help make up for it.

Chrysalis brought one of her couches to the window and sat on it while drinking hot chocolate with her legs under a blanket, staring at the street with ponies passing by. She absolutely loved winter. There was something about snow that brought out the beauty of the world around her and her time with Pinkie and her friends made her feel like a kid again. She had been ice skating, building snow ponies, and even getting into snowball fights. She was also curious of what exactly Winter Wrap-up was and heard her friends sing about it sometimes, causing the song to be stuck in her head.

Pinkie bounced into the room with her drink, acting more excited than usual. “Are they here yet?”

Chrysalis giggled softly. “Not just yet, Pinkie. There’s still some time left.”

The pony climbed onto the other end and looked out the window. “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing. I’m just thinking to myself.”

“About you?”

“Yeah.”

They watched the ponies pass by Cupid’s Arrow in silence, with the only sound they heard being several carolers singing outside. “Hey, Chrysalis, maybe you should tell one of our friends who you are. They already like you a lot and maybe they’ll give you a chance. I bet Fluttershy will understand if I talk to her.”

She shook her head without looking at the pony. “It’s too much of a risk, Pinkie. Our friends are too close to each other to withhold such a secret. You’re only doing it because I made you Pinkie promise to me. Besides, I think they need more time to let the scars heal. We’ve got some time left, so let’s make the most of it before the inevitable.”

“Okay.” Pinkie pulled out several gingerbread ponies, handing several to Chrysalis. “What are you doing for tomorrow?” she asked with a stuffed mouth.

Chrysalis sighed loudly and set her drink down. “I’ll just be here.”

“By yourself?” She nodded. “I know! Why don’t you come with me to see my parents and sisters? We always have so much fun! Well, except we have to be super careful during snowball fights cause of all the rocks.”

“Oh Pinkie, that is really sweet of you to offer, but I’m afraid I must turn you down. I don’t think I will be in much of a good mood starting tomorrow and I wouldn’t want to spoil things for your family.”

The pony’s ears flopped. “Are you sure?”

“I am, but thank you anyway.” She rested her forelegs on her stomach and watched the world outside. This holiday brought back a lot of memories to her, both good and bad. She remembered her time with her family as a small child and even as a much older adult, all of them smiling and getting excited over gifts. But during the recent years, they were nothing like that at all. Sometimes she didn’t see Nymph at all and would just hold a party to keep herself from feeling lonely. She also rarely gave out any gifts while receiving many, not even feeling her usual excitement when opening them. She just wanted to stay home and lay in bed while trying to survive the day. Maybe she could even work on how she was going to miraculously get Nymph to forgive her for all the awful things she had done.

Her thoughts were interrupted by somepony knocking on her door. She had forgotten to keep track of the time and realized it was almost time to get going. She got to the door of Cupid’s Arrow and opened it, finding a crowd of ponies and a dragon outside. “Hello, everypony,” greeted Chrysalis cheerfully. “I’m so glad you could all make it.”

“We wouldn’t miss it for the world,” said Rarity, wearing a very stylish blue winter coat that would put Luna and Celestia’s wardrobe to shame.

The changeling stood aside to let them in her home. “Especially since you paid for them,” added Twilight as she sat herself down. “We’re really thankful, Cherub.”

“But it was so much money. Are you sure you don’t want us to pay you back later? It’s okay if you do.” Rainbow Dash and Spike covered Fluttershy’s mouth and loudly shushed her.

Chrysalis chuckled from the display. “I am quite sure. And besides, it is the holidays. I don’t mind throwing some bits around for my friends.” She looked at the stallion standing with Applejack. “Well, well, if it isn’t Caramel. It has simply been far too long. How have you been?”

“I’ve been doing pretty well, especially since you got me and AJ together.” They looked at each other and kissed on the lips. “I’m happy that you’re doing so well after what you’ve done for us.”

Sensing their love was still strong, Chrysalis wore a satisfied smile. “Glad to be of service. It’s nice to see you two are still together after all this time.” She shifted her eyes towards the pegasi standing with Rainbow Dash. “And of course, it is such an honor to have Wonderbolts in my home.”

Soarin shook her hoof. “Nice to finally meet you, Cherub. Dash has talked about you a lot and I’ve been meaning to meet you for a while, but the academy has been keeping me busy.”

“I understand. Rainbow often reminds us all how much training she needs to do to be one of you and her hard work works out for me pretty well.” The mentioned pony flexed a foreleg proudly.

“She mentioned being security, but does she really do all the crazy things she says? I can’t even picture her with a taser.”

“Get on her bad side and find out for yourself.” Everyone laughed while the stallion gulped and looked at Rainbow Dash. “And Spitfire, I’d never thought we’d actually meet. I’ve heard a lot about you and I have been very interested in seeing one of your shows for a while.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Cherub. I’ve heard a bit of your Hearts and Hooves charity, but it still sounds a little sappy to me, no offense.”

Chrysalis laughed and shook her head. “Oh don’t worry about it. I have no intention of making it so sugary you’d barf,” she stated as she recalled her days as a waitress. “I intend to take a mature approach towards Hearts and Hooves.”

“Well in that case, maybe I should drop by and see it for myself if I’ve got time.”

“Please do. It’s for charity, so it would be great to have a high profile celebrity such as you show up.” She put a hoof on her chin. “Now that I think about it, maybe I should have had you pay for the tickets since your salary is probably a lot higher than mine.”

“Perhaps I should have,” Spitfire joked. “How about I get you a backstage pass to our next show instead?”

Twilight cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but can we get going? I would hate to miss the train after Cherub spent so many bits.”

“Always on top of things,” complimented the changeling as she quickly looked at the clock. “Come on, everypony. Canterlot awaits.” Chrysalis and her company left Cupid’s Arrow and headed towards the train station. She was about to speak with Pinkie and Fluttershy when Trixie suddenly came up to her.

“Cherub? About your Hearts and Hooves event.”

“Yes, Trixie?”

“I heard you mentioning there would be some entertainment and I was wondering if there was any room for me. I can really bring in a crowd, Cherub! You can count on me!”

She only chuckled at her. “Is that desperation I sense in your voice?”

The blue mare looked down shamefully. “I just want to make it big. It would really help if I could do a performance at such a large event. I haven’t attracted many crowds in a long time ever since…you know.”

“Come on, Cherub,” encouraged Pinkie. “You should totally do it. It’s not like she would hurt you on purpose,” she added with ice in her voice.

Chrysalis hated it when Pinkie rubbed in her wrongs, but the mare was right. She at least owed the magician a chance after tricking Twilight into tormenting her. With Twilight’s help, she could only imagine what sort of show she could pull off. “Well since you’re Twilight’s friend, I’m sure I could squeeze you in.”

“Oh, bless you! I won’t let you down!” The unicorn took her hoof and repeatedly kissed it.

“Um, I think you should stop,” spoke Fluttershy when she saw she wasn’t slowing down.

“No, keep going. I love this sort of praise.” Eventually, Trixie managed to get a hold of herself. “So what kind of show should I be expecting?”

“I haven’t planned it all out yet, but I thought of a daring trick where I actually saw a pony in half! I just need a volunteer to practice on.”

“Pick me!” exclaimed Pinkie, causing her marefriend to panic. “I wanna be in two places at once! Maybe I could even eat something and watch what happens!”

Chrysalis shook her head. “No, I don’t want anything to happen to you. I suggest making Rarity help.”

“Hey!” called Spike. “Are you girls coming or what?”

The city of Canterlot went all out with its decorations and made Ponyville look like its holiday budget was in the red. Lights, wreaths, and decorated trees flooded the streets and the air was filled with the sound of carolers singing and bells ringing. Since Rarity knew the location of everything in the city, they followed her to the music hall, where they were to meet the princesses. They stood outside the entrance where a large crowd had already gathered and talked with each other. Chrysalis, however, was too busy with her own thoughts. For about a week she had worked herself to the bone to find a perfect match for Luna. For every stallion that came to her during her workdays, she would ask very subtle questions to determine whether or not they deserved a princess. The task she longed to do was much more difficult than she had expected and she was thankful that the deadline was so far away. She just hoped Luna would understand that had yet to find anything after all this time. Other than worry, she felt pretty excited to see her again. It had been over a week since they met in person and had been only writing to each other, which meant Chrysalis often found herself alone in Cupid’s Arrow after work. At least today she could just relax without any stress at all.

“Twiley!”

Chrysalis’s excitement vanished and she felt a powerful chill creep up on her. It was a voice that she would always remember, no matter how hard she tried to forget. She slowly turned around to see the stallion, but the sight only made her feel worse. Twilight jumped into their forelegs. “Hi, Shiny and Cadance! I’m so glad you’re here! But shouldn’t you both be back at the Crystal Empire?”

“I’m sure the Crystal Empire will be fine if their rulers take a day off,” commented Celestia, who was accompanied by Luna.

While the ponies spoke with the princesses and Twilight and Cadance did their dance, Chrysalis stood alone as she attempted to calm her panicking mind. “Why are you just standing there, Chrysalis?” asked Pinkie, who easily noticed her reaction.

“What do you think!?” she asked in a whisper. “I can’t deal with seeing those two! I’ve done terrible, awful things to them! Luna and Celestia I can handle, but not them! I was doing so well with not seeing either of them!”

“Chrysalis, you need to calm down. It’s only for today, so just relax and be yourself! Well, not yourself yourself, just your Cherub yourself, which is kind of like yourself yourself, so I guess it’s okay.”

“I don’t think this is helping.”

“Well just go over and say hi. You did a pretty good job pretending to be somepony else when you were still evil, so it can’t be that hard, right? You’re totally awesome at being a secret changeling, so get out there and do your stuff!” she ordered while pointing a hoof towards the couple.

Chrysalis slowly nodded, knowing she was right. If she could fool everypony before, she could fool them again. She just needed to act normal and everything would be fine. She was thankful it was only for one day. She walked over to the group and Twilight pulled her brother towards her. “Shining, Cadance, this is Cherub, the pony that I work for.”

“It’s so nice to finally meet you,” greeted Shining. “Twilight has talked so much about you.”

Chrysalis forced herself to smile and reluctantly shook his hoof. “The pleasure’s all mine, Prince Shining Armor.”

“So I heard you tried to get Twilight together with a magician mare,” said Cadance with a chuckle. When Chrysalis looked at her, her vision briefly flashed to the past, where she looked at a crying Cadance through a mirror. The changeling felt like she was going to vomit as her vision began to blur. “Cherub?”

Chrysalis quickly shook her head, removing the bad memory. “Oh. Yes I tried, but I’m afraid I might have done a poor job in doing so.”

“Clearly,” said Trixie in an annoyed tone, bringing out a chuckle from the others.

Ignoring her comment, the changeling faced Cadance. “It’s nice to meet you, Princess Cadance. I’m kind of a large fan of yours.”

“It’s nice meeting you, too. I really appreciate all of the work you have done in helping ponies find love in Ponyville.”

“Thank you. Somepony has to pick up for your slack,” she joked in attempt to make herself feel better.

“Hey!” she complained as the others laughed at her.

“I merely jest, Princess. I am sure you do a wonderful job bringing love and joy to the Crystal Empire,” complemented Chrysalis.

“Sort of. Being a princess does eat up a lot of my time. Sometimes I want to go out and do what you do.”

“Ahem,” interrupted Rarity. “Speaking of time, shouldn’t we get going?”

“We can finish up inside,” spoke Celestia. “Come on, everypony.”

As they entered the music hall, Chrysalis noticed the smug smile Luna was giving her. “What?”

“You did it again,” she answered teasingly.

“Did what?” the changeling asked, feeling confused.

“Freak out over meeting royalty.”

Chrysalis grunted, unhappy that Luna had caught on to her so easily. “I didn’t freak out.”

“I saw your expressions. You were so nervous when you spoke to them. And correct me if I’m wrong, but were you not just so entranced by Shining Armor?” she whispered into her ear.

“Of course not!” she snapped back, causing some of the others to look at her.

Luna chuckled and patted her on the back. “Relax, I’m only teasing.” She then nudged her. “It’s good to see you again, Cherub.”

“It’s good to see you too, Luna.” She swallowed, knowing the hard part was coming up. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but I haven’t found any pony good enough yet to be your lover.”

The princess just giggled. “It’s fine. I know you are doing the best you can. Let’s not think about that now and just spend the day together, okay?”

“I like the way you think.”

They entered Luna and Celestia’s private balcony, which sat high above the other ponies. Chrysalis followed Pinkie and was about to sit herself next to her, but the pony stopped her. She pointed behind her and Chrysalis knew immediately what she was telling her to do. She looked back at Pinkie with a face of protest, but Pinkie just grinned and rapidly nodded her head. Knowing Pinkie wouldn’t give up the argument, Chrysalis reluctantly sat next to the youngest alicorn. “I’m so happy to have met you, Cherub. We should have met sooner, but I’ve been so busy with ruling the Crystal Empire along with my husband.” She then reached over and nuzzled him lovingly.

Chrysalis prayed they didn’t do too many public displays of affection. It was both too sappy for her and a bad reminder of who she was. “I’ve always wanted to see the Crystal Empire for myself, but I couldn’t find the time since I was busy with…stuff.”

“You mean like helping my sweet Auntie Luna find a special somepony?”

The false unicorn’s eye began to twitch. “So she told you.”

“Yep! And guess what? She asked me to help too!”

Chrysalis barely kept her whole face from cringing. This was not good news in any way for her. Cadance was now either competition she would have to do everything in her power to beat or somepony she would be seeing a lot more of as they would be working together. “Well good for you.”

“Thanks. I’m so happy she finally wanted my help. I plan on getting right on it very soon.”

Her loud giggling annoyed Chrysalis greatly. “Great, but maybe we could talk about something else? I’d like to not think about work right now.”

The alicorn controlled herself and then cleared her throat. “As a matter of fact, there is something I want us to talk about.”

She inhaled deeply. “And that is?”

“I want to help you get over your marriage.”

Chrysalis was about ready to pull off some of her own hair and scream. She couldn’t believe how that one lie would follow her for so many months and now would have Princess Cadance all over her case. “Don’t worry about me. I am completely fine.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m focusing on bigger and better things,” she assured with a straight face.

“You mean like your Hearts and Hooves event?”

“Exactly.”

“That’s good.” The princess tapped her hooves together and shifted her eyes around. “Speaking of that, I was kind of wondering…”

Chrysalis knew exactly what she wanted to say because Luna had brought it up before. However, she was not too thrilled with the idea of spending much time with somepony she had wronged so much. Somehow, in less than five minutes with Cadance, Chrysalis felt her day was already ruined. “Yes, you can be my co-host.”

The alicorn clapped her hooves. “Oh, thank you! I won’t let you down! Now then, I think the first thing I shall do as co-host is find you a date!”

“Have fun with that,” she grumbled, knowing that there were going to be a lot more ponies for her to shoot down.

“You’ll be surprised,” said Shining Armor. “My wife is very good at what she does. I promise you she will find somepony that you will love with all your heart.”

“We’ll see.” Chrysalis looked back down at the other ponies below until she noticed somepony had replaced Rarity next to her. “I’m guessing this was your idea.”

“Are you surprised?” asked Luna. “Ever since the first day we met, you have been stressing over your marriage. I thought it was time I help you move on.”

“I appreciate it, I really do, but I want to do this on my own.”

Luna put a hoof on her shoulder. “Cherub, please just give her a chance. You were the same way with me, but I think you need this more than I do.” She put her other hoof on Chrysalis’s. “Please just do it for me.”

Somehow stuck between a rock and a hard place, Chrysalis had no other option. “Alright. I’ll give her a shot.”

Luna smiled at her and got back into her seat. “Thank you, Cherub. You won’t regret this.”

“I think I already do,” she whispered to herself. Rather than worry of what awaited in the future, Chrysalis relaxed in her seat, closing her eyes and listening to the other conversation going on.

“I’ve heard a lot ponies talk about this concert, but I could never afford seeing it myself,” said Caramel.

“It is simply an elegant show,” spoke Celestia. “Just relax and enjoy the music they play. These four ponies are very talented and I always invite them for all of my parties. Cherub should have just asked and I could have acquired the tickets myself.”

“Then I’d have to find something else to reward my hard working employees,” Chrysalis commented while keeping her eyes closed.

“Well you can be sure you’ll have all the free tickets you want when I perform in a place such as this!” stated Trixie proudly.

“I don’t think tickets are required for a little kid’s birthday party,” mocked Rainbow Dash, bringing a smile out of Chrysalis.

“Hush you. With magic, I can perform far more exciting tricks than the Wonderbolts,” she countered, which made Dash stick her tongue out at her. “People across the world will know my name and remember all of my unique tricks. All it takes is hard work and dedication to be the best of the best, right, Spitfire?”

The pegasus looked at her. “Who are you again?” The magician’s jaw dropped as the other ponies snickered.

The lights dimmed and the curtains below began to rise in front of the stage down below. The audience clapped their hooves as four spotlights lit up and revealed the four musicians on the stage. Once the ponies became quiet, music began to play from their instruments. Chrysalis became relaxed as she listened to the performance, forgetting her current woes. She was reminded of the many shows she had attended back home. She visited many concerts as the music always helped her relax from the stress that often came with running a kingdom. Had she known these ponies could play music this well, she would have bought some of their records months ago.

“Thanks again for doing this, Cherub,” whispered Twilight.

“My pleasure. It was a lot of money, but I can already tell it was worth it.”

“It’s a darn shame Ah couldn’t get Tavi to get ya a discount,” spoke Applejack. “She didn’t respond to mah letters at all.”

Chrysalis turned her head towards the earth pony. “Who the heck is Tavi?”

“That there pony with the big violin thing.”

“It’s called a cello,” Rarity corrected.

“On the stage?” asked Shining Armor.

“Where else?"

Chrysalis tried to examine the mare mentioned, but found it difficult from how far away she was. “I did not realize you knew Octavia, Applejack,” spoke Celestia with surprise.

“I thought her name was Tavi,” said Soarin.

“It’s really Octavia,” corrected the Solar Princess. “I’ve grown to know her and the other three through the many years I’ve invited them to events that I host. I will confess that Octavia can be a little stuck up at times, but don’t let that bother you. She is a very charming mare.”

Pinkie pulled out a pair of binoculars and got a good look at the group. “I remember them! They were playing during the Grand Galloping Gala!”

“That is correct, but I should warn you, Pinkie. Octavia still remembers you and she was not happy with what you did. She swore she would one day make a certain pink pony pay for embarrassing her so much by forcing them to play the Pony Polka.”

Applejack laughed. “That definitely sounds like Tavi.”

“Why do you keep calling her that?” questioned Fluttershy.

“It’s a name that stuck from our family. She hates bein’ called that though.”

Everypony in the balcony turned their heads towards the farmer. “Our family? Applejack, are you related to Octavia?” questioned Celestia with absolute surprise.

“Ah sure am. She’s mah cousin.”

They all gasped from her answer. “But I’ve never seen her at any of your reunions,” spoke Rarity. “Why am I just learning about this now!?”

“She hasn’t come by in years. She likes bein’ all fancy and whatever and thinks we’re bumpkins. Ya might have seen her sister Fiddlesticks playin’ her fiddle, though.”

“How come you never mentioned this before?” asked Chrysalis.

“Fraid it slipped my mind and Ah didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”

Spitfire took the binoculars from Pinkie and examined Octavia. “It’s hard to believe such a beautiful mare could be from a country family. No offense.”

“None taken.”

Picking up on the Wonderbolt’s tone, Chrysalis scanned her emotions, detecting a small trace of lust. However, this was something she could easily tell just by the hungry look in her eyes. “See something you like?”

“I do,” answered Spitfire seductively.

Rainbow Dash was the next to notice. “Wait, seriously? I always thought you wanted like a big tough guy who was into the same stuff as you, not some fussy mare that’d make you want to jump out a window. That’d be like me dating Rarity.” The unicorn stomped on Rainbow’s hoof and the pegasus barely managed to keep herself from crying in pain.

“I will admit I’ve kinda had my eye on her for some time before today. I’ve seen her in some magazines and thought she was good looking, but I heard she was pretty snobby in person, so I didn’t really go for it. But if she’s related to Dash’s friend, I think I may actually want to meet her now.”

“As it so happens,” spoke Celestia, “I know that she is in fact gay and currently single, but I am afraid you might not really be her type, Spitfire.”

“I don’t think that’ll be much of a problem.” She looked towards Chrysalis and Cadance. “I hope you two aren’t busy after the show.”

Chrysalis groaned and leaned her head back. “Spitfire, I’m on holiday. I don’t really want to work today.”

The pegasus tapped her on the head. “Weren’t you listening? We’re going to a fancy gathering after this, where we will meet her and the other three ponies. It’ll just a little something extra to do while we’re there.”

“I’ll think about it,” answered Chrysalis as she closed her eyes.

“As interesting this all is,” said Rarity, “can we talk about this later? Spike and I are trying to enjoy the performance.”

“I think he’s enjoying something else right now,” commented Trixie with a smile.

They looked down at the dragon, seeing that he was fast asleep on his seat. “For heaven’s sake, it’s only been ten minutes for a show that’s over two hours,” complained Rarity. “Some date he is.”

“Nice to see he appreciates my present,” snarled Chrysalis. She got out of her seat, put a hoof over his mouth, and tugged roughly on his tail, causing Spike to wake up immediately and produce a muffled shout.

“What was that for!?” he quietly yelled.

She leaned down and looked directly into his slit pupils. “I spent a lot of bits getting you in here and you sure as heck are not falling asleep through it.”

He leaned away from her. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry. This show’s just a little boring.”

“Just remember, Spike, if you even dare fall asleep again, I’m going to make you my assistant until you pay me back the bits I spent for your ticket.”

He gulped and sat straight up. “I’m awake now.”

The ponies chuckled softly. “Good boy,” said Chrysalis. They all resumed watching the show, enjoying the music being played. Chrysalis kept examining Octavia as she thought about how she was going to get her and Spitfire together during her holiday. She then remembered her other task and looked at Luna. The night alicorn noticed Chrysalis staring and looked at her, smiling. Chrysalis smiled back at her and then resumed her attention on the musicians. She could have sworn she was blushing from Luna smiling at her. She truly liked Luna as her friend and felt glad she was immortal, so she would be friends with her for hundreds of years.

For some reason unknown to Chrysalis, the thought of Luna spending close time with some other pony suddenly rubbed her the wrong way. She just shrugged it off and resumed listening to the elegant music.

When their final song came to a close, the four musicians bowed and the audience once again applauded. When the curtain came down and the lights came on, the ponies stood from their seats and exited, each talking about how much they enjoyed what they heard. “Well that was positively marvelous,” stated Rarity. “I’m sure those songs will be playing through my head for weeks.”

“I think I should get their record,” said Caramel. “I just wish I could get them autographed.”

“Well we will be going to the after party, so you can meet with them and ask for one,” reminded Twilight.

“And where we can find Octavia,” spoke Cadance with a skip in her step.

They entered a large room found in the music hall, where many elites were speaking with each other and drinking champagne. They noticed the princesses and their company entering and began approaching to make conversation with the alicorns. “So how we gonna do this?” Pinkie asked Chrysalis excitedly.

“Given Octavia’s standards, it might be better if only the princesses, Spitfire, and myself speak with them first.” She looked at the other ponies with her. “No offense, but she might not like it if she sees any of you with us.”

“Don’t worry about us,” said Applejack as Pinkie grew a large frown. “Just get in there and do ya thing.”

With some effort, the alicorns managed to escape the crowd of ponies that were determined in seeing them, giving them opportunity to speak with the musicians, who were standing by themselves at a corner. “Hello again,” greeted the Solar Princess. “I see your music has not lost its touch.”

“Nice to see you again, Princess Celestia,” said Frederic, a brown earth pony stallion with a white mane. “We always appreciate your attendance in any of our performances.”

“And we appreciate the wonderful music you play,” replied her sister.

“Hello, Princess Luna. I haven’t seen much of you lately,” spoke Beauty Brass, an earth pony mare that possessed a sky blue coat. “How have you been?”

“I have been most excellent. I’ve been busy with running the kingdom during the night, but I’m glad to see you all again.”

“And Princess Cadance, we haven’t seen you since the wedding,” spoke Octavia pleasantly.

“Running the Crystal Empire does kind of do that. You all really should come visit. The crystal ponies would love to hear your music.”

Knowing the musicians were more interested in the alicorns than her, Chrysalis loudly cleared her throat to get their attention. “Hello, I am Cherub. It’s an absolute pleasure meeting you all. Great music, by the way. It was absolutely heavenly.”

“I did not realize you too were closely associated with the alicorns, Cherub,” said Octavia.

“I’m surprised you know who I am. I’ve known Luna for a while as we’re pretty close friends.”

“I see.” Octavia then made eye contact with the pegasus. “Greetings, Spitfire. Fancy meeting you here.”

“Hey,” she greeted casually. “Nice show you gave us. Certainly much better than the Gala.”

“I heard that Pinkie helped them play quite a fun song,” remarked Cadance with a smile.

Chrysalis noticed Octavia taking loud, steady breaths. “I had forgotten that she worked for you, Cherub. How do you put up with a nuisance like her?”

The changeling glared at her. “She’s a sweet girl who always makes my day. I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world.”

The brown mare rolled her eyes. “I don’t even know how she could have possibly received an invitation to such a high class event. It is a mystery that has plagued my mind to this day.”

“Maybe you should ask my sister,” Luna teased as she nudged her sister.

Everypony laughed except Octavia. “Wow, you invited her? I definitely didn’t see that coming,” spoke Parish, a dark blue earth pony stallion who played a large harp during the concert.

“She is a friend of my student. I think she made that night much more entertaining than it usually is.”

Octavia’s breathing increased in pace. “Maybe it was entertaining for you. She made us look like fools.”

“Oh come on, Octavia. That was just one time,” noted the pianist.

“And once was enough.” She poked her head out from the group and looked around. “You didn’t bring her here, did you?”

“I did,” answered Celestia, smiling.

Octavia dragged a hoof over her face. “Fantastic.”

“Relax, she’s not going to do anything,” ensured Spitfire. “She isn’t going to be making you play anymore songs, I can promise you that.”

“You better be right,” growled the musician as she took a glass of champagne and gulped it down.

Already Chrysalis was annoyed with her by how she spoke poorly of Pinkie. “She’s just hanging out with Applejack and the others,” she added deviously. “I’m sure they are keeping an eye on her.”

Octavia choked on her drink and coughed loudly. “A-Applejack!?”

“You okay, Octavia?” asked Frederic. “You seem to be really tense.”

“I’m fine,” she responded sternly, causing him to step back.

“Who is Applejack?” questioned Parish.

“Nopony.”

“They’re cousins, much to my surprise,” answered the Princess of the Moon.

“Cousins?” asked Beauty Brass with surprise as she looked around the room. “Well I think we would like to meet her.”

“No you don’t.”

“Why not?”

“Yeah, tell us what’s wrong, Tavi,” teased the changeling, causing Cadance to look worried.

The earth pony had a look of horror on her face. “Tavi?” Beauty Brass chuckled. “Is that a nickname?”

“Shut up, Brass!”

The ponies and changeling were taken aback by her outburst. “Excuse me, but you need to calm down,” suggested Cadance.

“I am calm.”

Celestia worried that they were going too far with her. “Octavia, please just relax. You look really stressed.”

“You’re right. I think I shall be heading home now.”

“You’re just going to leave?” asked Cadance. “I thought we could talk some more.”

“Perhaps another time. Enjoy your holidays.”

Octavia took her instrument and proceeded to exit, but before she got close to the door, a voice called out, “Hey, Tavi!” She stopped walking and her eye was twitching as Applejack approached her. “Long time no see!”

The musician noticed how the other ponies attending were staring. “I-I don’t know who you are, so please leave me alone.”

“It’s me! Your cousin Applejack!” she said loudly, causing more ponies to look.

“S-stop talking to me.”

“Come on! I want to introduce you to my friends.” The farmer took her hoof and dragged her over to the group.

“Please let me go,” pleaded Octavia in a whisper.

Applejack stopped in front of the group. “Everypony, this here is Octavia, my cousin.”

“Hello,” they all said at once.

“Hello,” she greeted timidly, only to be dragged by the farmer again.

“So this here is my coltfriend, Caramel. He works at a sweetshop and he’s just as sweet as the stuff he sells.”

“Nice to meet you. I really enjoyed your music.”

Octavia quickly shook his hoof. “Well it’s been nice meeting you all, but I really need to go.”

“But you just got here!” a familiar voice shouted.

Octavia looked at Pinkie, eye twitching and teeth grinding. “I remember you,” she spoke coldly.

“You do? That’s great! Do you want to play the Pony Polka again?”

“NO.”

The group found themselves intimidated by her hostile attitude. “Um…I don’t mean to bother you, but could I get an autograph?” asked Caramel as he shyly held up a record and a pen.

The musician hastily grabbed the record, signed it, and shoved it back to him. “There you go. Guess I’m free to leave now.”

As she made another attempt to leave, Applejack pulled her back by her tail. “Tavi, what has gotten into ya?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re just upset that you’re a country pony,” mocked Trixie smugly.

“I am not!”

“Are too!”

“Tavi, why are you bein’ so rude to my friends?” asked Applejack, sounding hurt.

Pinkie bounced in front of her, causing the musician to take several steps back. “Do you want to play another song!? That always makes me feel better!”

“Why is this chick so uptight?” questioned Rainbow Dash. “I think I’d rather be stuck with Blueblood.”

“BACK OFF!”

Everypony in the room fell silent, staring at her. Noticing she had just made herself the center of attention, Octavia turned away from them. “Excuse me.” She then quickly trotted out of the room.

Chrysalis and the other ponies met up with the rest. “What just happened?” asked Shining Armor in confusion.

“Ah don’t know. She seemed to be tense and then she just exploded at us!” spoke Applejack.

“She was acting all weird and became worse when Cherub mentioned a pony named Applejack,” said Frederick.

Applejack pointed a hoof at herself. “You’re lookin’ at her.”

“You’re her cousin? You sound like a country pony,” noted the harpist.

“Everypony in her family is, includin’ her.”

“But she said her family was from Trottingham,” stated the sousaphone player.

Applejack shook her head. “Nope. She’s from good ol’ Appleloosa.”

The trio of musicians gasped. “Appleloosa? Why would she lie to us about that?” asked Brass in disbelief.

“Clearly,” said Celestia, “she is embarrassed about her origins.”

“But we don’t care where she’s from,” spoke Frederic. “She’s our friend.”

“I think it has to do with everypony else here in Canterlot,” said Rarity. “I have also noticed how critical they can be about where a pony is from and she must have chosen to keep it to herself.”

“Wait until they hear where I’m from,” thought Chrysalis.

“Any idea where she ran off to?” asked Cadance.

Beauty Brass nodded. “She usually goes to the bar a few blocks east of here after a hard day. We should go find her and make sure she’s alright.”

“Let us deal with her,” said Spitfire.

“But we’re her friends,” argued the purple stallion. “We should be the ones helping her.”

“I know, but we have another idea of what to do. Besides, I don’t think she can face any of you now that you know her secret,” countered the Wonderbolt. “Trust me, I’ll help her."

The musicians exchanged looks of uncertainty. “If you think that is best, we’ll leave it up to you,” said Frederic.

“She will be in good hooves.” Spitfire looked at Chrysalis and Cadance. “You two wanna tag along?”

“Of course,” answered Cadance. “I can’t just sit idly by while the poor thing frets over this, especially on this holiday.”

“I don’t know,” spoke Chrysalis, glancing at Luna. “It is my day off, after all.”

“Please, Cherub,” begged the Princess of Love. “She’s Applejack’s family and clearly the girl needs our help. If we don’t do anything, she’s going to be miserable tomorrow.”

Chrysalis bit her lip, looking over at Applejack, who had a sort of pleading look in her own eyes. Out of all of Pinkie’s friends, Applejack was one she respected highly. The girl was hard working, reliable, and most importantly, all about family. She thought it would be a lost cause to deal with Octavia, but at least attempting to help her would give her the farmer’s favor. “Alright, I’m in.”

“I’m glad,” said Spitfire as she looked back at the earth ponies. “So what can you three tell us about Octavia?”

As Chrysalis listened to them, she felt somepony touch her shoulder. “Cherub, what about me? We only have so much time left today.”

Chrysalis thought it was sweet Luna was upset from her leaving and she gently placed a hoof on her cheek. “I won’t take too long, so just enjoy your time with everypony else, okay?”

Luna slowly nodded. “Good luck, Cherub.”

“Thanks, Luna.” Chrysalis turned back towards the musicians, hoping she could keep her word to the princess.

Chrysalis and her company found the bar where Octavia had supposedly ran off to and peered through the window. It was mostly empty as most ponies were out doing holiday business, but they saw the musician drinking alone at the counter. “So what’s the plan?” asked the pegasus.

“You go in there and tell that girl to suck it up,” ordered Chrysalis. “Nail it into her head that ditching her family for fame is absolutely not okay.”

“I have a better idea.” Cadance leaned towards Spitfire and whispered something in her ear. When she finished, she pulled away and grinned. “What do you think?”

“I like the way you think, Princess.” The Wonderbolt entered the bar.

Chrysalis had an eyebrow raised and looked at the alicorn. “What did you tell her?”

She giggled and turned to the window. “You’ll see.”

“Another round,” Octavia demanded.

“You’ve been really knocking them back, Octavia. Everything okay?”

“Another round,” she repeated.

The bartender shrugged and proceeded to make her drink as Spitfire walked over and sat next to her. “I think I can name a few better ways you can spend Hearth’s Warming Eve,” she teased.

Octavia shot her a hateful glance. “Why are you here, Spitfire?”

“Just came to check on you. We all got a little worried when you snapped.”

“I did not snap.”

Spitfire chuckled at her. “Then what would you call it?”

She harrumphed. “I simply voiced my frustration.”

“Why would you be frustrated? It was just your cousin.”

The earth pony received her drink and stared into it. “She is not my cousin. You have been misinformed.”

“You can drop the act. You can’t change who you are.”

“Fine.” She tilted her head back and took some gulps. “So are you going to lecture me about how family is so important and that I should go see them tomorrow?”

“Do I need to? You seemed to have it all figured out already.”

Octavia stared at her spitefully, but then slumped her shoulders and sighed. “It’s not that I hate them or anything. I just cannot relate to them.”

“And that excuses cutting them off?”

“They’ll just do fine without me. My family is quite large.” The country pony finished drinking. “Aren’t you going to say something useful?”

“What’s there to say? I think you know everything ponies should be telling you.”

“Then why are you here, Spitfire? I was expecting my friends to come, not you.”

“I told them to let me handle you. If they came, they would just tell you all the cliché stuff and maybe you would storm off again.”

“And what are you here to say exactly?”

Smiling, Spitfire motioned a hoof and Octavia leaned in so she could whisper in her ear, “That you’re a boring snob.”

Octavia pulled back with a look of anger on her face. “If that’s all you have to say to me, then I suggest you be on your way. I have no interest in you.” She turned her stool around, away from the pegasus.

“I wouldn’t push me away if I were you.”

“And why not?” asked the musician in an uncaring tone.

“Because what you do today will determine what tomorrow headlines are.”

The earth pony shifted her eyes towards her. “What in the world are you talking about?”

“Would you rather have the paper be about boring holiday stuff or about a secret bumpkin known as Octavia?”

She dropped her glass onto the counter, spilling liquid onto the wood. “You wouldn’t dare!”

Spitfire leaned back and put her hooves behind her head, smiling smugly. “I’m a Wonderbolt. Daring is kind of my thing.”

Octavia’s body was trembling and she darted her eyes around. “Is it money you want? I’ll pay! Just don’t tell anypony!”

Laughing, Spitfire patted her on the head. “I don’t want your money, Octavia. If you don’t want me to say anything, then my demand is I want you to have fun.”

Octavia stared at her, studying Spitfire’s unchanging expression. “Is this some sort of sick joke?”

“No. You just hang with me for a few hours and I’ll promise to never tell anypony.”

“But why would you care about me having fun? I am perfectly happy.”

“Does being perfectly happy include being a snob who neglects her family?”

She narrowed eyes at her. “Why do you even care about what I do?”

“Applejack is a friend of my friend and I didn’t like how you treated her. There’s also the fact a lot of ponies tell me how much of a stuck up mare you are.”

“So Applejack sent you.”

“I sent myself. I am doing this as an unasked favor. Now are we gonna get going or what?”

The musician growled at her. “Fine.” She reached into her coat pocket, but Spitfire beat her to the punch and placed several bits on the counter.

“Drinks are on me.”

“Oh,” Octavia said in surprise. “Thank you.” They got off their stools. “Can I at least drop my instrument off at home?”

“Sure thing.” Spitfire opened the door for the musician and they walked down the street together while Chrysalis and Cadance came out from hiding and followed from a safe distance.

“Did you really tell Spitfire to blackmail her?”

“I might have,” Cadance responded innocently.

“Well as clever as that was, where are they going?”

“Just for some fun, but in Octavia’s case, Spitfire is going to need to bring a professional.”

Cadance’s teasing voice sparked immense curiosity within Chrysalis. Who could possibly be a professional in the field of fun? The only pony in all of Equestria Chrysalis knew that fitted the bill was…“Uh-oh.”

“Are you ready for a day of fuuuuunnn!?” exclaimed Pinkie.

“I’d rather pass out drunk on the street,” muttered Octavia hatefully.

Spitfire nudged her with her elbow and received a grunt in return. “Oh, lighten up. Pinkie’s a swell kid.”

“So what sort of fun do you possibly have in mind besides singing a song for little children?”

Pinkie held something to her. “Ice skating!”

“…What?”

“Ice skating, silly! That’s like the best thing you can do during winter! Except for maybe snowball fights, but I don’t think we can have one here.”

Octavia stared at the skates, but then laughed, confusing the both of them. “Well luckily for me, I don’t know how to ice skate. I guess there’s always next time.” She turned around but Spitfire grabbed her tail.

“Geez, you’re a bigger pain than a broken wing. Just relax for once and let’s do something fun.”

“Weren’t you listening? I don’t know how.”

The pegasus grinned at her. “You don’t know how to have fun? That’s just sad.”

Octavia flared on the inside as the two ponies laughed at her. “You two better knock it off or I swear…”

“Alright, alright, lighten up. We’re just messing with you. Anyway, I can just teach you how to do it.”

“What if I don’t want to?” asked Octavia.

“Then I hope you know how to play the banjo, cause I don’t think you’ll get another gig here.” Octavia sighed in defeat and the Wonderbolt patted her on the back. “You’ll be fine.”

“Come on, you two!” Pinkie hopped ahead as they followed her with Chrysalis and Cadance trailing behind.

“As much as I love Pinkie, I don’t think bringing her was a good idea,” Chrysalis addressed in a worried tone.

“Why? She’s been doing great so far.”

“I’m expecting Octavia to be arrested for attempted murder by the end of the day,” she spoke as she hatefully stared at the earth pony.

“Oh hush. It’s not like you were any better when you first met Pinkie.” Chrysalis remained silent, remembering how her attitude towards the Element of Laughter was very similar for a long time. “She’s really made an impact on your life, hasn’t she?”

“She certainly has. She is definitely one special pony. Pinkie is the reason why I am who I am now.”

“And Luna too. She became your friend before Pinkie did, if I heard correctly.”

“Yeah.”

Cadance looked at her. “Luna told me once of how proud of you she was that you bettered yourself.”

“She said that?” she asked with flushed cheeks.

“Yep. She also said after everything you’ve been through, she wishes she could make you happy.”

A small smile appeared on her lips. “She already has.” Chrysalis thought about their relation in the beginning. Despite how hateful and uncaring she was, she somehow managed to develop a bond with Luna. She was the only pony she could make herself open up to and she made her care about her and Pinkie. She dreaded to think of how things could have gone had Pinkie not introduced her to Luna. She really wished she could be with her at this very moment, but she promised to help Spitfire, so she would need to be patient.

“You make her happy, too, Cherub. Happier than most ponies have. We need to find her somepony that can make her as happy as you can.”

“I will do everything I can to make that happen.” She couldn’t imagine who could understand the princess like she could, but she would never give up as long as she lived. Luna deserved that and so much more.

Pinkie took them to an outdoor ice skating rink, where many ponies were already skating. “And here we are!” She held out four pairs of skates to them. “Put these on and let’s get going already!”

They sat on a bench and put them on, surprised that the mare somehow correctly guessed their hoof size. Once Spitfire finished, she stood up and got onto the ice. “We’re going to take it nice and easy, so just relax and have fun.”

When Octavia stood on the ice, she immediately slipped and fell, bringing out a laugh from Spitfire. “Are we done yet?” she asked in a hostile voice.

“Not yet. Let’s hang here for a while.”

She sighed loudly. “What’s the point? I’m obviously no good at this.”

“It takes a little practice.” She used her wing to pry the musician off the ice and held her until she got her balance. “See? You’re getting the hang of it.”

Suddenly, right as Octavia got up, Pinkie appeared and shoved her by her butt. “Go on and get skating, Tavi!”

The musician was gasping and flailing her legs around as she moved while Spitfire casually caught up with her and laughed. “Having fun yet?”

“What does it look like!?” she shouted in panic.

“Just relax and straighten your legs out. I’ll catch you if you slip.”

With some time, Octavia managed to calm herself down. “Good. Now just move like this.” Spitfire moved ahead of her and the earth pony imitated her movement. Spitfire turned herself around to see how she was doing. “Hey, not bad at all.”

“She’s a natural!” Pinkie exclaimed as she zoomed past them.

Octavia skated around the ice, feeling comfortable with her skill. “I guess this isn’t so bad.”

“See? All that complaining was for nothing,” Spitfire joked.

“Don’t spoil the moment,” she snapped. The two of them skated together while Pinkie was on her own, performing many flips and spins. Spitfire had an idea from watching her and looked at Octavia, who actually had a tiny smile on her face.

“You wanna do something crazy?”

Octavia frowned at her. “Do I have a choice?”

“Take off your front skates.”

“Whatever for?”

“Just do it.” Octavia complied and the pegasus did the same. They both got onto the ice and Spitfire held her hoof out. “Grab on.” Octavia rolled her eyes and took it, only to be suddenly pulled as Spitfire got on her hind legs and ran as fast as she could. They were going at incredible speed as they moved around the outer part of the ice. “Hang on tight!” Spitfire then shifted her direction sharply, causing her to spin. She took Octavia’s other hoof as she spun and her speed was enough to lift the earth pony off the ground and they continued spinning in place.

“W-what are you doing!? Let me down!”

“I got you, Tavi! There’s no need to be worried!”

“Don’t call me that!”

Cadance and Chrysalis sat a good distance from the ice, watching the two mares spin. “The sight is making me dizzy,” commented Chrysalis as she placed a hoof on her head.

“I think it’s beautiful. They make such a good couple,” complemented Cadance happily.

Chrysalis gave her a look that made it look like she thought the princess was delusional. “How? All I’ve heard Octavia do is complain and Spitfire is just teasing her. They are complete opposites of each other.”

“Oh Cherub, I thought you’d learn by now that that is the best kind of love. Spitfire’s personality is one of having fun instead of caring for her personal image like how Octavia does.” Cadance looked at her. “What Octavia needs is somepony that will let her try new things and never give up on her, no matter how stubborn she is. Spitfire is that pony. I’m not sure what Octavia can do for her, but you can bet they can make each other happy.”

“No offense, but that sounds like a bunch of baloney.”

“Is it? I thought you of all ponies would understand after what my Auntie did for you.”

“Excuse me?”

“You know, how you were cold and anti-social while Luna was fun loving and interested in meeting new ponies. In theory, you two shouldn’t have been friends, but you are. Don’t forget how Luna came to you despite you being sort of a jerk, how she gave you that mailbox so you two could always keep in contact, how she made you give Pinkie a chance and allowed you to be her friend, how she would make time to spend the day with you, and not to mention how she held you when you cried. Because of her, look where you are now.” Cadance then returned her attention to the skaters.

Unsure of Cadance's intentions, Chrysalis continued watching the two ponies skate, but something was bothering her. Something about what Cadance said was on her mind and she wasn’t sure why. She kept thinking her words over and over until something happened. When she looked at Octavia and Spitfire, they were gone. In Spitfire’s place was Luna and in Octavia’s was…herself. The two of them were laughing and smiling while skating together, almost like a couple. Chrysalis gasped, closed her eyes, and shook her head, finding everything normal afterward. She felt alarmed, wondering where in the world this feeling was coming from. Her mind then shifted to Luna, picturing the way she made that cute smile and even to when they were in bed together in Canterlot. Chrysalis shook her head frantically, removing the thoughts from her head and doing her best to focus on the current objective.

However, it did not end there. A suddenly surge of thoughts involving Luna flooded her mind. She kept thinking about her time with Luna where they laughed, hugged, and even comforted one another. She felt her chest produce a strange but familiar feeling when she thought about kissing Luna on the lips the week before. No matter how hard she fought, the feeling grew stronger and stronger without stop. Chrysalis realized what she was experiencing and became terrified, causing her to stand up hastily. “Excuse me for a moment.” She quickly walked away without bothering to wait for a reply.

She stormed into a nearby restroom and went up to the sink. She ran some cold water and splashed it on her face, staring into the mirror afterward. This wasn’t happening. This absolutely could not be allowed to happen. She closed her eyes, trying to look at the situation again. The thought of Luna once again brought sudden warmth within her and she forced her eyes open. All she could think about was her beauty, her elegant voice, her playful attitude, and everything else that made her so wonderful. All she desired was to be held by the alicorn and to be loved the same way she loved her. She even thought about them going all the way to show how much they loved each other, going into her bedroom…

Chrysalis splashed away the dirty thoughts with more water. She couldn’t afford to have these feelings, no matter what. It would only make things worse. Her mind was still filled with thoughts of the princess and she felt as if she was suffocating, so she left the bathroom, finding Cadance waiting for her. “Are you feeling all right?”

“Fine. Take over for me,” she answered as she kept walking.

“Where are you going?” She was not given an answer as the changeling kept going and eventually disappeared.

Chrysalis was in her own world as she walked through Canterlot. She wandered aimlessly, taking no note of what ponies were doing or where she was going. Eventually, she decided to take a seat on a bench, laying back and staring into the sky. Love. She worked so hard on making it and now its mysterious magic has worked its way into her. What should have been something wonderful for anyone else was truthfully something dangerous for her.

She loved Luna. No matter how many times she thought about it, it just felt strange to her. She really liked her as a friend and even thought she was beautiful, but she never expected anything like this to happen. She thought more of what Cadance said and realized that she was completely right. Luna was the main reason she allowed herself to give up any thoughts of revenge. If it weren’t for her, she never would have become close to Pinkie and if they never got close, Pinkie would have most likely tried to have her arrested instead of becoming her friend. She never realized how happy Luna made her feel until now, wanting to be around her as much as possible and wished she could repay her for everything. The alicorn was so sweet, happy, and beautiful and Chrysalis wanted her more than anything.

However, Chrysalis just sighed to herself. As much as she wanted to, pursuing after Luna was absolutely out of the question. It wasn’t just that she feared being rejected, but if a relationship did start between them, it would just lead to the inevitable. Chrysalis would reveal herself and Luna and even Celestia would unleash their retribution, furious that she would take advantage of the younger princess. No matter what she did, all she would feel would be pain. Maybe she could try after exposing herself and achieving forgiveness, but that was still a longshot, especially because of what she was. For now, she would have to keep her own feelings under control.

She thought her problem was funny in a strange way. When she was a little girl, her mother would always read to her and Nymph the tale of the Mare in the Moon. It was her favorite story as a child, awed by the idea that Princess Celestia had a sister all the way on the moon. She was never too fond of ponies, but Luna was somepony she felt drawn to because of how she loved the stars. Sometimes she would go out to the garden and stare into the night sky, looking at the endless sea of stars and the prison of the alicorn. When she was much younger, she felt bad that Luna was so lonely up there and sometimes would just talk to her. Even when she got older, she would come out and lay on the grass to stare at the moon, wondering how Luna was doing. When she came to Canterlot disguised as Cadance, she only caught a few glances of her, but she was not interested at all, focused on conquest over everything else. And now, that little girl who was fascinated with Luna was now a full grown adult and in love with her. It was strange to Chrysalis how life could work out like that.

Chrysalis closed her eyes. She didn’t care if she slept like a homeless pony on that bench; she just needed some form of escape, pained from desiring something she could never have. She eventually drifted to sleep and dreamed. She found herself in the royal garden back home in Bugartha, lying on the grass surrounded by many flowers. She rolled herself and found that Luna was right next to her, smiling. Chrysalis looked at her own hooves and saw that she was in her true form. Before she could say anything, Luna kissed her. The changeling felt at ease and closed her eyes, returning the kiss. They grabbed onto each other and rolled around the grass, laughing as they continued kissing. Chrysalis felt so happy, being with the mare she loved more than anything. The moment was absolutely perfect to her, until Twilight appeared and informed Chrysalis that her math homework was late.

Chrysalis was awakened when she was exposed to the powerful aroma of caffeine. Upon opening her eyes, she saw that somepony was holding several cups of coffee in front of her and when she turned her head, she nearly jumped. ”Luna?”

“Sleeping on the job? Tsk, tsk, Cherub! You make me question whether or not I should depend on you for getting me a special somepony. It’s a good thing I’m here.”

Chrysalis couldn’t believe her eyes. Somehow it was Luna of all ponies who found her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about seeing her. Her heart told her to be happy while her subconscious advised her to get away. She looked towards the multiple cups. “Are these for me?”

“And Pinkie and Cadance. Speaking of which, where are they?”

From looking around, the false unicorn wasn’t even sure of where she was. “I…I don’t know.”

“You got separated?”

“I wandered off,” she admitted, feeling embarrassed.

“Wandered? But what about your job?”

She looked away. “I got distracted by something. It’s not that important.” She straightened her posture and looked at the princess. “So what are you doing here, Luna? I thought you went with the others.”

“I did, but I felt bad for having fun without you all while you were out working hard, so I thought I could give you all a nice treat. I’m surprised you were just down the street.”

“I’m surprised you found me at all in this crazy city.” Chrysalis took a sip of the cup with her name on it, surprised by what she tasted. “You got my favorite flavor,” she spoke with disbelief.

“And with sugar too, just the way you like it.”

Chrysalis smiled as well as blushed. “You know me so well.” Luna held up a bag containing many pastries and the changeling felt her stomach growl as it been a while since she had eaten. “And you got all these for us, too?”

“Of course.” The changeling grabbed a doughnut and began devouring it. “I’m so glad I found you, Cherub. I’ve been waiting awhile for us to hang out.”

She swallowed her food. “I’m sorry, but we shouldn’t be that long. After we finish, we can spend the rest of the day together with no more work.”

“But you three have been working for almost three hours. How much more do-”

“Wait, what!?” Chrysalis saw a clock store across the street from her and saw that she had been asleep for almost two hours. It also just occurred to her that sunset was approaching, so she was running low on time. She quickly retrieved the food and drinks and stood up. “I’m sorry, but I need to go!”

Luna quickly stood up as she left. “So soon? But I just found you!”

“I’ll be back. I promise!” she called as she powerwalked away. She wasn’t happy at all to have ditched Luna like that, but Cadance and Pinkie must have been getting worried about her and she needed to be sure the job was going well. It also occurred to her that it might have been better if she didn’t spend any time with Luna for a while.

It didn’t take her long to track them down as many ponies easily caught sight of the famous Wonderbolt Spitfire and of Princess Cadance. She eventually found the princess and her friend hiding against a wall of a café, watching something. “How’s it going?”

They both whirled around, completely surprised by her appearance. “You’re back!” Pinkie rushed over and hugged her lovingly.

Cadance noticed what she was holding. “Cherub, did you take this long just to get coffee?”

“I was actually doing something else. These are from Luna.”

“Oh boy! What did she get me!?” Pinkie immediately snatched her drink and took a gulp, losing her smile afterward. “Decaf.”

Both older mares chuckled. “I think it’s for the best,” said Chrysalis.

Cadance took her drink and an apple fritter. “I think it was very sweet for Auntie to think about us and to buy all of this. Isn’t she simply the sweetest pony?”

Chrysalis blushed. “You have no idea.” She quickly shook her head, trying to focus on the task at hoof. “But anyway, what about Octavia? How has that been coming along?”

“Well I’ve been telling Spitfire what to say and do with her while Pinkie took them out to do all sorts of fun things. They’re just sitting over there,” Cadance answered while pointing a hoof around the building, where the two mares were seated together outside.

“Then why is Pinkie here instead of being with them?”

“Well after we did some ice skating, snowpony making, caroling, and even ice fishing, Spitfire told me I was free to go,” answered the earth pony.

“I told Spitfire now would be a good time for them to have a serious talk,” addressed Cadance as she leaned towards the wall to look at them.

“Isn’t this just nice?” asked the Wonderbolt. “Having a little bit of coffee out in this pleasant weather?” The musician said nothing. “Don’t tell me you’re still not having fun,” she teased.

Octavia put her drink down. “Okay, I am done with your little game, Spitfire.”

“Geez, just relax-”

“I will not!” she snapped. “I have been stuck with you for over two hours because of blackmail!” She slammed her hooves on the table. “What the hay do you want from me!? Just come out and say it!”

Knowing she could no longer dance around the question, Spitfire put her drink down. “Alright. I’ll level with you. I’m not only doing this because you’re the cousin of my friend’s friend, but because I am concerned about you.”

“There’s no need,” the musician stated crossly. “My only problem right now is being stuck with you.”

“Oh yeah? How often do you smile?”

Octavia chuckled mockingly. “What kind of question is that?”

“A simple one,” Spitfire answered in a serious voice.

Suddenly losing the argument, Octavia looked away. “Sometimes.”

“How often a pony smiles is a measurement of how happy they truly are. Only on the ice and another couple of times have I seen you smile today. You didn’t smile when you played your music on the stage or even with your friends.”

“What’s your point?”

Spitfire sighed and kicked her legs up on the table. “Octavia, what are you doing with your life? I mean yeah you get to play music for all the rich ponies, but what else do you even do? You don’t see your own family, I had to drag you to make you do anything fun, and you can’t even be appreciative that somepony is worried about you and is willing to make time for you. You like to avoid dealing with your problems and keeping those problems to yourself is not healthy at all. What happened with you and Applejack during that little party was just a firecracker compared to the big bomb that will inevitably blow if you keep this manure up.”

The earth pony looked down at her hooves. “I…I can’t be that bad. I just can’t be.”

“Maybe, but you should still be concerned. Do you ever go out and do something fun? Like go have a drink with your friends or something?”

“Not really,” she admitted glumly.

“Do you even have something planned tomorrow?”

She slumped her shoulders. “My only plans were dinner in an expensive restaurant.”

“You call that a holiday celebration?” Octavia looked down at the table in front of her, closing her eyes. “You know, your family is meeting in Ponyville tomorrow.”

She slowly shook her head. “I…don’t know if I should.”

“If you’re thinking about what these elites think about your family, don’t worry about it. It’s not like they’ll stop coming to your concerts. Your talent is one of a kind.” She patted Octavia’s hoof. “You really know how to play some beautiful music.”

The musician opened her eyes and looked at her. “Thank you.” Spitfire then stood up. “Where are you going?”

“I’m afraid I need to get going before my train shows up,” she answered as she stretched herself.

“You’re just going to leave?”

“Sorry, but I can’t keep my friends waiting. I am sorry I blackmailed you, but I thought you needed to have fun for once, especially on Hearth's Warming Eve. As for our secret, it’s going to stay a secret, so don’t worry about it.” She held her hoof out. “I know it wasn’t really your scene, but I’m glad we met and got to hang.”

Octavia took her hoof and shook it. “I’m actually kind of glad as well. Today wasn’t so bad, I suppose.”

“Good. I’m not trying to force you to do anything, Octavia, just giving some friendly advice.” Spitfire reached into her coat pocket and placed a card on the table. “Come see me at the academy any time, just be sure to tell them that Tavi wants to see Spitfire.”

She took the card and stashed it in her pocket. “We’ll see.”

Spitfire smirked. “Do me one more little thing.”

“What?”

Spitfire leaned towards her. “Show me a smile.” Octavia was surprised by her request, but she managed to produce one, feeling a little nervous. “Now that’s cute.” Spitfire took a few steps from her and stretched her wings out. “Applejack is at the train station, too, in case you want to take up my advice.” The musician looked away. “And as a friend, I want you to take care of yourself, Tavi.”

“You too, Spitfire.” The pegasus took flight and disappeared behind the buildings. Chrysalis, Cadance, and Pinkie watched to see what Octavia would do. After a minute, she got up and left in the opposite direction.

“Wait, why’s she going that way? Spitfire went the other way!” Pinkie cried.

Chrysalis rubbed her eyes in disbelief. “That’s it!? This was all for nothing!”

The sound of giggling caught their attention. “Cherub, Cherub, Cherub. You can’t always rush love. Everything went well and you should be happy.”

“But it doesn’t look like we’ve changed anything,” she argued.

“Actually, we have. Octavia took her card.”

“She’ll probably just throw it away,” she argued.

“She would have just declined if she didn’t want it. Trust me. We’ve made an impact on her. You’re also forgetting one other important detail.”

“Which is?”

“She didn’t get mad when she called her Tavi.” Cadance clapped her hooves together. “And now we are done! I bet my poor hubby misses me so much.”

“I’ll bet,” Chrysalis muttered as she thought about Luna waiting for her. “That took longer than I thought. We need to hurry to the train station.”

“I’ll let them know you’re coming.” Cadance flapped her wings and flew off. “See you there!”

Once she was out of sight, Chrysalis and Pinkie walked. “Wow, Chrysalis. You really missed out this time. Cadance is super awesome at matchmaking, like you!” The changeling didn’t say anything and was looking off to the distance. “What’s wrong?”

The changeling snapped back to reality. “Hmm? Nothing. I’m fine.”

The pony leaned her head against her. “Come on, you know you can talk to me. We’re pals!”

The old Chrysalis would have told her to just shut up and to leave her alone, but the new one actually had a friend to talk to. “I’m having a problem.”

“What?”

“I’m…I’m…” She didn’t know if she could say it. She couldn’t even accept it was real and thought that saying it out loud would just confirm it.

“What!?”

“I’m in love.” Silence fell between them. However, Chrysalis saw Pinkie’s face producing a grin that stretched her face into impossible proportions. “Now Pinkie, just-”

Pinkie jumped her and knocked her over while giving a hug. “You’re in love!? I’m so happy for you!”

“Pinkie, keep your voice down!” she demanded as embarrassment flooded through her from the ponies staring.

Pinkie got off of her and Chrysalis increased her pace to get away from the ponies. “Sorry, but I’m so excited right now! You’re in love! Who is it!? I wanna know right now!”

“Luna,” she confessed with a blush.

Pinkie gave an extremely long gasp. “Luna!? Oh my gosh, that’s so cute!”

She immediately shoved a hoof in front of her mouth. “Pinkie, don’t yell!”

“I can’t help it!” she answered through the hoof, which Chrysalis removed. “This is the best news ever! I need to throw a party!”

“No! No party, Pinkie! This isn’t even good news! It’s a big problem.”

“But why is it a problem? This is great!”

Chrysalis grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “No, it’s not! This is very bad!”

“Huh? But why?”

Chrysalis let her go and sighed deeply. “Because let us not forget who is underneath this illusion.” She flashed her green eyes. “I can’t get involved with her because Luna despises me as Chrysalis and this will only bring her great pain in the end.”

Pinkie’s smile slowly faded and some of her hair began to lose its curls. “Oh.”

They both stood there on the street, both feeling deeply depressed. “We need to get to the station. We’ll worry about this later, so just be happy for tomorrow. I will be okay.”

Pinkie slowly nodded and they resumed their travel. After a minute, the pony looked up at her. “Chrysalis, I think you should stay with Luna for Hearth’s Warming Eve.”

The changeling eyed her funnily. “What? Pinkie, that’s a bad idea.”

“No, running away is!” She put a hoof in front of the changeling to stop her from walking. “Look, I know it’s scary to wonder whether or not somepony will like you, but you gotta go for it! It was scary when I tried to get Fluttershy to like me, but it all worked out in the end! If you don’t go, it’ll be like me and Fluttershy, where every time I wasn’t with her I’d go super loco thinking about her!”

“I think I would go crazy thinking about wanting to be with her when I’m actually with her,” she stated.

“Well you two should be together! You’d make a great special somepony for her! Or is it special changeling?”

Chrysalis couldn’t even smile at Pinkie acting silly. “But Pinkie, it will just fall apart in the end.”

“We don’t know that! Maybe she will still love you!”

The changeling took a deep breath. “But…”

“But what?”

She closed her eyes. “I’m scared.”

All of a sudden, Pinkie hugged her tightly. “I know it’s scary, but you gotta! Luna’s expecting you to find her somepony that will love her with all their heart, and that pony, or should I say changeling, is you!” Pinkie claimed as she pressed a hoof into Chrysalis’s chest. “You know her better than so many ponies and you can even sense how she is feeling. You two love doing a lot of stuff together and you both like to have sleepovers! I even believed you two would go great together a long time ago but I didn’t think you liked her like that, but now I’m more sure than ever! And don’t forget Cadance is trying to find her a special somepony, so you need to tell her how you feel before she finds somepony else! You need to go to Luna and be her special changeling!”

Chrysalis felt her doubt fading. Maybe Pinkie was actually right. Maybe she all of people was the most deserving of the alicorn’s heart. Luna had been in a similar situation as her before, so she could potentially understand her. There was also the fact that she seemed to have been very attached to her and if her memory served her correctly, Luna was the one who initiated the kiss between them. Thinking of that moment made her feel confident and she stood up. “You’re right, Pinkie. I need to do this before it's too late. I will need some time, but I’m going to let her know exactly how I feel.”

“Great! Let’s go to Luna right now!” Pinkie sprinted ahead as Chrysalis walked, wondering what in the world she had gotten herself into.

Finally, they arrived at the train station, where the rest of the ponies were waiting. “Geez, you two take forever,” mocked Rainbow Dash, only to have Chrysalis magically throw a snowball at her face.

“Train’s comin’ soon, so ya ready?” asked Applejack.

“I sure am!” Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced over to Fluttershy and hugged her.

Chrysalis saw Luna standing with Celestia, Shining Armor, and Cadance, waving to her. Before she could speak, another pony walked between them. “Applejack?”

Much to everypony’s surprise, it was Octavia. “Tavi?” she asked with disbelief. “What are ya doin’ here?”

She looked away and rubbed a hoof behind her head. “I was wondering if it was possible for me to accompany you to Ponyville.”

The farmer gasped. “Ya mean ya actually wanna come to the reunion?”

“Um…yes?” Applejack pounced on her and knocked her over. “Ah!”

“Of course ya can come, Tavi! We’d be so honored to have ya back!” she exclaimed while hugging her.

“Hurray for Tavi!” Pinkie shouted as she jumped into the air.

“We’re still not friends!” Octavia snapped, causing Pinkie to stop midair and to land on the ground away from the musician.

Celestia approached and helped them both off the ground. “I’m glad to see you have changed your mind about your family, Octavia. I’m still surprised I never figured that out about you for so long.”

“I’m sorry I locked it away. I just needed somepony to set my head straight.” Octavia looked at Spitfire, who winked in response.

Applejack pulled her close. “Ya’re gonna love the reunion! We got all sorts of fun stuff to do tomorrow and everypony will be so happy to see ya agin!”

“Let’s not get carried away. I just want to relax and simply be with my family. I just hope they forgive me for being away for so long.”

“Family can never stay mad at each other forever,” Applejack reassured, which made Chrysalis stare at her own hooves. “Ah’m sure they’ll be mighty proud of everything ya done.”

While the ponies spoke with Octavia, the train arrived and opened its doors. Pinkie rushed over to Chrysalis and they gave each other a goodbye hug. The ponies walked to the train while saying goodbye with the exception of the royal family, Twilight, Spike, and Chrysalis. Chrysalis watched the others board and Luna approached her. “It’s a shame we didn’t have much time together, but hopefully next time will be better. I wish you a safe trip home, Cherub.”

Nervous was all that she felt. She didn’t know if she really could ask Luna to have her stay with her or even make her love her, but as Pinkie told her, it was now or never. “Actually, I thought I could ask you a favor.”

“What is it?”

“If it isn’t too much short notice, could I possibly…stay with you for the holidays?”

Luna gasped. “What? But Cherub, don’t you have plans?”

“No, it’s just me and only me. I didn’t tell you so you wouldn’t worry.” She sighed. “I understand if it’s too-” Her words were silenced by the alicorn tightly hugging her.

“Yes, Cherub! Please stay with me! I don’t want you to be lonely tomorrow.”

Chrysalis smiled as she hugged Luna in return, not noticing a certain pony giggling. She turned her head to see Pinkie standing outside the train, winking at her before boarding. “Thanks, Luna. I really appreciate you taking me in on short notice.”

“It is no trouble at all,” spoke Celestia. “Our home is your home and we’d love to have you over for the holidays.”

Luna released her when they noticed the train leaving and the other ponies sticking out of the windows, waving goodbye. The ones who remained waved to them as the train disappeared in the distance. “Come along, everypony,” said Celestia. “Let’s get back before it gets too cold.”

After dropping off Twilight and Spike at Twilight's parents' house, Celestia brought them to the palace. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think now would be a good time to enjoy some lovely wine,” addressed the oldest alicorn.

“I all of a sudden feel in the mood for some as well,” spoke Luna.

Cadance looked at the changeling. “I think we should sit somewhere nice and get to know you better, Cherub.”

“I can’t wait to hear about little Twilight’s job from you,” said Shining as they took the white alicorn’s lead. “I mean, ‘Twilight’ and ‘dating service’ are two things I never thought I’d put in the same sentence.”

Chrysalis spoke about all the interesting events that took place during her employment while none of them noticed that Cadance was staring at her almost the entire time. As they walked through the grand hall to reach the kitchen, they were sharing a laugh about some things Twilight did in attempts to understand love. Their laughter was cut off as the large double doors in front of them parted, revealing an unusual individual in a white coat on the other side. “Oh no,” muttered the stallion to himself as he quickly turned his attention toward the ceiling.

“Nymph?” asked Celestia with surprise. “I did not realize you were still here.”

“I apologize if I am overstaying my welcome,” said the changeling. “My guards went to go do some last minute holiday shopping and I must wait for their return for me to leave. They should be heading back now, so I am heading towards my carriage.”

“Would you mind if we escort you there?” asked Luna.

“I would be delighted.”

“Oh, and here is my sister’s good friend, Cherub,” addressed Celestia as she pointed a hoof behind her.

Nymph leaned towards the sides of the alicorn in attempt to look past her. “Where?”

The ponies were confused by what she meant and looked behind them, discovering that the red unicorn was nowhere in sight. “Oh dear. Where did she run off to? She was just here a moment ago,” said Luna as she looked around.

“Let me guess, right before I appeared.”

“Yes.”

The queen frowned and sighed. “Poo. I was looking forward to meeting her, too.” She walked ahead and the others followed. “It’s a shame she’s not the only pony to react this way upon seeing me or any of my kind. I thought we’d be through this months ago.”

“Ponies still don’t understand your kind as much as we’d like,” spoke Celestia. “I feel once the population is well educated enough, they will be more than willing to accept you into their lives.”

“That would have probably worked before, if it were not for my sister,” she responded gloomily.

“Has there still been no sign?” asked Celestia, concerned.

She slowly shook her head. “None at all. I sometimes fear the worst has happened to her.”

“I’m sure she is fine,” comforted the blue alicorn. “We will find her, so hang in there.”

“And what am I going to do with her if we do? For over thirty years she has hated me with all her heart, if she even has one left. Sometimes I think that she will never change, no matter how hard I try. It’s bad enough trying to clean up this mess she made.”

“It was quite a big mess,” added the pink princess.

“I take it you’re still just as mad at her as you were months ago,” said the queen.

“Yes,” said Cadance bluntly.

“If you do find her, please be merciful with her. I just hope you can knock some sense into her.”

“I’m still honestly surprised you’re allowing this, Nymph,” spoke Shining Armor. “She may not forgive you for this.”

“I feel it may do her some good. She needs to understand the consequences of what she had done.”

“And if she doesn’t?” asked Celestia.

Nymph hung her head. “I don’t know. I don’t even want to think about it. I just want to make sure she’s safe. I don’t wish to think she is beyond redemption. She was such a loving sister so many years ago and I would do anything to see that side of her again.” Nymph let out a depressed sigh.

Celestia put a supportive hoof on her back. “Nymph, is there anything we can do for you? I do not wish for you to be so upset for the holidays.”

“I will be fine. Just find my sister. I just want to know if she’s at least…alive.”

“Very well. We will continue looking for her as hard as we can.”

“Thank you.” She sat against the wall and smiled. “I thank you for all the help you have all given me. You also have my thanks for giving me so much of your Equestrian wine as a present. It was a truly generous gift. Right now I will await here for my guards alone.”

“We understand. We’re going to see where Cherub ran off to. Goodbye, Nymph, and happy holidays,” spoke Luna as she walked away.

“Happy holidays, ponies.” As Celestia and Luna left, Cadance approached Nymph.

“Nymph, this is really a lovely coat!” she complemented as she ran a hoof across her coat.

The queen smiled at her. “You like it? This was created by the most talented changelings in my kingdom. It’s one of a kind.”

“It feels so real. What’s it made from?” she asked, completely enthralled by it.

“Polar bear!”

The princess retracted her hoof in horror. “T-t-t-this is…r-r-r-real fur!?”

“That’s right. I’ve always admired the beauty of those creatures up north, so I thought making their beauty my own. Isn’t it just lovely? I think it fits perfectly with the winter weather.”

Shining Armor slowly pulled his wife away. “I definitely think it fits you. We’d love to stay and admire it more, but we need to get going.”

She chuckled. “Of course. Bye, you two.”

The royal couple walked away as fast as they possibly could. “I-I touched it!”

“It’s okay, honey. Just relax.”

Nymph waved to them as they walked away, giggling to herself as she thought about Cadance producing a similar reaction if she found out what she did with some mistletoe earlier. She figured she still had some time to kill before her guards came back, so she decided to wander through the nearby garden. Even in winter, its beauty was something she admired. She figured that since all the animals were gone, no pony would worry if she was there unsupervised. She stepped into the cold winter air and something caught her eye. At a bench by the hedges was a unicorn mare who seemed to be mumbling to herself. She wondered who this pony was to be sitting alone in the palace garden, so she decided to approach her. “Hello there.”

Chrysalis flew off the bench and took some steps backwards. “You!? Wha…why…I…”

“Oh, I hope I didn’t startle you.”

The other changeling took some deep breaths and put a hoof on her chest. “You actually did.”

“Please forgive me. I was just curious of why you were out here all alone.” Chrysalis said nothing. “What is your name?”

“Cherub.”

“Ah, you are Luna’s friend. Celestia tried to introduce you to me, but you ran off. I’m guessing I was the reason for your sudden vanishing.” Chrysalis looked at the ground while slowly nodding. Nymph went to the bench, wiped some snow off, and seated herself. “If you don’t mind, why don’t you join me for some conversation?”

“Er…no offense, but I’d rather not.”

“Are you sure? I could use the company. I might be here for a while.”

She wanted to say no again, but it would have seemed rude to decline her offer. Their talk may even help win her favor with Luna. After taking a deep breath, Chrysalis sat down. “So why are you here during Hearth’s Warming Eve, your highness? Awfully far from home, aren’t you?”

“Oh, I just wanted something out of the way before the holidays came. I would have been on my way home, but I think my guards are having so much fun shopping in a foreign nation that they forgot about their precious queen.” She giggled to herself. “I hope my subjects back home aren’t worried about me.”

Chrysalis barely smiled. “I’m just curious, how is your kingdom doing?”

“Very well. Nowadays, you can hardly find many changelings in their homes as they’re all outside, playing in the snow. I sometimes wish I could take a snow day for myself, but I simply do not have the time.”

“You must be one busy queen.”

“Every day of the week, I’m afraid. Besides these talks, I have to deal with many issues at home and it is all very stressful, like those awful diamond dogs.”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “Diamond dogs? What about them?”

“They’re upset that we don’t need them anymore to dig our tunnels since my people want to live above ground and because we want to take a bigger cut of the gems we promised them so we can use them for trade. Of course, they have been very reluctant to give up any ‘shinnies'.”

“So what are you doing about it?"

“I keep telling them that the gems would be actually much more beneficial in the hooves of changelings, but they are stubborn as mules. It’s not like they need them. All they do is hoard it and fight over them for some unknown reason.”

There was actually one race that was fully aware of the existence of changelings for thousands of years, and that race was the diamond dogs. The changelings never worried about them leaking information of their existence as their silence was very easily bought with gems and they mostly kept to themselves. Since diamond dogs were hard workers, knowledgeable of developing tunnels, and easy to bribe, they were used to dig all the tunnels the changelings lived in. Their coexistence was a peaceful one, where they mostly stayed out of each other’s business. “So are you going to let them keep them?”

“I don’t have much choice. They’ve been stubborn about their gems since we’re cutting them off and I would rather not get on their bad side. It’s not like gems are hard to find, but it would be nice if we could gather them close to home. Besides, I can no longer tolerate speaking with or shaking the paw of that filthy king of theirs when we make agreements.”

Chrysalis smirked. “You’re complaining about shaking his paw? Not very high and mighty of a queen.”

“It’s because he’s filthy! Diamond dogs don’t exactly bathe, you know. Then again, do they even have sewage? Where do they even go to the bathroom!?” Nymph visibly shuddered. “I swear if I have to touch his paw one more time, I will cut my own hoof off with a hacksaw.”

The elder sister laughed, annoying the queen. “Just apply soap and water and you should be fine. No need to be fussy.”

Nymph just rolled her eyes. “Well that’s enough about me, so why don’t we talk about you? I’ve been hearing so much about you and I’ve wanted to meet you for a while.”

Chrysalis gulped. It wasn’t often that a changeling had to fool another changeling. “I’m guessing you already know about my Hearts and Hooves event.”

“I do. You have my deepest gratitude for allowing my subjects to gather food at such a fruitful source.”

“It’s the least I can do. I know your kind has been having it rough and I thought I could help.”

“You have such a kind heart, Cherub. I look forward to that holiday as well, provided I can somehow find myself a special changeling,” she grumbled.

Chrysalis couldn’t believe her ears. Nymph was having trouble getting a date? She was a queen, so changelings should have been throwing themselves at her. Then she had an idea. “What about hiring me? Finding a lover for a queen could do wonders for my business.”

Much to her surprise, Nymph just laughed. “I can easily find a mate just fine. Besides, what my people think if I hired a pony matchmaker to find my king? It would look just as silly as Celestia, princess of all of Equestria, going to a lowly dating service, don’t you think?”

Chrysalis stared at her, feeling insulted. “It was actually Luna who hired me, for your information.”

Nymph froze as she knew she had just made fun of Celestia’s little sister. “O-oh. W-well, I-I hope s-she finds somepony she loves and um…” She noticed the way the red unicorn was snickering at her. “Y-you better not tell her what I said!”

“I don’t know,” Chrysalis said in a teasing tone. “I mean, should I really do any favors for a queen who thinks I’m lowly?”

“I-I-I take it back! Hiring a matchmaker is a privilege, especially when she’s beautiful and talented like you!”

“Aw, you make me blush.”

“So you won’t repeat what I said to anyone, right? I don’t want to know what Celestia would do to me if she found out what I said about her little Lulu!”

Chrysalis patted her on the back. “Relax, your highness. She’s not going to care that much. And if it makes you feel better, I promise I won’t say anything.”

“Good.” Once Nymph calmed down, she looked at Chrysalis. “So Luna truly desires a lover?”

The older changeling blushed, thinking about what kind of lover she was going to give her. “She does. It took a long time, but she finally said yes to let me find one for her.”

“I am so happy she has finally decided to do this. I’ve always told her finding a romantic partner would be good for her since she’s been away for so long, but she always dodges the subject. So what kind of stallion is she interested in?”

The question somewhat stung her. “She hasn’t decided and I’m just trying to figure that out myself.”

“Well I wish you the best of luck. Do me a favor and find her somepony that will make her very happy and can really satisfy her in bed.”

Chrysalis gasped loudly. “Pardon!?”

Nymph giggled. “Cherub, the last time Luna has any action was a thousand years ago. If I was her, I would want something truly magnificent for my comeback party, wouldn’t you?”

“…Sure.” Chrysalis did her best to repress any sexual thoughts of the princess as there was something much more important she needed to speak about with the queen. “So…any word on your sister?”

The younger changeling sighed and shook her head. “A few claimed sightings here and there, but still no hard evidence. Makes me wonder what she is up to during all this time to not have moved forward with some sort of plot.”

“Do you miss her?”

Nymph looked off into the distance. “Sometime yes, sometimes no.”

“What do you mean?”

“My feelings towards her changes like the tides, Cherub. Sometimes I think of the good times, and sometimes I remember many rotten moments. That usually affects how I feel overall during the day.”

“So what do you think you’ll do when you find her?”

“A very good question. This is a scenario I just play over and over in my head. Sometimes I see us hugging, just putting everything behind us as we move on with our lives, missing each other dearly.”

Chrysalis smiled warmly, actually touched. “That sounds really sweet.”

The queen’s calm expression shifted into a scowl. “And sometimes I picture myself running her head through a wall and proceeding to kick her in her fat flank.”

The elder sister was stunned. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Oh, please forgive me for saying that. I get so mad at my sister sometimes that I tend to get vile thoughts about her.”

“Because of how she treated you.”

“Well it’s much more than that. The fact she decided to push away her own family for a crown brings my blood to an absolute boil. There was also her wretched invasion. I mean, I understand why she thought it was a good idea because it was for survival, but I am really upset that she took pleasure in it. She goes on about how ponies would never love our kind and would treat us poorly and what does she do? Kidnaps Cadance and fools her husband into marrying her. And even worse, she taunts the poor girl and even Twilight, taking absolute delight in destroying their lives.”

Chrysalis could feel herself getting sick, praying that Luna did not feel the same way about her. “So do you…hate her?”

“I don’t actually hate her, but there is so much about her that infuriates me. I could go on and on about her, but I’m sure you don’t want to hear me rant about Chrysalis.”

The elder sister really didn’t want to hear what she had to say, but she felt she needed to know how Nymph felt. “Go on ahead. I’m a good listener and maybe talking will make you feel better.”

Nymph considered it for a moment, and then nodded. “How much do you know of our history?”

“Luna filled me in.”

“Well that saves me some time. Chrysalis’s problem is that she is a bucking child. She has to have everything go her way, or else she throws a big temper tantrum. Some changelings don’t agree with one of her policies? Scare them. Mother wants to make her sister the queen? Blame her sister for everything and punish her without evidence. She never learned to control herself and I think that is actually the fault of Mother and I. We always knew she had anger problems, but we often just ignored it, thinking that was the way she is, despite how much trouble she got into. We never realized how serious it was and it was too late before I realized how bad it could get. Had she been disciplined, maybe things wouldn’t have escalated the way they did.”

“That really is awful.”

“I honestly do not know where she got all that cruelty from. It scares me that she could take such delight from the suffering of others like Cadance or even me. Maybe it was because she never knew what it was like to be treated as such that she enjoys treating others poorly. I actually moved to somewhere outside the palace a few years after she was crowned because I couldn’t stand living in the same place as her.” She sighed and rubbed her temples. “I should have expected this in the start. Her ego is too large for her to accept her not being number one. She wants to be queen because she wants to be the big hero of the changelings. She always wanted to be a queen just like Mother.”

“Do you think she has learned her lesson? I mean, it has been a long time. Maybe she’s cooled off and reflected.”

“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I hope to Celestia she has or else I don’t think I can stand seeing her again. Thinking about who she became fills me with anger and fear. Still, things will be going much different the next time we meet.”

“How’s that?”

“I hate to admit it, but in many ways, Chrysalis is a better changeling than I. She is fearless, smart, charismatic, and absolutely talented. Did you know she knows how to fence, paint, play the harp, and hunt animals by using archery? There are so many things she can do as Mother spent much time to ensure that Chrysalis was the best at a lot of things, with her wit being her ultimate weapon. You’ve heard about how she changed our kingdom in such little time, haven’t you? She really set a lot of things into motion and was a fantastic ruler in so many ways, with one exception being her atrocious personality. You haven’t seen a monster until you see her get really angry about something.” She sighed and put her face in her hooves. “Unfortunately, this wit and personality of hers was what made Chrysalis so horrible to deal with. I’m afraid she really knew all of my weaknesses and how to make me hurt. I was so defenseless against her. Celestia and Luna have helped me learn how to stand up to her, so now, if she hasn’t changed her ways,” her horn glowed and she produced an unfriendly smile, “she will be the one crying.”

Chrysalis scooted a bit from her. She knew she and the princesses were expecting her to come back, but she had absolutely no idea what they had in store for her. Despite having taken on Celestia herself, her sister’s expression made her fear crossing horns with Nymph, especially if she had been trained by the alicorns. “I know that it’s very hard to let go of what happened, but for your sake you need to try. It may seem so tempting to just beat her to a pulp, but you cannot give into such urges. Trust me when I say the pursuit for revenge is not a road worth taking. All you will find in the end is regret.”

Nymph dragged her hind hoof across the snow. “I know it won’t. It’s just that Chrysalis made me feel so weak and powerless for so long that I just want to show her what it’s like for once.”

Chrysalis placed a supportive hoof on her shoulder. “Nymph, you are not weak. Even during those times, you stuck by her side as her advisor, even if she never listened to you. And look where you are now. You are the Queen of the Changelings and she is not. You have friends who support you, so do not ever think you are weak. And last but not least, it takes someone strong to even consider forgiveness and mercy for someone like Chrysalis. My advice to you is to show these to your sister when you find her and hopefully she’ll learn to appreciate you. Besides, wouldn’t an act of kindness be better than roughing up the sister you want back?”

Nymph nodded. “You are absolutely right. I cannot give in to temptation if I wish to make things right between us. I feel so ashamed to have such fantasies.”

“Do not fret over it. Believe me when I say I’ve been in your position before.”

“Thank you for listening and for your advice, Cherub. It is no wonder why Luna likes you so much.”

Chrysalis quietly gasped. “S-she likes me that much?”

“She does. She likes to talk about you often, which is why I was eager to meet you.”

She wasn’t surprised Luna had spoken about her with Cadance, but Nymph? How much did Luna like her as a friend to mention her to a ruler of another kingdom on a somewhat regular basis? She could feel herself becoming excited. “Do you remember what she says about me? I’d really like to know.”

“She says that she never had friend like you before. You are very fun for her to be with and she knows she can always talk to you about anything. I think Celestia has been feeling a little jealous of you both, so watch out.” Nymph leaned towards her, studying her face. “Why are you blushing?”

Chrysalis jumped, realizing that she didn’t have any excuse to give her. “W-well…”

“Your highness? Where are you?”

Nymph and Chrysalis looked towards the direction of the voice. “I’m right here! Just give me a moment,” she called back before looking at Chrysalis. “It seems our time together has come to an end.”

Chrysalis was relieved she didn’t end up telling her about her crush, but she was sad that she was leaving. “A shame, but I think I need to get going as well. I’m sure Luna is worrying herself to death over me.” She held her hoof out. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you, Queen Nymph.”

The younger changeling took her and shook it. “The pleasure is all mine. I hope we can see each other again soon, Cherub. Happy holidays.”

“Happy holidays.” Nymph walked towards her guards and Chrysalis returned inside the palace. She sat by a window and watched as her sister got into her carriage that soon took flight, going higher and higher into the air and eventually disappearing in the distance. Chrysalis pressed a hoof against the glass and stared at the sky, watching the sun set and the moon rise.

Author's Note

Next chapter next week.

Red Hearts, Blue Moon

“Cherub?” Chrysalis looked to her right and saw Luna standing there. “I’ve been looking all over for you. Are you all right?”

The red unicorn sighed. “I’m sorry for disappearing. I just sort of freaked out when I saw Queen Nymph.”

“I see. I take it you still feel just as strongly about changelings?”

“No, it's not that. I just wasn't expecting her at all.” She looked back to the window to stare toward the night sky and Luna stood next to her. “Do you think the ponies will ever accept them?”

“Of course they will. It will just be some time before we can make this work. I’m still withholding my vote until certain issues are taken care of, otherwise things could get ugly.” Luna put a hoof around Chrysalis, not noticing that the changeling was blushing. “Everything will be fine. Right now, we should enjoy this glorious holiday together. I hope you’re still in the mood for some wine.”

“I am.”

“Good. Follow me.” The blue alicorn lead her through the palace to where her family was waiting while Chrysalis thought of how some alcohol would help her deal with the stress. Being around Cadance and Shining Armor was one thing along with figuring out how to express her feelings to Luna, but seeing her sister’s despair made her feel worse, even though their conversation together ended on a good note.

They arrived at one of the upper balconies where the other ponies were seated at a small table and Celestia had made a barrier around them to prevent snow from falling on them as well as keep them warm. “I see you found your friend,” Celestia said in a friendly voice.

“I’m sorry for leaving so suddenly,” Chrysalis said with some embarrassment.

“Don't be. Have a seat.” Chrysalis seated herself between Luna and Shining Armor as Celestia poured her a glass of wine. “And Cherub, you don’t need to be so nervous around Queen Nymph. She is very friendly, just like the rest of the changelings.”

“I’ll remember that next time.” Chrysalis wanted to change the subject, so she decided to speak with the royal couple and know them better as it would help ease tensions for when she would finally reveal herself. “So how are things at the Crystal Empire?”

Cadance spoke while her husband drank. “Everything is great. The crystal ponies are out exploring Equestria to see how much the world has changed in a thousand years.”

“They should bring Luna, seeing how they’re kind of in the same boat,” the changeling suggested while making a glance towards the mentioned pony.

“Maybe they should. We’re currently receiving more tourists than the other Equestrian cities combined.”

“Not surprising, considering how beautiful I heard the city is and the fact it is mostly preserved from how it was a thousand years ago.”

“You should come and visit sometime, Cherub,” said the stallion. “We’d love to give you a tour.”

“That sounds lovely.” Chrysalis sipped her drink. “But I have heard rumors it was still dangerous there up north.”

“What do you mean?" asked Celestia.

“They say that one unicorn who enslaved them roams around the outskirts of the empire. What’s his name again? The old ruler?”

Shining put his glass down. “Sombra? He still lurks in the snowy mountains up north, possibly waiting for a pony to get too close, but he's not a problem. We’re safe with the Crystal Heart, but we still need to remain vigilant. You don’t need to be afraid of him since he’s not who I’m worried about.”

“Who then?” asked the changeling.

“That horrible Chrysalis,” answered his wife. “We still have no idea where she is or what she’s planning. I fear of what she will have in store for us the next time we see her and I have trouble sleeping because of it.”

“Do you really think she’ll try something after this long?” asked Celestia.

“She impersonated my wife and tried to enslave everypony," Shining Armor reminded with a hint of fury in his voice. "That fiend is without a doubt planning her revenge for us thwarting her invasion.”

Chrysalis finished off her glass and poured herself another. “Well we know she only invaded for her people, who were all starving by the way. Who can honestly say she’s still evil?”

Shining leaned towards her. “Here’s a shock for you: Nymph was originally the queen until Chrysalis forced her to give it up. I bet she took amusement when she treated her sister like dirt.”

No pony noticed her hoof shaking as Chrysalis held the glass, no longer able to look him in the eyes. “Maybe she’s changed.”

The prince scoffed. “I doubt that very much, seeing how unloving she was towards any of us.”

“Well the other changelings were like that, too. I don’t see what makes her so different,” she argued.

“It’s because she felt absolutely no remorse for any of her actions. It was her who convinced the neutral kingdom to attack us when they simply could have asked for our love. She turned a peaceful nation into a violent one as a mean to her own ends.”

Chrysalis flinched. “Point taken.”

Cadance put a foreleg around Shining and rested her head on his shoulder. “Who knows what she could have done to my husband the entire time she was here. She could have done anything and I dread the thought every day.”

The false unicorn threw back her glass and wiped her lips. “I think she was only interested in his love and that’s it,” she answered hastily. “She doesn’t seem like the type to take things that far.” The truth was one night during her time disguised as Cadance, she brainwashed him to kiss her beautiful bug butt and make him say how much hotter she was than any of the alicorns. It was the only thing that happened between her and the prince, but this was something Chrysalis decided to take to her grave.

“I hope you’re right. No pony or changeling feels safe as long as she is out there. I keep having a bad feeling that she has some plan to ruin the negotiations,” spoke the prince.

“But why would she ever do that?” asked Celestia. “The changelings have been promised unlimited access to our country, which would only be a good thing with their current situation.”

“True, but it just seems like her. Nymph wants peace and Chrysalis wants power. She’s heartless,” spoke Luna with anger, causing the changeling to reach for the bottle.

“I don’t want to believe she is, but if we find her, I will take some precautions before letting Nymph see her. Knowing Chrysalis, she would want to get back at her sister for casting her out,” spoke Celestia.

“That is probably wise,” said Luna. “We cannot afford to make any mistakes with her. Doing so could be very costly to us.”

“I agree. Shining and I have also thought over for a long time of what we want to do with her.”

Chrysalis poured another round with her shaky hooves. “W-what…*hic*…did you decide?”

Shining Armor chuckled. “You don’t want to know. What I will say is that we feel it is very fitting for everything she had put us all through.”

“Cadance, Shining Armor,” said Celestia with worry, “I know you are both upset from what she did and I am too, but will tormenting her resolve anything?”

“I think it will help her realize the errors of her ways when she gets a taste of what she put us through,” answered the blue alicorn in a harsh tone.

“But we don’t want her to suffer,” said Celestia. “Hurting her will only ensure that she will remain the way she is now. We cannot make her hate us more than she does now.”

“And you think just being nice will change anything? I’m sorry, but she has to be the cruelest creature I have ever met, and I know about Sombra,” countered Cadance.

“I think they should get together,” Shining Armor jested. “Maybe Sombra will learn his lesson after being stuck with her. It’s much more believable than saying Chrysalis has a soul.”

“Oh, what do you all know!?”

They all looked at the red unicorn. “Cherub?” asked Cadance with surprise.

Chrysalis was slightly wobbling and her speech was slurred. “You think Chrysalish ish sho terrible when all she wanted to do was help her peoples.”

“But she tried to conquer Equestria and enslave us!” argued Celestia.

“Well what else what she shupposed to do? What would you do if she shuddenly came out of nowhere and was all like ‘Hi, Princhess Chelestia! Do you mind if my people come and eat some feelings?’”

“I would have helped them then like I am now,” she answered, causing a laugh from the drunkard.

Cadance cleared her throat. “Cherub, you’re forgetting all the horrible things she did. I know they were in a difficult position, but that doesn’t justify what she did.”

Chrysalis stuck a hoof on her face. “Well if your sho shmart, then why don’t you tell ush what you’d do if you were her. Go on, Princhess Candycane, tell ush your brilliant solution where you grow up all your life thinking ponies would despise your kind.”

Cadance bit her lip. “I…don’t know.”

“Exactly. You all think she’s shcum, but none of you have come up with a better idea. And can you really blame her? Changelingsh have lived underground for their entire livesh, so they don’t know anything about ponies. And don’t forget, all the other changelingsh liked her idea, so why she getting all the blame? Why aren’t you going around and punishing them?”

“She forced them into it. She jailed all those who protested against her. She was a ruthless tyrant,” answered Cadance.

“Well she probably didn’t know what else to do. You know, Cadance, for a Princhess of Love, you are not very loving towards Chrysalish.”

“I have no reason to. She ponynapped me, stole my husband, and attacked us. I had night terrors about her for months, Cherub. I can’t feel safe until she is located and dealt with. If I find her, I will have her locked up so she can see exactly what she put me through.”

The stallion held his wife’s hooves. “She’s right. I don’t like the fact that she’s out there. We have to do it for our own safety.”

“Well how do you know if she’s shorry for what she did? How do you know she hates hershelf for doing the invasion? No pony has sheen her in months and if she was and you just jail her, would you really be any better than her? You just want her to suffer, don’t you?” She chuckled as she drank from her glass. “So much for you ponies preaching that friendship shtuff.”

The ponies fell silent while Cadance and Shining Armor had uncomfortable looks on their faces. “Look,” he began, “we can worry about her if we find her. Until then, she’s a criminal.”

“Cherub,” said Luna, “I know you have reasons to defend her, but I can tell she’s terrible just from what I’ve heard from Nymph and some of the other changelings. There’s more to her than just her invasion. She is awful and that’s that.”

Chrysalis slammed her hooves on the table and stood up, surprising them. “Oh yeah!? Let me tell you something, Princess Looney! I’m really…really…” She yawned and began losing balancing. “…really shleepy…” Chrysalis then collapsed onto the table and was out cold.

The four ponies sat in silence with the exception of Chrysalis’s loud snoring. “Shining, would you be a dear and put her in the guest room?” requested Celestia.

“At once.” He lifted her onto his back and went into the palace.

Luna sighed and put her face into her hooves once he was gone. “I’m so sorry you had to see that. I didn’t think she would get drunk.”

“It’s all right. I guess our wine was too much for her,” Celestia joked.

“I’ve seen a lot of strange things with drunken ponies, but I've never seen one play attorney,” Cadance said followed by a laugh.

“And I’ve never seen a sober pony stand up for Chrysalis,” added Luna. “She’s going to be for a real surprise in the morning.” The three alicorns laughed loudly as they drank their wine.

Chrysalis was awakened by a blinding light and the immense pain in her head. When she realized that the light was coming from the window, she closed the curtains magically. She flopped onto the bed and looked at her hoof, relieved that her illusion withheld. As she tried to fall back asleep to avoid the pain, she saw something on the nightstand next to her. It was a bottle with her name written on it and somepony wrote to her to drink it, so she popped off the cork and chugged it down. After a few minutes, she could feel her hangover fading. She lied on the bed, trying to recollect what had happened last night. She remembered they talked about her and she was afraid she let something slip. Had that been the case, she would have been in a jail cell rather than a bedroom. She figured she should get up and see the others to ask what happened, but then she heard knocking from the door. “Cherub, are you awake?”

To her surprise, it was Luna. “Yeah. You can come in,” she replied, somewhat timid.

The door opened and the alicorn walked in, carrying a large tray filled with various breakfast foods with her magic. “You really like to sleep in late, don’t you?" Luna teased. "Everypony is out and about while you sit here on this bed. Today is a nice day, you lazy pony. Have you at least taken your medicine?”

“Yes and thank you. I feel a lot better. Probably the best Hearth’s Warming Day gift I’ve ever gotten,” she joked. Luna sat the tray down on the changeling’s lap and she saw that it held waffles, grapefruit, a scone, and a cup of coffee. “Is this all for me?”

“Of course. Happy Hearth’s Warming Day, Cherub!”

“You too, Luna.” Luna hopped onto the bed while Chrysalis took the fruit and bit into it. “So…what the heck happened last night?”

“You got drunk,” Luna answered while laughing.

“I figured that happened. I hope you all found my drunken state entertaining.”

“It was certainly unexpected, especially with everything you said about Chrysalis.”

The false unicorn froze right after biting into the fruit. She slowly retracted and asked, “Say what?”

“You were sticking up for her, strangely enough, and you actually had a good point about her.”

“I did? I never expected that.”

“We don’t know what Chrysalis has been up to since she has been banished and it may be possible she has bettered herself during all this time. I always did take delight in the thought of punishing her, but now I feel horrible for having such thoughts. Besides, I think Nymph would not be too happy if we took pleasure in hurting her. Still, there might still have to be some form of punishment, but we will be very reasonable with her.”

“I see.” Chrysalis couldn’t imagine what kind of changeling she was when she was intoxicated, capable of somehow putting up a strong argument for her real self, but she had no interest in bringing her out again anytime soon. At the moment, she felt extremely anxious. Defending her real self should have definitely set off some red flags with the other ponies. She needed to do something to ensure they didn’t catch her by somehow throwing off suspicion. Fortunately, she did have an excuse to provide them. “Maybe I said that because what Nymph told me,” she spoke as she cut her waffles.

Luna quickly looked at her. “You actually spoke with her? How come you didn’t tell me?”

“I was going to, but I’m afraid the wine got to me first.” Chrysalis took a bite of her waffles. “I just feel so bad for her, you know?”

“I do too, but let’s not worry about her today. Today is a day to relax and be happy.”

“I agree,” spoke Chrysalis as she slouched on the bed. She was relieved that no pony caught on to what she said and felt even happier that Luna was sitting right next to her. As she ate, she occasionally scanned her eyes across Luna’s body. Once she finished her waffles, she picked up the scone and before she put it in her mouth, something caught her eye. She turned to see Luna staring intensely at her treat. Whenever she moved her hoof, Luna’s eyes would follow and she occasionally licked her lips. Chrysalis chuckled as she broke the scone in half, holding one half in front of the alicorn’s face. Luna leaned forward and ate the scone out of her hoof. Chrysalis laughed at the sight of Luna happily eating her treat. “You’re such a greedy princess.” Luna shrugged innocently as Chrysalis ate her own half. Chrysalis swallowed it and picked up her mug. “So what are we doing today?”

“Not much. We’re mainly going to stay inside and enjoy ourselves. Shining and Cadance are leaving later today, so we’re going to make the most of our time together. They and Celestia are in the dining hall now, so we should get up and see them. I’m sure they are curious to see how you are doing.”

Once Chrysalis finished her breakfast, they left the room and entered the dining hall, where there was a long table with Celestia, Cadance, and Shining seated around it and each of them had coffee in front of them. “Good morning, Cherub,” Celestia said in a kind voice.

Chrysalis sat down, looking ashamed. “I am so, so sorry about last night. I don’t know why I let myself go like that and please forgive me for whatever I said.”

“We thought it was rather entertaining,” spoke Cadance.

“So how are you feeling?” asked Shining Armor.

“A lot better thanks to Luna. She was even sweet enough to give me breakfast in bed.” She kissed Luna’s cheek, causing them both to blush. Chrysalis could feel her chest become light from looking at Luna’s blushing face. She always did think she made the cutest expressions. “What a great way to start the holidays,” she joked, bringing out a chuckle from the others. “Speaking of which, Happy Hearth’s Warming Day, everypony.”

Chrysalis spent over an hour in the dining hall, making pleasant conversation with the ponies. She still felt slightly uncomfortable being with them, especially after the night before, but this was a start. However, she could have sworn that the pink alicorn was constantly giving quick glances at her, causing her some worry. Once they finished, Luna lead Chrysalis to the hallway. “Cherub, I want to show you something outside, so could you get dressed and meet me in the back?”

“Sure thing, Luna.” Chrysalis walked away towards her bedroom, unaware that she was being followed. She returned to the room where she had awoken earlier and started throwing on her snow clothes. As she dressed herself, somepony knocked on her door. She went over and opened it, finding Princess Cadance smiling at her.

“Hi, Cherub. Do you mind if I come in?”

“Not at all,” she lied. As she entered, Chrysalis couldn’t help but notice how cheery she was, which only made her worry. The princess looked around the room while happily humming to herself. “So did you need something, Princess?”

“No, not really,” she answered in a teasing voice. She continued looking around, almost taking no notice in her. “Although,” she said suddenly, “I thought maybe I could help you.”

“With what?”

The alicorn giggled. “Your little crush.”

Chrysalis’s body froze. This couldn’t be happening. There was no way she could possibly know about that. She only told Pinkie about it and the pony didn’t have the opportunity to blab to the princess. Did she say something else while drunk off her flank? Was that why Luna gave her breakfast in bed? But maybe Cadance was just joking around, so she would just play along and hope for the best. “Crush?” she asked, playing dumb.

Cadance faced her with a huge grin. “On Aunt Luna!”

The changeling’s eyes went wide. “I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Cadance just giggled at her. “You can’t fool me. I’m the Princess of Love. I can sense your feelings for her and I am so surprised. I knew you liked her, but I didn’t realize you were in love with her.”

Of course she could detect her love. How could Chrysalis not have thought of that earlier? She turned her body away from her. “S-so what if I do feel that way about her? It’s not any of your business.”

“I think it’s adorable. Are you going to go tell her?”

Chrysalis sat on the bed and stared at the floor. “I want to, but I highly doubt she likes me in that way.”

Cadance sat next to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Oh, so you’re worried that she might not love you back and you fear this could even affect your relation with her.”

The false unicorn sighed. “Pretty much.”

“Well I think you should go for it!”

She quickly turned her head towards her. “What?”

“Just let her know how you feel! She likes you a lot and I’m sure she will be flattered that you feel this way about her. Take my word for it, it’s worth a shot.”

Chrysalis debated on what she should do. She loved Luna, but she was more than certain that she did not feel the same way. It was either confess her feelings and hope that their friendship withheld or not take any risk and just keep it to herself. But if she did the latter, Luna may end up finding somepony else. If there was even the smallest chance of Luna loving her, she would take it. “I do want to tell her, but I’m not sure how to do it. Any ideas?”

“You’re asking me? I thought you did this for a living.”

The changeling blushed. “Yes, but I would like your input as well. I would really appreciate any help you could give me.”

Cadance thought for a moment. “Well, I think you should tell her today.”

She was willing to take any advice except that. “T-today!? So soon!?”

“Well it is Hearth’s Warming Day and I know you had feelings for her last night, so why not tell her during the holiday when you realized your love for her?” The princess put her hooves on her cheeks and kicked her legs. “It would be so romantic!”

Chrysalis bit her lip. It was funny how it always seemed so easy to help many of her customers and yet she was having difficulty now, but she felt that Cadance’s suggestion would be worth doing. “I guess you have a point, but how should I do this?”

Cadance got a hold of herself and cleared her throat. “What you should do is tell her in a special way.”

“Special?”

“Of course! You can’t simply just say you love her. You have to wow her. Make it something memorable. I bet if you do well enough, she might want to try out being with a mare.” Cadance bounced her eyebrows at her.

Chrysalis couldn’t help but laugh from the way she was looking at her. “I like the way you think, Cadance. But…what if she doesn’t love me?”

“I know rejection can be hard, but it’s better than keeping it all locked up. And even if she doesn’t feel that way, she wouldn’t want to stop being your friend. You’re too important to her to let go. There is absolutely no reason for you to not admit your love for her.”

Chrysalis smiled, feeling incredibly confident. “You’re right. I’m going to tell her.”

Cadance clapped her hooves together. “That’s great! And I have the perfect way for you to do it!”

“I’m all ears.”

“You’ve noticed how the castle’s been decorated, right?”

“Kind of hard not to notice.”

“So all you need to do is be alone with her and bring her under some mistletoe.”

“So I just kiss her?”

“Yep! Not just a simple kiss, but a really passionate one! Go for gold!”

“I really like your idea, but it kind of seems out of the blue.”

“You just have to go for it. Sweep her off her hooves and I guarantee she will be yours.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” It was certainly odd to her that Cadance, a pony she kidnapped and tormented, would be helping her like this. She knew the princess would not be thrilled when she learned of her true identity, but at least this moment of them bonding would ease the pain later on. Once Chrysalis and Cadance were fully dressed, they went out into the garden. “That’s strange,” spoke Chrysalis as she scanned the area.

“What is?”

“Luna said to meet her here, but I don’t-” A snowball flew into her face.

“Got her!” shouted Luna triumphantly.

Chrysalis cleaned her face of the snow. “You’re going to pay for that!” She magically scooped up snow and tossed it towards her. Luna ducked behind her snow fort as it flew over in her head. When she popped back out, Celestia was with her.

“You dare assault my sister? You must be punished!” Celestia brought out multiple snowballs and unleashed a bombardment onto the two mares.

Cadance and Chrysalis ran as they tried to avoid the snowballs. “Cadance! Cherub! Over here!” Shining Armor was signaling them from his own fort and they immediately jumped in and hid against the wall as Celestia’s assault pounded against it.

“That wasn’t fair, Luna!” Chrysalis called out. “You surprised me!”

“The element of surprise is a part of war!” Luna called back.

“I’m going to get you for this!”

“Just try!” the princess taunted.

Chrysalis created a pile of snowballs and began magically hurling them at the princesses. She managed to strike the tip of Celestia’s horn, interrupting her offense, and Cadance and Shining provided cover fire as she aimed for the blue alicorn.

Celestia and Luna ducked down behind the wall. “Sister, they are overwhelming us!” said the blue alicorn.

“Not to worry. I have it handled.” With her magic, Celestia lifted a large patch of snow. She brought it onto of the fort’s wall, magically creating a larger barrier. There were small holes in the wall where the sisters could look outside with. “Now it’s back to business!” She and Luna started throwing more snow at the three.

Chrysalis grunted as she kept getting hit and could not cause her own damage. “Shining Armor, can’t you do something like that?”

“I’ll try.” While Cadance and Chrysalis continued the offense, Shining proceeded to slowly fortify their defenses. However, Celestia and Luna anticipated this and focused on him. After several hits, his concentration broke, causing some of the wall to collapse onto them.

“A valiant effort,” commented Luna, “but it will take more than that to defeat the Princesses of Equestria!”

Chrysalis and the couple popped their heads out of the snow. “So much for that idea,” said Shining Armor.

“What do we do now?” asked his wife. “We can’t hit them with that wall up and it’s too fortified to knock over. It’s hopeless.”

“No it’s not!” shouted Chrysalis. “You keep them distracted while I think.” Chrysalis refused to admit defeat. She defeated Celestia once, so she could do it again. They would need a massive attack in order to beat the alicorns as a normal offense would be pointless. They could try hitting them from overhead, but they could easily dodge any snowballs coming down. That’s when she gained an idea. “You two, I’ve got a plan.”

While the couple went into hiding, Celestia and Luna took the moment to make more ammo. “Oh, this is so much fun!” said Luna gleefully.

“I agree. It’s a shame Twilight and her friends couldn’t be here. I would have loved their company.”

“I know, but at least we have Cadance, Shining, and Cherub!”

“That’s true. I just hope Cherub has good sportmareship when we beat them.”

Luna giggled. “She’s going to be so sour and I will just mock her every time.” Luna looked through the hole and noticed that their wall was slightly larger and there was a little hole to the side, where a pair of eyes was looking through. “Are you ready to surrender? It will go much easier if you do.”

Chrysalis and Cadance shot up. “Never!” They threw more snowballs, which mostly hit the wall.

“There you are, Cherub. I was beginning to miss you,” said Luna as she unleashed a counter attack.

“How sweet. I was beginning to miss your pretty face as well.” With a precise strike, she got one through a hole and struck Luna in the face.

“Oof! You won’t get a hit like that again!”

“Shining, can you hurry up?” asked Chrysalis as she kept throwing.

The stallion was kneeling while focusing his gaze through the cover made for him. “Just a few more seconds.”

All of a sudden, many snowballs covered in a golden aura flew into the air and Chrysalis and Cadance were stunned by the sight. “Give up. You cannot possibly defeat the Princess of the Sun!”

“Well luckily for us, there’s an eclipse coming!” Shining Armor shouted.

“What?” A shadow was cast over Celestia. When the sisters looked up, they both gasped loudly. Shining Armor was carrying a massive pile of snow in a bubble that floated over their heads.

“Now!” ordered the former queen. The magical bubble disappeared and the sisters screamed and held each other. Their cries were muffled as the gigantic snowball crushed their base and covered them with snow. Chrysalis and her companions looked and admired their work. “We did it!”

Cadance went to her husband and kissed him on the cheek. “Nicely done, Shining.”

“Thanks. I’m just glad I don’t work here anymore, or else I think Celestia would have just fired me.”

They cracked up, but then they noticed the mound of snow moving. Celestia and Luna poked their heads out and slowly tried to free themselves as Chrysalis stood on top of the pile. “Looks like I have won the war!”

“O-o-okay, I-I admit y-y-you’re p-p-pretty good,” said Celestia through chattering teeth.

“I-I-I-I t-told you w-we should h-h-have had h-her on our team,” commented Luna.

Cadance, Shining, and Chrysalis helped them out and brushed the snow off of them. Celestia went to Luna and wrapped her hoof around her. “I just thought my little Lulu would have been enough.”

“No hard feelings, right?” asked Chrysalis.

The white alicorn shook her head. “None at all, but don’t go bragging about what you’ve done today.”

The changeling grinned. “It’ll be our little secret.”

Luna was still heavily shivering. “Can we go inside now? I’m freezing to death because of all the snow in my clothes.”

“I think I could use a nice hot bath about now,” said Celestia as she walked inside. “I suggest you do the same, Luna. Come by my room later and I will have some hot cocoa ready.”

“Sounds good,” said the younger sibling. “See you all in a bit.”

“See you,” said Chrysalis. Before she took another step, she saw Cadance pointing a hoof towards Luna. She had an idea of what she was telling her to do and was very surprised. “Hold on, Luna.” The princess turned around as Chrysalis walked up to her. “Would you mind if I joined you? I wasn’t able to bathe last night and I would love to see what sort of bath royalty like yourself has.”

She giggled. “I’m just spoiling you, aren’t I?” Chrysalis shrugged innocently. “Very well. Come along.” They walked together as the other three ponies went in the other direction while Cadance looked back at them, smiling.

“I can’t wait to tell Pinkie about how the mighty Cherub defeated Luna and Celestia!” Chrysalis stated loudly.

Luna stuck a hoof in her chest. “You only accomplished that because you had Shining Armor on your team.”

Chrysalis waved a hoof. “Details, details. I really wish you told me about your little game instead of playing dirty.”

“I guess I deserve my defeat because of that. Next time, you and I should go against the Elements of Harmony. It’ll be six against two, but I know we can do it!”

Chrysalis gave a hearty laugh. “Sounds good to me. You were pretty good back there, Luna.”

“Thank you. Celestia has taught me a lot since my return. She has been playing with her friends every year during my banishment.”

“So you’re saying we’ve beaten an alicorn with over a thousand years of experience?”

Luna giggled. “I’m sure her ego has taken a beating, but she’ll be fine. I guess I really should have had you on our side.”

The false unicorn leaned against her. “Yes, you should have. I really enjoy being with you, Lulu,” she cooed.

Luna gasped while furiously blushing. “Only Celestia is allowed to call me that!”

The changeling pouted. “Aw, I think it’s a cute name. I think everypony should call you Princess Lulu from now on.”

“No!”

“Oh, you’re no fun.”

“And when are you ever fun, Cherub?”

She smirked. “Point taken.” Chrysalis kept replaying her victory over her head. Despite trying to better herself, she couldn’t help but feel good about taking down Celestia once again. She just hoped she wouldn’t be bitter enough about it to not give Chrysalis a chance when she finally revealed herself. However, she was more worried about how the other alicorn would react to her. “Hey, Luna?” she asked shyly.

“Hmm?”

“I just wanted to say thanks again for letting me stay with you. I deeply appreciate it.”

“It is no trouble. You are my friend.”

“Yeah, but you have really helped me out in so many ways and I’m very grateful for it.” She took a deep breath and gave a hug. “I know I don’t always act affectionate to other ponies, but I feel comfortable doing so around you. You really are my best friend.” She prayed that Pinkie’s Pinkie sense would not let her know that she just said that out loud.

The alicorn hugged her back. “I love this sweet side of yours, Cherub. And what do we have here?”

“What?”

The Night Princess pointed above her, showing the peculiar plant hanging above them. “It seems somepony has left some mistletoe here.” Luna gave a devious grin. “You know what that means.”

Chrysalis knew exactly what it meant from what Pinkie had told her. She was told to just give a hoofshake to anypony she came across, but Cadance had a much better idea. She returned Luna’s grin. “Oh, Luna, are you saying you want to kiss me?”

The princess was shocked by her remark and blushed. “I-I-I wasn’t being serious!”

Her response stung the changeling. However, she had an idea of how to steal a kiss from her. “Now that I think about it, when was the last time you actually romantically kissed somepony?”

Luna blushed even harder. “Not since…my banishment.”

“So for over a thousand years.” The alicorn nodded shamefully. “Now this simply will not do. You wouldn’t want a wonderful relationship to end because you cannot kiss properly, do you?”

She shook her head. “What should I do? I don’t want to look foolish during your holiday event and lose my special somepony by not being able to kiss right!”

Chrysalis tapped her chin, pretending to think things over. “Perhaps I could teach you.”

“Really? You would?” Luna asked, completely oblivious of what was coming.

“I would do anything for you, Luna. How about we do our first lesson right now and see what you remember?”

“Alright.” Luna did not see the sly smile her friend was producing. “So what should I do for my first lesson, Cherub?”

“All you need to do is give in,” she whispered seductively.

“Wha-”

Without giving it a second thought, Chrysalis closed her eyes and rushed forward, planting her lips onto Luna’s. Luna’s eyes were wide and she didn’t move at all while Chrysalis was absolutely enjoying herself as she slipped in her tongue and touched Luna’s. After several seconds, she slowly pulled away from her. Her entire body felt as hot as the sun and Luna’s face was the same color as hers.

“That…was not what I was expecting for a first less lesson.”

“Well how did you think I would teach you to kiss properly?” Chrysalis teased before laughing. “Oh how I wish you could see the look on your face right now!”

Luna immediately turned around. “W-we should get going.” She quickly trotted away and Chrysalis managed to catch up with her. What Chrysalis did was probably very stupid, but she felt good about it. She was very certain that Luna did not feel the same way about her as all she could sense was confusion and surprise, but at least she got some of it out of her system. She couldn’t stop thinking about Luna’s face after being smooched by a mare and fought against the urge to giggle. Her shocked look along with her blushing was completely adorable and she wished she had a picture in order to treasure the moment. While she waited for Luna to get over what happened, she thought more about how she was going to confess to her. She looked over at the alicorn, who turned her head away, and she began to worry that she might have pushed things just a little too far.

“Luna?”

Luna was slightly startled. “Yes?”

“I apologize for what happened. I shouldn’t have done something that would make you uncomfortable.”

“Oh. Okay, Cherub.”

Chrysalis did not like the brief answer she received. She wondered if Luna was mad at her for messing with her like that or simply felt awkward around her. She was now worried that she might have to wait until another day before admitting her feelings. They arrived at Luna’s bedroom and Luna opened the door for her. “The bathroom is right over there, Cherub. Feel free to wash up.”

“Alright.” Chrysalis undressed herself of her snow clothes and threw them onto the floor while Luna did the same. Chrysalis opened the door and the first thing that caught her surprise was the design. The walls, floor, and ceiling were decorated with dark blue tile and each tile contained many shining stars. She felt like that she was standing in Luna’s night sky. The next thing that had caught her eye was the size of the princess’s bathtub as it was large enough to hold many fully grown ponies. On the sides inside were ledges that allowed its occupants to sit while becoming much deeper in the middle.

“Impressed?”

Chrysalis looked behind her and saw Luna enter. “Very. You really got some good taste.”

The alicorn walked past her. “Thank you. Let me just get the bath started. I’m freezing from our fun earlier and I am dying to get warm.”

“I am too, but how long is it going to take to fill this massive thing?”

“Let me check.” Instead of the usual faucets or handles, there were only buttons on the edge of it. Luna pushed one and before they knew it, the tub was instantly filled with hot water that magically appeared. “About that long.”

The Moon Princess never ceased to amaze Chrysalis. “Where can I get one of these?”

Luna laughed. “Might be a little out of your price range.” She stepped inside and let out a gasp as the water touched her skin. She turned around and motioned a hoof towards her. “Come on in, Cherub. The water’s great.”

Chrysalis got in and her mind went numb for a moment as the soothing water surrounded her. Once she regained her senses, she sat next to Luna. “This is just nice.”

“It is.” Luna submerged herself for a moment and then came out with her hair down. Chrysalis stared at her, thinking about how amazing she looked with her hair wet. Luna brought out a shampoo bottle and poured some of its contents onto her hooves. She began rinsing her mane and then noticed the way Chrysalis was looking at her. “Yes, Cherub?”

“I didn’t realize you could wash that crazy mane of yours.”

“I can. It’s just like regular hair, but a little more magical.”

Chrysalis nodded before dunking her head underwater and resurfacing, hoping Luna would notice her the same way with her mane wet. She lied against the edge and looked up at the ceiling. She absolutely adored the atmosphere of Luna’s bathing area. The whole room was dimly lit by the stars on the walls and it really did feel like she was out at night. All that was needed was the usual nocturnal ambiance to complete the mood. She then started fantasizing about the two of them making their own ambience under the starry sky.

“Do you want to help?” asked Luna.

The false unicorn snapped out of her fantasy. “Help with what?”

“Wash my hair?”

“What?”

“Come on, it’ll be fun. I have little trouble doing this myself since I have so much of it.”

Chrysalis nodded and Luna lowered herself into the water to allow her to reach the top of her head. The former queen placed her hooves on her and moved it through her mane, reminiscing about when she did this sort of thing with Nymph. The feel of her mane was certainly interesting as it had the feeling of normal hair, but it kept moving and contained some magical tingling. “I want your hair.”

Luna giggled. “I’m afraid I can’t help you with that. I think your mane is fine just the way it is.”

“Thanks.” She continued to run her hooves through the princess’s mane and Luna wasn’t kidding when she said there was a lot of it. She was surprised Luna never had to get servants to help her like Nymph sometimes did. After several minutes, she finished. “I think I got it all.”

Luna dove under water and returned with the shampoo gone from her hair. “No you didn’t.”

“Huh?”

The alicorn turned around. “You still have to do my tail.”

Chrysalis stared at her behind, which was larger than her own and she felt very tempted to feel it. “Seriously?”

“Yes, I am serious. Your princess commands it,” she teased. Chrysalis smirked and began rinsing it. “Just try not to touch my butt.”

That caused the red unicorn to grin. “You mean like this?” She gave the alicorn’s flank a good smack, resulting in Luna gasping loudly.

“C-C-Cherub!”

Chrysalis chuckled loudly. “Sorry, I’ll get to your tail.”

Luna was blushing furiously and breathing loudly. Once she calmed down, a grin formed on her lips. “Did you enjoy feeling my royal rump?”

“I have to admit I kind of did. You have a lovely butt.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.” As the changeling continued to rinse her friend, Luna asked, “Cherub?”

“Yes?”

“Could you…give me another lesson?”

Chrysalis was brought to a complete stop. “Beg your pardon?”

The alicorn gulped. “Another kissing lesson. I still need to learn how to kiss and I suppose sooner is better than later.”

As much of a good thing this was for her, Chrysalis found it peculiar she was asking. Before she could speak, the answer came to her. She paused, taking a moment to let it sink in, bringing her bliss. She then smiled at the alicorn. “Of course, Luna,” she replied playfully.

The princess looked away from her. “Do you…think this is weird of me?”

Chrysalis leaned towards her and nuzzled her cheek, causing both of them to blush. “Luna, you don’t ever need to feel uncomfortable around me.” She put her hooves on her shoulders and they touched foreheads. “We can do whatever makes you feel good.” She then passionately kissed Luna’s cheek, causing her to release a gasp.

“C-Cherub…” she said in a whisper.

“You know, I wasn’t lying when I said I’ve always thought you were the most beautiful pony I’ve ever laid eyes on.” She could feel Luna’s heart beating with fast and powerful rhythm. She leaned towards her ear again. “Be honest, have you been thinking about me often?” Luna slowly nodded her head. “Do you think about when I tried to kiss you?” Luna gave her the same response. “I love an honest pony. You should deserve a reward for telling me the truth. Perhaps we can have a little fun?”

“Cherub…I…” Chrysalis put a hoof on her lips, shushing her.

“Don’t speak, Luna. It’s only you and me here, so just do what feels good.”

Luna blushed even deeper and she nodded. Chrysalis seated herself on Luna’s lap, wrapping her hind legs around her. They looked into each other’s eyes before slowly moving their faces forward and making contact with their lips. Chrysalis held Luna in a hug and ran her hoof across her back. She did most of the work while the alicorn shyly moved her tongue in her friend’s mouth, being gentle. After a while, Luna slowly ran a hoof across Chrysalis’s thigh and her kissing became stronger.

Chrysalis soon got off her lap. She reached down into the water and grabbed the alicorn’s hind leg, massaging her hoof. Luna leaned against the edge of the bath and arched her head back, emanating a soft moan. All of a sudden, Chrysalis put the tip of Luna’s hoof in her mouth, causing Luna to gasp and look at her with surprise. Chrysalis wore a teasing expressing as she kissed and licked the hoof, causing Luna to moan louder than before.

When she finished, Chrysalis gave it one last smooch before releasing it, allowing it to drop back into the water. She sat on the edge out of the bath and scooted towards Luna, sticking her hind leg in front of her. The pony looked at her and Chrysalis nodded. Slowly, Luna took her leg and looked at her hoof. After several seconds, she put the hoof in her mouth, causing Chrysalis to giggle. She then proceeded to pleasure the changeling in the same way she had done for her, but at a slower pace. Chrysalis lied on her back, moaning as she ran her hooves across her own belly, where she was most sensitive. Soon, Luna finished with her hoof and got on top of her. Picking up on what she was doing, she ran her tongue across her stomach, creating an audible gasp from Chrysalis. After a few strokes of her tongue, Luna crawled up and kissed her neck tenderly. As Chrysalis let Luna continue, she saw one of her wings hanging near her face, so she grabbed it and nibbled the tip. Luna moaned happily and lifted her head, watching Chrysalis please her. She brought her wing closer and found a spot for her to kiss while Chrysalis played with the tip. Eventually, Luna moved her wing away and they got back into the bath with Chrysalis sitting on her lap and Luna wrapping her with her wings, giving them a warm embrace.

They looked at each other, smiling. Chrysalis pressed her lips against Luna’s and then shifted her weight back, causing them to tilt into the water. Luna’s horn glowed as she casted a spell to allow them to breathe underwater before they were submerged. Chrysalis closed her eyes and pushed her tongue deep into the alicorn’s mouth and played with hers while her hooves stroked the princess’s back, feeling every inch of her flawless coat as they remained suspended in the water. Luna suddenly gave the changeling’s flank a good squeeze and Chrysalis let out a loud moan before returning the favor with both her hooves. After several minutes of kissing and groping, they went to the surface. They swam to the edge of the bath, breathing heavily. Once they sat against the edge, they both placed a hoof around each other and Chrysalis laid her head against Luna’s body.

“That was…amazing,” said Luna, still panting.

Chrysalis rubbed her face against her chest. “It was.”

Luna kissed the top of her head. “Cherub…I think I need to explain myself.”

She looked up at the bigger pony. “I’m listening,” she said teasingly.

Luna was now blushing again and even breathing loudly. “Well…the thing is…I don’t know how to exactly say it…”

Chrysalis got on her lap and rubbed her nose against hers. “Just let out, you silly pony.”

“Cherub…I…I think I…I love you…” She giggled. “Oh my, it feels so good to say that out loud.”

“I love you too, Luna.”

They both smiled and gave each other another kiss. “I’m surprised you actually feel this way about me. How long have you been keeping this from me?”

She got off the alicorn and sat next to her, leaning against her. “I kind of figured it out yesterday, to be honest. It came as a total surprise at first, but everything made sense later. You?”

“I’m…I’m not sure. I think a while. Maybe a couple of weeks. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on and it was a little hard to figure out, but I knew being with you made me so happy. Sometimes, I couldn’t help but think of us as being more than friends and it just made me feel good.” She licked the changeling’s lips and Chrysalis giggled. “Cherub, I want you to tell me why you love me.”

“I always did admire you, Luna. You are more than just a royal princess. You are a sweet, caring pony who only wants to make others happy. I know I’ve been a royal pain in your flank, but that never stopped you from helping me. I can’t imagine where I would be right now if it weren’t for you. You have changed my life. And then yesterday, I just suddenly realized how much you meant to me and I couldn’t help but think about you. I love you so much.” She rested her head on the alicorn’s shoulder. “Now it’s your turn. Tell me why I’m so great.”

Luna chuckled and reached a foreleg around her. “Ever since your change in personality, I’ve been even fonder of having you around and I started falling for the mare you have become. I recently just played with the idea of us being together, believing you probably don’t feel that way and that we probably would never get together like that. But when I kept seeing you, I felt so…comfortable. I wanted to do things with you that I would never have done with any other mare. I wanted to feel your body against mine. I wanted you to…kiss me.”

Chrysalis couldn’t believe Luna felt this way for a while without her knowing. She assumed that several factors were involved as to why she missed this. One of them was the fact they usually met in Ponyville, which had quite a bit of love lingering around, so she wouldn’t have noticed Luna’s feelings unless she actively scanned her. While outside Ponyville, Luna must have only felt affectionate towards her a few times and either Chrysalis was not focused enough to notice or that the alicorn was not too sure of her own feelings, leaving it to be covered by other emotions. “Is that why you did it last week?”

“Yes. And then when you kissed me under the mistletoe, it took me some time before I realized that I was attracted to you and I wanted you to be my special somepony.” She looked down at Chrysalis. “Cherub, would you like to be my marefriend and escort me on your Hearts and Hooves fair as my date?”

Chrysalis took her hoof and kissed it. “I would be so honored, Lulu. You make me so happy and I want to be with you.”

Luna hugged her tightly. “Me too. And just so you know, I want us to take this slow. I’ve never done anything like this with a mare.”

“I understand.” They held each other as they stared at the ceiling, which perfectly resembled the night sky. With Luna looking away, Chrysalis opened her mouth and began feeding. Much to her disbelief, the love she tasted was the sweetest tasting love she had experienced in her life. Was it because it was meant for her? Or was it because she was feeding from an alicorn? Whatever the case, she began to feed faster. It was so delicious and filling to the changeling. She didn’t care if she became fat and bloated, she just want more of Luna’s love inside her belly. Eventually, she managed to stop herself, realizing that she couldn’t risk Luna showing any symptoms of being drained. She leaned against her lover and looked back up the ceiling. “Want to go tell your family?”

Luna looked down at her. “I do. They must be wondering why we’re taking so long and I think they’re going to be in for a pleasant surprise.” They both stood up and got out of the bath. “And Cherub?” Before the matchmaker could respond, a loud, wet smack filled the room, followed by an excited gasp.

After drying themselves off, they decided to go public with their new discovery. When they left Luna’s room, they had their tails wrapped together, signifying their love. As they headed to the other princess’s chambers, many ponies at the castle were completely surprised by what they were seeing, with heads turning and whispers arising. Chrysalis liked how everypony was looking and couldn’t wait for all of Equestria to know of their love so she could rub it in all their faces. They approached the large golden doors of the Sun Alicorn’s room and Luna and Chrysalis tried to contain their giggles as they thought of how Celestia, Cadance, and Shining would react to the news. Once they controlled themselves, Luna knocked on the door. “Tia, it’s Luna. May I come in?” she asked innocently.

“Of course.” They opened the door and stepped inside. The three ponies were resting by the fire place and their eyes were pointed at the source of their warmth. Cadance then suddenly raised her head up and looked at the doorway. Chrysalis had a feeling that she could sense what was going on, but she didn’t say anything. “You both took your time,” addressed the older sister. “Did one of you get stuck in the tub or something?”

Luna giggled. “Something like that.” She and Chrysalis sat between Celestia and Cadance and took their drinks. “This is really good, Tia.”

“I’m glad you like it. I made it myself.”

Once Luna put her cup down, Chrysalis made her move. “Luna, you have a little something there.”

Luna looked at her lip. “I think my sister may have put in a little too much whipped cream again. She always did have a craving for it.”

“Here, let me get that.” Chrysalis scooted over to her and licked it off her mouth. Shining Armor’s and Celestia’s jaws dropped while Cadance was giddy. Once she was clean, Luna got closer to Chrysalis and then tongued her. The other three ponies just stared as they kissed with two of them having difficulty believing what they saw was real. After a few seconds, they pulled away and resumed drinking, acting as if nothing happened. “Goodness,” teased Luna, “is there something bothering you all?”

Celestia shook her head to regain focus. “I knew you were close with Cherub, but I didn’t think you were that close.”

Luna smirked. “Neither did we.”

“I take it you’re over your marriage now, Cherub?” asked Shining Armor, still surprised.

“I am. All I can do is move on with my life and try to find somepony new.” Chrysalis placed her hoof on Luna’s. “And I have finally found her.” They then shared a kiss.

Celestia smiled at the sight. “Congratulations to both of you. I knew you two were always very caring towards one another and I know you will find absolute happiness with each other.” She then took a sip of her hot chocolate.

Chrysalis gave her a grin. “We certainly did in the tub.”

The white alicorn spat out her drink. She wiped off her mouth and looked at them in shock. “You two…certainly move quickly,” she commented as her cheeks turned into a deep shade of crimson.

“That’s what makes it sexy,” purred the changeling.

Luna laughed from the look on Celestia’s face. “Relax, sister. We have not done such a thing. We’ve only kissed along with a few other fun things.”

“And I think we will have to thank Princess Cadance for that wonderful moment,” added Chrysalis.

The sisters and Shining turned their attention onto the pink alicorn. “Aren’t you going to tell us how you confessed to her?” asked Cadance excitedly.

“You knew about this?” asked Celestia in disbelief.

“Of course I did! Poor Cherub was so embarrassed about her crush and I had to give her a little advice and motivation. I’m glad everything worked out so well before we left.”

“Remind me to reward you for this,” said Luna happily.

“You two have my blessing. I can sense passionate love from you both and know you will both make a great couple,” complimented Cadance.

Chrysalis nodded at her. “Thank you, Princess Cadance. That means so much from you.”

“So when did you both realize you had feelings for each other?” asked the stallion.

“You want the explicit details?” the changeling asked dirtily.

Shining Armor blushed furiously. “Well…err…”

Cadance elbowed him, causing him to grunt. “Just start from last night.”

After listening to both stories, the royal couple was ready to return to the Crystal Empire so they could visit Shining Armor’s family. They had all of their bags packed and put onto their carriage and were saying their goodbyes before taking off. “Bye, Aunt Luna and Aunt Celestia! I’ll miss you both!”

The alicorns formed a group hug. “We’ll miss you too,” said Celestia. “Be sure to take care of yourself and say hi to Twilight and Spike for me.”

“I will!”

Shining Armor approached them. “It was nice seeing you again, princesses.”

The blue alicorn nodded. “It was. I can’t wait until your next visit.”

“Me too.” Celestia leaned in and whispered, “Next time, your butt is mine.”

The stallion gulped, causing the mares to laugh. Cadance then looked at Chrysalis. “And Cherub, I’m so glad we met!”

“Me too,” she admitted. She actually felt a little sad that she was leaving as they were getting along, but she was glad she helped her win Luna’s heart. “Thank you for everything, Cadance. You are a real friend.”

“It was my pleasure. Promise me you’ll be the best pony you can be for her.”

“I will. Goodbye, Cadance. Have a safe trip.”

“Bye, everypony!” she waved as she headed towards the carriage.

Her husband opened the door. “After you,” he said as he let her in and then followed her. The carriage door closed and the guards pulled it off the ground.

Luna, Celestia, and Chrysalis kept waving until the carriage was out of sight and then Chrysalis sighed. “I’m really going to miss them.”

“We will as well,” said Celestia. “It just doesn’t feel the same whenever they leave, but I’m glad I will always have my precious Lulu here.” She looked at Luna and Chrysalis. “So I assume you two wish to be by yourselves for the rest of the day?”

“Of course we do. I simply want to be with my special somepony and explore this relationship.” Luna nuzzled Chrysalis and then noticed the frown on her sister’s face.

“I guess I will just be all by myself,” she said before sighing.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Tia. We’ll just be together until dinner and then we’ll spend some quality time together for the rest of the day.”

“Okay, Luna. I will find something to do until then, so go ahead and enjoy your day together.”

Chrysalis leaned against her marefriend. “We certainly will. Besides, I think I can see her as my prize for winning our snowball fight, so she’s all mine. Sorry, Celly.” The princess frowned angrily at her and she returned a teasing grin.

“But what shall we do for several hours?” Luna asked while looking at her lover.

Chrysalis hopped onto her back. “I think I’ve got a great idea,” she said in a provocative tone. “How about we go back to your room, kiss for a while, and then get on the bed and…” Chrysalis saw the glare Celestia was giving her and then the alicorn slowly dragged the tip of her hoof across the front of her own throat. “…Cuddle?” the changeling finished weakly.

“A grand idea! Let us go at once!” Luna took flight and flew into the palace, leaving the older alicorn alone.

“I’m so happy you found somepony who loves you, Lulu,” Celestia said to herself as she walked back inside with a smile on her face. “And Cherub, if you don’t treat her right, I will rip your bucking head off.”

Within the carriage of the Crystal Empire’s rulers, Cadance snuggled against her husband while he put a foreleg around her. “Am I good or what?” she asked.

He chuckled. “Okay, I admit I’m impressed. You really did it.”

“And you thought I couldn’t,” she said while poking his chest.

“I shouldn’t have doubted you.” They kissed each other on the lips. “But seriously, how did you end up deciding to put the two of them together? I didn’t see it at all.”

“Well remember when Luna called on the crystal ball last week to ask me to find her and Cherub a special somepony?”

“Yeah, and I remember Luna asking me to leave the room.”

“Well we were having some girl talk. So after Luna gave me an idea of what kind of pony she wanted, I asked her what Cherub would like and even about her in general. When I heard about how much close friends they were, I got a little suspicious, so I asked everything I could about them. I found out not only have they shared a bed multiple times, but they kissed! Luna said it was just a kiss between friends, but I had a hunch because Celestia mentioned that she and Luna were together a lot. I wrote Pinkie a letter telling her to tell me everything about Cherub for a secret reason and I even asked if she knew if Cherub liked mares at all. And to my surprise, she did! That’s when I decided that they were perfect for each other and I had to do something about it.”

“Why didn’t you mention all of this before?”

“Because I wanted to rub it in your face by proving you wrong and keeping you in the dark would make sure you took up the bet, which I won, by the way.”

“I guess I deserve losing for doubting you,” he said with a smile. “But how did you actually make it happen?”

“Luna was the easy part. The day before we met Cherub, I asked her about Cherub and I sensed a little bit of affection coming from her when we talked. She had romantic feelings for her, but she didn’t even realize it, so I decided to have Cherub help her. While we were helping Spitfire, I kept mentioning to Cherub about how much good friends they were and how Luna has affected her life. And then, all of a sudden, I felt her spark.”

“Of love?”

Cadance happily nodded. “It felt so pure, Shiny. Her love for Luna is sweet and beautiful. However, she seemed to have tried to block her true feelings, but with a little magic, I gave her the push she needed. When she arrived at the train station, I felt her strong love for my auntie. So before our snowball fight today, I confronted her about her feelings and gave her the advice she needed. The rest was all her.”

He kissed her cheek. “Cadance, you are magnificent.”

“Thank you. I’m just so happy for Luna. She deserves somepony special and now she has one! And it’s all thanks to me! I have a feeling this is going to be the best Hearts and Hooves yet!”

Pinkie sprinted through the snow-covered road of Ponyville. She found out that Chrysalis just returned to Ponyville and was very anxious to see her, wanting to see how her holiday went as well as talk about her own. She had so much fun with her family at their rock farm, but she was mad that she didn’t catch Santa Hooves. That pony was just too sneaky for her and hopefully next year she would finally prove he was real. She hoped that Chrysalis at least had a good time with Luna as that had been on her mind almost nonstop during her stay, praying that everything went well. When she reached Cupid’s Arrow, she could hear music playing inside. She unlocked the door with her key and poked her head in. “Hello?”

“Hello, Pinkie!” Cherub’s voice called. “Are you alone?”

Pinkie entered the building and locked the door. “Yep. It’s safe to come out.”

Chrysalis entered the main room from the kitchen without her disguise. “It’s so great to see you again! How was your family? Did you have fun? I want to hear all about it!”

While Chrysalis was friendly to her before, Pinkie was a little frightened by how overfriendly she was. “It was fun. I didn’t get to Santa Hooves though.”

“Oh well. There’s always next year. But I’m so glad you’re here right now. I have so much to tell you!” She ran over and gave Pinkie a tight hug.

Pinkie pulled away and screamed. “Oh no! My changeling friend has been replaced by another changeling!”

Chrysalis just laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous! Just sit down and relax.” Pinkie seated herself next to her. “I just want to thank you for talking me into staying with Luna. It truly made the holidays worth celebrating.”

“No problem! Did you tell her how you feel yet!?”

Her cheeks flushed green. “Actually, I did.”

Pinkie made a very long gasp while kicking her legs frantically. “You did!? What did she say!?” Chrysalis got up and walked to her office, returning with a picture frame. When she held it in front of Pinkie, the pony’s jaw dropped. It was a cute picture of Luna, but what stuck out was a blue kiss mark on the corner of the picture. All of a sudden, Pinkie shrieked with joy and hugged her. “I can’t believe it! Congratulations, Chrysalis!”

Chrysalis picked her up with her front hooves and spun around in the air as her wings carried her. “Thank you, Pinkie! I just feel so amazing!” They both laughed as they danced, feeling incredible joy as they moved to the music that was playing.

“So did you tell her who you are yet?”

The record screeched to a halt and Chrysalis stopped spinning as well as dropped her friend onto the floor. She slowly got down and lied on the couch, placing a hoof on forehead. “I have not.”

Pinkie got up from the floor and rubbed her head. “Oh. When are you gonna?”

“Probably after Hearts and Hooves Day.”

The pony jumped onto the other end. “That’s a really long time to not tell her who you are.”

“I need all the time I can get to make her understand that I am a different changeling.”

“But Chrysalis, she’s in love with you! I think you need to tell her now! If you don’t, she might think you were using her to make yourself stronger!”

She groaned while putting a pillow over her face. “If I tell her now, she will want to immediately break up with me and it will be difficult to win back her trust.”

“But she might do the same thing if you tell her later,” the party mare countered. “You need to write her a letter and tell her the truth! She might be really mad if you wait.”

Chrysalis rolled onto her side, resting her head on a hoof. “I know she might, but I will use our time together to convince her as much as possible that I truly love her and that I’m not using her as a power source. I need to show her that I have turned a new leaf, or else she will never give me another chance.”

Pinkie looked at her worriedly. “Are you sure that’s what you want to do?”

She took a deep breath. “Yes, I am very sure.”

Pinkie sighed and placed a hoof on Chrysalis’s leg. “Okay, but I promise I will help you when you do tell her.”

“Thanks, Pinkie. I owe you.”

Pinkie hopped off the couch. “So do you want to go sledding?”

The changeling sat up and stretched herself. “I actually do. I’ve missed you for a while.”

“Great! I know the best hill in town.”

“I can believe that. Let’s go.” They left Cupid’s Arrow and trotted together as Pinkie dragged the sled behind her.

“Hey, Chrysalis, I was wondering if I could work during the Hearts and Hooves fair.”

“Pinkie, that’s sweet of you to offer, but I want you to enjoy it with Fluttershy.”

“Well I can do both! I can both date Fluttershy and tell ponies their fortunes! I bet I could find somepony their soul mate!”

Chrysalis stared at her with a raised eyebrow. “Fortune telling? I didn’t know you did something like that.”

“I sure do. I become Madame Pinkie, master of fortune telling and fortune cookies! I wear this cool costume, look into my crystal ball, and then-”

Chrysalis stopped dead in her tracks and grabbed Pinkie by her tail. “Wait a minute. You have a crystal ball!?”

“Yep! It belonged to my great granny, who was a super amazing fortune teller.” Chrysalis stared blankly at her and then slowly walked ahead. “What?”

“With a crystal ball, I could…talk to Nymph.”

Pinkie gasped loudly and ran in front of her. “What!? You can!?”

She crouched down while sticking a hoof in Pinkie’s mouth. “Quiet down and yes, I can.”

“But why does it have to be a crystal ball?” Pinkie asked when Chrysalis removed her hoof.

“Remember why I said I couldn’t use the mirror to talk to her?”

“Because mirrors are ordinary pieces of glass that require a lot of magical tuning to make them do anything and having a large source of your magic showing while communicating with someone else would leave you exposed and easily traceable?”

“I’m surprised you remember, but yes. Crystal balls, however, have some magical properties and can act as magical amplifiers, so I won’t need to use as much to contact someone far away. It’s also susceptible to enchantment, so I can use some spells to cover my tracks.”

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s talk to her now!” Pinkie sprinted, but she was stopped when Chrysalis put a hoof on the sled Pinkie was dragging, causing her to fall back.

“As much as I’d like to,” she fell onto her haunches, “I…I don’t know what to say to her.”

Pinkie touched her shoulder. “We should go sledding later. Let’s go back to Cupid’s Arrow and talk about this, okay?” At first, the changeling did nothing, so Pinkie got behind her and tried to push her, only to end up failing as Chrysalis was much heavier than she appeared. After much struggling, Pinkie was relieved to see her stand up and walk towards Cupid’s Arrow. When they returned, Pinkie led her to the kitchen and the pony began to prepare warm tea for the both of them while Chrysalis sat in her chair. When she finished, Pinkie placed both cups on the table and sat down. “Chrysalis, I really think you need to talk to her. She’s been wondering about you for so long and I think she’ll be really happy to know you’re okay. Just tell her you’re sorry for everything. She’ll forgive you.”

Chrysalis stared into her reflection in her tea. “I don’t think it’ll be that easy. I…I actually saw her in Canterlot and she said a lot of negative things about me.” She slowly held up the cup and took several sips. “Her last memory of me was me leaving to the surface right after telling her I had no sister. She will be smart and think my apology is some sort of trick. It wouldn’t be unreasonable as I’ve thought about doing something like that before.”

“I know it’s hard, but I think it’s a good idea. If you tell her you’re sorry now rather than later, then maybe it’ll be easier to convince her it’s true later. You just have to be nice to her and show her how much you’ve changed. And even if she doesn’t believe you, you should still let her know that you’re safe.”

Chrysalis rubbed her temples. Even in her disguise she could barely stand speaking with Nymph, so how was she supposed to do it as herself? She wondered what in the world would Nymph think if she saw her horrible sister all of a sudden apologizing to her. Despite doubting this idea, she remembered how worried she was about her and knew it was time to put her younger sister’s fears to rest. “Alright, I’ll do it. I’m not going to like this, but I have to do this.”

Pinkie clapped her hooves together. “That’s great, Chrysalis. When do you want to call her?”

“I suppose I should do it soon, but if I’m going to do this, there’s something else I need to do.”

“What?”

Chrysalis drank the rest of her tea and set the cup on the table. “Something I should have done a long time ago.”

The Crystal Empire’s rulers sat in their throne room with Twilight and Spike sitting at their sides. For most of the day, they had been dealing with ponies coming to them with some sort of proposal to the rulers or even some sort of issue they needed to have resolved. It was often tedious work, but the prince and princess were glad to do it for their people with Twilight offering her own advice on certain issues while Spike spoiled himself on gemstones. After sending another pony on her way, Shining Armor slouched on his throne. “Sometimes I miss being a guard.”

“Oh, it’s not so bad. At least ponies are far more reasonable here than at Canterlot,” said Cadance.

“I guess that’s a plus.”

“You’re doing just fine, BBBFF. You’re a real prince.”

“Thanks for your help, Twiley. I just wish a certain dragon would try to be more like you.”

Spike shrugged and threw another gem into his mouth. “I’m just making sure the crystals here are still good quality. They’ve been great so far, but I need to be extra sure.”

As the ponies laughed, a guard came up to Cadance and held out a stack of envelopes, which she took. “Let’s see, bill, bill, bill, oh!” she exclaimed as she held up an envelope. “We got a letter addressed to us.”

“From who?” asked her husband.

She looked it over. “Odd. There isn’t a return address. The guards already checked it, so it should be okay to open.” The alicorn tore it open and pulled out the letter. “Dear Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor, I am honestly pleased to hear your love for each other still remains strong and that the both of you own a kingdom. Perhaps one day we can meet and you both can find it in your heart to forgive me for my mistakes.” She looked at her family, who all exchanged confused looks. “I wish I could make it all up to you for what I have done, but currently that is impossible for me. Please also let Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle see this message as I also feel remorse for what I have put them through. Wishing you the best of health…” Cadance’s eyes became large and her lips trembled.

Everypony in the room stared at her. “Honey? Who is it from?” Shining asked nervously.

Cadance gulped and slowly looked up at him. “Chrysalis.”

Everypony in the room gasped while Spike hid behind the throne. “What!? Guards, trace this letter now!” One guard took the torn envelope and the rest ran out of the room as Shining went to his wife and hugged her. “Are you alright?”

Cadance took steady breaths while fanning herself. “I’m fine. I’m just very surprised.”

Twilight took the letter off the floor and examined it with her magic. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s clean. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Shining took the letter and read it. “This has to be a trick. She’s clearly trying to get our guard down.”

The younger unicorn went behind the throne in attempt to grab Spike. “I think so, too. This has to be part of some evil plan. There’s no way she’d be sorry all of a sudden.”

“But what if she is?” questioned Cadance. “It seems like a risky thing to do to simply attempt to have us believe her. I think she of all people would know that we would find it difficult to believe something like this.”

The stallion tossed the letter aside. “I don’t know, but we need to be alert. I don’t want her hurting anymore ponies.”

Twilight managed to grab Spike and held him as he tried to get away. “Shining, I’m…I’m really scared. Who knows what she’s going to do. She could be anywhere looking like anypony and we won’t know it until it’s too late.”

Shining Armor got off his throne and knelt down, hugging Twilight and their adopted brother and Cadance joined in. “Everything’s going to be okay, Twiley. I promise.”

Within two days, news of Chrysalis’s letter swept across Equestria like wildfire and its citizens did not take it well. The security of the Crystal Palace and Canterlot were at their maximum while most cities reverted back to being similar to the times shortly after the invasion had taken place. Even the citizens of the Changeling Kingdom were on edge from the news as everyone assumed it was really a death threat to the royal couple. Their queen had made good progress with the peace talks and they feared that Chrysalis would do something to threaten that or even harm somepony.

Media outlets from all over Equestria and the Changeling Kingdom sent journalists to the palace in Bugartha, trying to get a word with the queen as they wanted to know what she was going to do about finding Chrysalis as they believed that the fugitive’s sister knew her best. Nymph told them she was speaking with the Equestrian Princesses about the matter and eventually had all of them removed from the palace when they refused to leave her alone. She dismissed herself early from her duties as the stress was getting to her and could not focus. She tried to get her mind off the matter, but it was impossible with her palace being filled with whispers about Chrysalis and even her friends constantly telling her that the letter was part of an evil scheme.

Nymph lied in her bed, staring at the ceiling in the dark room. Sleep was impossible for her with everything plaguing her mind. She should have been happy to learn that Chrysalis was safe and that she sent an apology letter, but she was manipulative. She could only imagine what she was plotting and prayed that she would come to her senses before it was too late. She turned towards her clock and saw it was approaching midnight. “What is it going to take to get some sleep? Maybe I should have Luna teach me a sleep spell or something.”

“Some herbal tea may do you some good. Always works for me.”

The changeling nodded. “Good idea. Tea might be good for…” She shot straight up and flew out of her bed. Nymph’s eyes darted around the room as she took a defensive stance from behind the bed. “C-Chrysalis!? Is that you!?”

The door to her bedroom was thrown open as four armored changelings flew in front of the queen in a defensive formation. “Are you all right, your highness?” asked a guard.

“Where is she? Where’s Chrysalis!?” asked another as she looked all over the room.

“The crystal ball,” a voice answered.

They looked at Nymph’s desk, where her orb sat on its pedestal. In the ball was an image of Chrysalis looking right at them. Fear and anxiety grew within Nymph as she approached her, but her guards got in front of her and surrounded it. “You know you are not welcome here,” spoke Hornet.

“And what do you plan on doing about that?” she taunted.

He hissed at her but then the queen took the orb with her magic. “All of you leave at once. I wish to speak to her alone.”

“But my queen, she’s dangerous!” protested the fourth changeling.

“I am fully aware of that. Please wait by the door and make sure no one comes in or knows about this until I come out.” Reluctantly, her guards saluted her and exited the room, closing the door behind them. Nymph then turned her attention towards her sister. She was unable to tell where exactly she was as it appeared she was under a blanket on a bed. She had waited for so long to hear from Chrysalis, but she was never sure how their meeting would go. However, she knew not to let the older sibling get the better of her. She took in a deep breath, ready to stand tall like Celestia and Luna had taught her. “So it is true. You’re back.”

“I haven’t really gone anywhere. I’ve been in hiding.”

Nymph seated herself on her chair and held the orb with her magic, hiding that she was trying to pinpoint Chrysalis’s location. “So where are you? I’d like to come see you after all this time.”

“Sorry, but I can’t do that. I know of your deal with Celestia and I must say that I’m hurt.”

“I think you should understand why I agreed. It doesn’t help you caused the rulers of the Crystal Empire as well as both our nations a big scare.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes, chuckling. “All I did was write them an apology. You can’t blame me if they took it the wrong way.”

The queen groaned from her mocking tone and that she couldn’t get a trace on her. “What do you want, Chrysalis?”

“I just want to talk with my little sister. How is the kingdom?”

“Better than when you were in charge. My people are quite happy.”

Chrysalis gave a faint growl. “I see. How was your holiday?”

“Fine. I had a nice little gathering in the garden with all of the royals. I can’t imagine how yours went with you being banished.”

Much to her surprise, Chrysalis was smiling and if she didn’t know any better, it looked like she was blushing. “It was actually really great.”

She couldn’t help but feel curious. “Really? How so?”

“I was with friends.”

“You mean ponies you take advantage of by pretending to be their friend,” she argued.

The statement caused the older sister to recoil slightly. “N-no…”

“Oh, so they know who you are and accepted you?” Chrysalis said nothing while averting her eyes. “That’s what I thought. You may think you’re clever, Chrysalis, but-”

“I’m sorry.”

Nymph fell silent, her mind drawing a blank. “What?”

Chrysalis rested her head on the mattress. “I called you to say that I’m sorry. For everything.”

The queen gasped and put a hoof to her mouth. Could it be possible? Was the letter she sent actually the truth? Her gut was telling her it was a trick, but she wanted to hear more from her. “T-truly?”

“Yes. Nymph. I am so sorry for how I treated you. It was stupid and rotten of me and I should’ve just been your sister instead of a monster. I…I think about what I did sometimes and I just want to cry. I actually did cry once, thinking about you. I miss you, Nymph. I miss you so much.”

The younger sister could feel her heart melting. Chrysalis was actually remorseful of what she had done to her. She still felt uneasy, but Nymph began to tear up and she pressed her hoof on the crystal ball. “Chrysie…”

The elder sister was also crying and touched her ball with a hoof. “I want you to know that I have given up on my plans for revenge. I know that I have done so much wrong and these ponies didn’t deserve anything I have wrought against them and neither did our people. I screwed up so hard and I am so sorry.”

Nymph picked up the crystal ball. “It’s okay, Chrysalis. Just come home. We will be merciful and it will help the people calm down. The princesses want to give you a chance to redeem yourself.”

To her surprise, Chrysalis shook her head. “I can’t, Nymph. I still have things I need to do. It will be a while before we can meet face to face.”

Nymph sighed loudly as she expected something like that from her. “Are you at least doing all right? I haven’t heard from you in so long and I was worried sick.”

“I’m doing very well.”

“I’m glad. So you have actually made friends in Equestria?”

“Yes. They’re all good friends who I care about, but they don’t know who I am. It would drive them away if they found out.”

“Are you going to tell them?”

Chrysalis sighed deeply. “I will someday. It might be a little harder to now though.”

“Why’s that?”

Once again, she could see her sister blushing. “Well, a few months ago, I sort of…”

“Yes?”

“Fell in love.” Nymph dropped the ball and it rolled under her desk. “Nymph?”

“O-oh, sorry. I just wasn’t expecting anything like that.” She bent down to retrieve it and set it back on the pedestal. “Chrysalis, I must say that I never thought you would ever have feelings for a pony.”

“It came to me as a surprise as well, but we’re very happy together.”

Nymph wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. If anything she was saying was true, then it was good Chrysalis fell in love with a pony as it keep her from trying to take over Equestria. However, she felt sorry for the poor soul who was unknowingly dating Equestria’s most wanted. “So who is it? I want to know them.”

“I cannot give his name. Let’s just say he’s somepony who I met early during my banishment and he has really won me over. We’ve been dating for a while and I want to spend my life with him.”

“As in marry him?” Chrysalis turned her head, blushing more. “Perhaps have a few little Chrysalises running around?” The older changeling put her hooves over her mouth and giggled like a little hatchling. “This is just so unbelievable.”

“I know it is. I wish I could tell you more about him and what has happened with me, but I’m afraid I must be going now, so goodnight, Nymph. Take care of yourself.”

She shot straight up in her chair. “What!? N-no! You can’t just leave! There’s so much I need to say to you!”

“You can tell me all of it when I return. I will be safe, so don’t worry about me. Goodbye, Nymph.” Chrysalis’s image began to fade from the orb.

“Wait! Don’t go, Chrysalis!” It was too late. Nymph channeled her magic and concentrated as she searched for her. Despite her efforts, she could not pick up a trace of her magic. Clearly her sister was making sure she was not found by anyone until she was ready. Knowing she wasn’t going to get anywhere, she got up and headed to the door. Upon opening it, she saw her four guards staring at her. “Tell every guard currently on duty that we are on red alert. Everything is fine, but I just want to make sure nothing happens. I will explain what we talked about with the council tomorrow.” They saluted her and flew off in different directions as the queen reentered her bedroom and threw herself on the bed.

She was depressed that Chrysalis once again disappeared, but it was great relief for her to confirm that she was safe. Nymph closed her eyes and smiled. Chrysalis said she was not after revenge and was sorry for how she treated her. Although she knew to be wary of any lies her sister might tell, her words were as sweet as honey to her. However, whether or not she was being truthful didn’t change the fact there was an already troubling problem. Chrysalis had become romantically involved with a pony, fooling him into believing she was some sort of sweet, normal mare. She felt nothing but absolute pity for the unfortunate soul who is dating her sister. She could only hope Chrysalis was ready to experience potential heartbreak. There was also what Chrysalis said about having things to do. What in the world could she be trying to do before turning herself in?

Nymph pulled the covers over her body. “Don’t do anything stupid, Chrysie,” she whispered in the darkness, falling asleep minutes later.

Chrysalis’s Concoction of Catastrophe

Along with the news of Chrysalis’s letter, the news of the romantic relationship between Princess Luna and the pony known as Cherub was still on everypony’s mind. Everypony was surprised not just by the fact that the once banished alicorn was now romantically involved, but by the fact she was with a mare. While most ponies were accepting of the news, some were disgusted by Luna’s gay relationship and tried to slander her and her lover.

Celestia brought this to an immediate end.

The new couple spent more time than usual together and Chrysalis loved every moment she spent with Luna. They would often stay in Cupid’s Arrow in order to gain some privacy and often the princess would cook dinner for them. They would exchange stories of their work while lying together on the couch and sometimes they would lay there and kiss with Luna still being shy. Of course, their personal time sometimes involved a certain protective sister coming along, watching all of Chrysalis’s moves. Chrysalis continued to repress the thought of the inevitable future, trying to feel happy with what she had now. Pinkie, however, occasionally reminded her and she either became depressed or even furious, telling her that they would just stick to the plan.

With the last pony sent on their way, Chrysalis leaned back in her chair and sighed. “Thank goodness for closing time.”

“This is always my least favorite part of the day,” Pinkie said sadly.

“Normally I would feel the same since this means we can’t create anymore love for my people, but all I desire is to be with my precious Lulu.” She picked up the picture frame and looked at it, smiling.

“I’ll go tell everypony we’re closing.” Pinkie hopped out of her seat and went out the door, causing loud cheering to enter the office for the moment the door was open.

The changeling looked up when she heard the strange noise. When she got up and opened the door, she saw ponies crowding around Rainbow Dash, who was standing on the table, and cheering her on. “What is going on here?”

“I made a bet with Rainbow Dash that she couldn’t eat a whole box of doughnuts in one go! She’s only one away from doing it!” answered Trixie excitedly as she watched.

“Really? Now this I gotta see.” Chrysalis made her way to the front to watch the remainder of Dash’s performance. She was glad the pegasus didn’t choose to eat from the jelly doughnut box as she was unsure of the effects of a pony consuming so much changeling slime at once.

Rainbow Dash reached into the box and pulled out the final treat. “You ponies ready for the finale!?” The whole room was filled with cheering. “Okay, here goes!” She flipped the doughnut into the air and caught it in her mouth when it came down, swallowing it in one bite. The ponies applauded her as she wiped her mouth and bowed. “Thank you, everypony, for watching this incredible feat performed by the amazing Rainbow Dash!”

Chrysalis stood up on the table with her. “What a great employee. Unfortunately, it is now closing time, but I hope we made this day memorable for you all. Come by tomorrow!” She and her employees waved to the ponies as they slowly emptied from her house. Once they were gone, she looked at Dash. “Looks like you’re going to have to do some extra exercise to burn that off,” she commented as she poked her slightly enlarged stomach.

“Totally…urp…worth it. With my hardcore training, I’ll have it all gone by tomorrow.” Rainbow Dash looked at the magician. “Pay up, Trixie.”

“Fine.” She pulled out some bits and gave them to her. “I may have lost, but it was definitely worth losing to see you pull that off.”

Rainbow Dash gave a weak laugh as she slowly headed for the door. “That’s because I’m awesome at everything I do. I’ll see you all…oh…” She suddenly started wobbling.

“Are you okay?” asked Fluttershy worriedly.

The Wonderbolt in training turned towards her friend with a forced grin. “I’m totally fine. I’ve got an iron stomach!” Dash took one step and fell onto the floor, moaning in pain.

“Too much food?” smirked Twilight.

“Ugh…maybe…”

“Sorry, but there can be only one Pinkie Pie,” mocked Chrysalis. With her magic, she picked her up and laid her on the couch. “You can stay with me until you feel better.”

“How are you feeling, Dashie?” asked Pinkie as she poked her stomach. “Really good with all those doughnuts in you, right!?”

Dash swatted her hoof away with little force. “Quit that.”

“Is there anything we could do?” offered Fluttershy.

“Let the girl tough it out. She was dumb enough to actually do it,” teased Chrysalis, causing Dash to groan.

“We could just get Zecora,” suggested Twilight. “I’m sure she has something to help Rainbow feel better.”

“That’s a great idea!” exclaimed Pinkie. “She’ll totally make her better in no time!”

“But who should get her? I don’t want to leave Rainbow,” said Fluttershy as she looked at her friend, who just groaned quietly and turned away.

“Make Trixie do it. It was her dumb idea,” suggested Chrysalis as she nudged the blue unicorn.

“But I don’t even know who Zecora is. Besides, it may have been my idea, but she was dumb enough to actually do it,” retorted Trixie.

Chrysalis laughed loudly, which annoyed Dash. “That is quite true. Poor foolish Dash took on a challenge too big for her to chew and even digest.” When she turned around, she saw Pinkie giving her a huge grin. Chrysalis looked back at the sick pony and figured out what her friend wanted her to do. “I suppose I shall bring Zecora if you all want to stay here with her.”

“Thanks, Cherub. I owe ya,” replied Dash weakly.

“No need. I’m always here for my friends.” She lifted Dash’s head and slid a pillow under it. “Now what does this Zecora look like?”

“She’s a zebra, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding her among the other ponies,” said Twilight.

“I don’t think I’ve actually seen a zebra,” admitted Chrysalis.

“She looks like a pony. She has a grey coat with some black stripes, a mohawk, and likes to wear golden bands around her neck and around one of her front legs.

“Easy enough.” Chrysalis went into her office and returned with her winter clothes on. “I’ll be back soon, so try not to blow chunks on my floor.” She exited Cupid’s Arrow as Dash put a hoof over her mouth, causing the others to rush to her side.

Chrysalis happily hummed to herself as she searched the snowy town for its only zebra. Ever since she and Luna became an item, it was difficult to bring her spirits down as she was often filled with so much joy and energy. She spent fifteen minutes looking and was unsuccessful. She remembered that the mares that worked for her mentioned that Zecora lived in the Everfree Forest for whatever reason. Chrysalis honestly knew very little of zebras, but they must have been born without fear as even she feared what lurked there.

As she approached the outskirts of the forest, she could feel her fear steadily climbing. She didn’t mind helping Rainbow Dash, but she wasn’t sure how far she was going to take their friendship. Chrysalis may have been powerful, but the horrors of the Everfree Forest were no laughing matter. She stopped herself, pondering her options. “If I end up getting lost in that forest or get attacked by some animal looking for Zecora,” scowled Chrysalis, “I will curse that stupid Trixie with my dying breath.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m right behind you. Is there something you wanted me to do?”

She jumped and turned around, finding a zebra in a brown cloak, who she immediately assumed to be Zecora, standing there. “Oh! I didn’t see you there. How long have you been following me?”

“I have been going in this direction for a while. I did not realize I had so much guile,” laughed Zecora.

Chrysalis faked a laugh. “How silly of me not to notice.” She felt angry with herself since she did not see that the only zebra in the entire town was just behind her, but at least she was safe from danger. “And yes, I do need something from you. One of my employees took on a bet to eat an entire box of sweets and is now suffering from a horrible stomach ache. Could you perhaps do something for her?”

Zecora chuckled, finding the situation as amusing as Chrysalis did. “Very well, I will come and drive the pain away. Now please, go and lead the way,” she said in a cheery voice. Chrysalis nodded and walked in the direction of her home with Zecora behind her. She also noticed that every time she spoke, she rhymed her words and wondered if that was a zebra thing.

Upon opening the door to Cupid’s Arrow, the ponies immediately looked at them. “I’m back, and look who I have brought with me.” She stepped aside and revealed the zebra behind her.

The ponies approached her while Rainbow Dash just laid there, eyes half open. “Hi, Zecora,” greeted Twilight. “Sorry to bring you so suddenly.”

Zecora’s expression became one of surprise. “My, My, Cherub. I had no a clue that all of these ponies were working for you.”

“It was just me and Pinkie Pie in the start, but later on she wanted me to hire all her little friends, so here they are.” Loud groaning caught their attention. “Anyway, your patient is Rainbow Dash over there. Better do something before her body rejects those doughnuts.”

Zecora went through her bag and retrieved a flask, holding towards the ill pegasus. “A simple potion is all you will need, just remember next time that your suffering was caused by pride and greed.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” muttered Dash right before drinking it. When she finished, she put the glass on the table and wiped her mouth. “So how long until it works? I want to go home.”

“A few minutes are all it will take, so just remain there for your own sake.”

As the younger ponies stood around Dash to keep an eye on her, Chrysalis examined the contents of Zecora’s bag. From what she could see, there were many types of flowers and potions inside, so Chrysalis assumed she was a sort of alchemist healer and couldn’t help but feel curious about her. “You know, I’ve lived here for quite a while and I’ve never seen or really heard of you, Zecora.”

“That is because I do not live near, for my presence has caused quite a bit of fear.”

She shot a glance out the window. “Yes, I’ve heard you’ve taken up residence in the Everfree Forest. Why would you ever want to live in that forsaken place?”

“The news of my residence does bring ponies alarm, but I shall not come across any harm. I choose my home there as that’s where many plants grow and it is in an area where many creatures do not go.”

“I see. At any rate, thank you so much for helping Rainbow Dash. How much do I owe you?”

Zecora raised her hoof and shook her head. “I often do not include with my services a fee as I am one who works for her community.”

“Are you sure? It would be no trouble for me at all. I do make quite a good amount of bits.”

“I am quite sure this is something I wish to do. And now, I shall bid you all adieu.”

The ponies and changeling waved as Zecora made her way to the entrance. Chrysalis thought it was so very kind of her to come on short notice while providing free services and wished she could repay her in some way. That’s when something hit her. Zecora was the only one of her kind in Ponyville and lived in the Everfree Forest, so she must have been very lonely. Chrysalis remembered how agonizing it was to not be around her kind and decided to take action. “Wait.” Zecora turned to her. “Perhaps there is another way I could repay you. You live completely alone, correct?”

“Yes it’s true, my home houses only me, but now I wonder what this reward could possibly be,” she spoke curiously while Pinkie suddenly started jumping.

“As you can see, I run a dating service, and I feel that no pony, or zebra, should have to be all alone, especially in such a dangerous forest. What I am offering you is a chance to find a special somepony, just for you!”

The other ponies all gasped happily and looked to Zecora with anticipation, but she shook her head. “I appreciate you offering to find me a mate, but I believe that thing should be left into the hooves of fate.” Zecora once again started to head outside. Chrysalis was surprised that she had rejected her offer, thinking that only an idiot would turn it down. Then again, this was the zebra who decided to live in the woods filled with dangerous beasts and not in the town with all the friendly ponies, so maybe she was a bit crazy.

“Are you sure, Zecora?” asked Twilight. “Cherub’s really good at what she does. She could really find you somepony nice.”

She nodded. “I am quite sure this is what I want to do, so for now, goodbye to all of you.”

Then, to their surprise, Pinkie jumped in front of her. “Wait! Don’t go! Having a special pony can be fun! I promise you that we can find you the one! We’ve helped mares and stallions find somepony nice, so please just consider Cherub’s advice. I don’t want you to go home all lonely and sad, just let us help you and you will be glad! If you stay here and let us do this, we can find you a pony that you can hug and kiss!” She knelt in front of Zecora, giving her saddest eyes.

Everyone in the room became still, taken by surprise by Pinkie’s sudden rhyming. Zecora looked down at Pinkie and then turned her attention to the changeling, smiling. “Very well, I have changed my mind. I’m curious of what pony you will be able to find.”

The changeling happily nodded. “I guaranteed you will be satisfied,” Chrysalis said as convincingly as she could while motioning Zecora to the backroom. Inside, she and Pinkie took their seats while Zecora sat in front of Chrysalis. “I know you want to go home because it’s late, so I won’t take up much of your time. Tell me, what sort of qualities are you looking for?”

“I seek a stallion, one courteous and smart. He shall also require a very big heart. I hope they do not fear the supernatural, for much of my work is quite magical. When I first arrived, I brought ponies great distress, for they thought I was an evil enchantress.” She shot a look over at Pinkie, who grinned shyly. “Many citizens still see me full of mystery and I just want somepony interested in the real me. I know this seems like a difficult task, but can you help find the one that I ask?”

Chrysalis wondered the same thing herself, but considering all the weird ponies she’s seen in Ponyville, she was sure she would eventually find somepony that would like Zecora. “I’m sure we can with some time. Pinkie and I will look for potential candidates tomorrow and we’ll let you know if we find something.”

“Very well, I shall return when it is bright.” She shook hooves with Chrysalis and went for the exit. “For now, I part. Goodnight.”

They watched as she left the building and Pinkie frowned. “But tomorrow’s so far away! What am I going to do until then? I can’t just sit around and do nothing while Zecora is all lonely!”

“Well if you’re that anxious to help her, then you should prepare a list tonight and bring it tomorrow.” Chrysalis tapped Pinkie’s noggin. “After all, you have every potential stallion kept in there.”

“I do!?” Pinkie rolled her eyes back to look in her head. “Hey, does anypony wanna go out with Zecora!?”

“Pinkie!” The pony rolled her eyes back to look at her. “Do not ever do that again. Just write a list, okay?”

She saluted her. “You got it! I’ll see you tomorrow!”

She ran out of the office and Chrysalis walked out to watch her and the others leave. “Bye, girls. Have a good night.” The ponies said their goodbyes and then left Cupid’s Arrow. When they were gone, Chrysalis returned to her office to look over some documents while she waited for Luna. When she sat down and grabbed a folder, her mind shifted to Pinkie, causing her to shudder.

Pinkie sat in her room, writing her list of potential love interests for Zecora while listening to her favorite radio program of all time, Uncle Chuckle’s Comedy Hour, which was full of jokes and hilarious skits. She listened to it every week, never missing a show, and got some of her jokes and party gags from him as he was her idol. “Oh wow! That joke about the tree just gets funnier every time! Uncle Chuckle is the best comedian ever!” She then gasped. “Hey, maybe he’d make a great special somepony for Zecora! After all, laughter is the best medicine!” She put his name down on her short list. So far she had only five names, including Uncle Chuckle, as she wasn’t too sure who would be interested in Zecora as many were still nervous of her.

“Well that’s all for today, kids! Join me again same laugh time, same laugh channel!”

Pinkie waved to her radio, despite no pony being able to see her. “Bye, Uncle Chuckle! See you next week!” She got off her bed and walked towards it. “Wow, he’s just gets funnier and funnier every week! Maybe Chrysalis would like him too if she met him.” Right before she pressed the power button, she heard some static and then a voice coming from the radio, causing her to pause and listen intently.

One hour later, she turned off her radio, walked over to her bed, and picked up the list, which she then threw away. She went to her bed, stood on it, and after several seconds, her whole body started to shake. All of a sudden, she started jumping on her bed, cheering loudly. Mr. Cake banged on her door, telling her to keep it down, but she didn’t notice. She was extremely excited, thinking about what was going to happen tomorrow when she returned to Cupid’s Arrow.

As her coffee was being prepared, Chrysalis went outside and picked up the paper, throwing it onto her desk before returning to the kitchen. She was fairly tired and needed her drink before the clock struck nine, which is exactly when she would open her door and allowed the crowd of ponies inside her home. She was never too pleased with opening as that was when ponies were most eager to go first, which is why she was thankful for Applejack. She sometimes preferred Rainbow Dash as she brought fear to any trouble makers, but the farmer was just as good.

The clock was one minute away from opening, so she approached the door. She gave a quick look to Applejack, who firmly nodded at her. Satisfied, Chrysalis unlocked the door and opened it. However, she could see some ponies being hurled high into the air in the back of the crowd. Before Chrysalis could open her mouth, a certain pony suddenly appeared right in front of her face, causing her to gasp and fall backwards. Before she could even blink, Pinkie stood over her, shouting, “Guess what! Guess what! Guess what! Guess what! Guess what! Guess what! Guess what! Guess what!” The changeling got up and carried Pinkie with her magic, who was still shouting and shaking around. She headed to her office and chose to ignore her employees laughing at her.

Chrysalis closed the door and sat Pinkie in her desk, who had yet to stop emptying her lungs. “Guess what! Guess what! Guess what! Guess what! Guess-”

“PINKIE!” The pony finally became quiet. Chrysalis sighed and asked, “What in the world has you so eager?”

She leapt on her desk and bounced once again. “I just found the most super, amazing, awesome, spectacular, brave, handsome, and best pony ever for Zecora!”

“That fast?” Chrysalis asked in disbelief. “How in the world did you ever find him?”

“I’ll tell you later! We need to go to Zecora right now and get them together!”

Chrysalis looked at her clock. “Right now? We just opened up and-”

“RIGHT NOW!” Chrysalis sighed and nodded her head, following her friend as she sprinted out the door, heading towards the Everfree Forest.

After acquiring Zecora, Pinkie led them across Ponyville, talking nonstop of the pony she chose to be Zecora’s coltfriend. According to her, it was somepony named Doctor Whooves and he was incredibly amazing in a lot of ways. However, Pinkie loved surprises, so she kept many details of him to herself, causing the changeling and the zebra to become more and more curious with every step. Eventually, they had reached their destination. It was a large building with a massive clock on top of it. Through the window, many types of clocks were visible, whether hanging from the walls or placed on the shelves. As far as they could tell, there was no pony in there. “This is where the doctor lives! I bet he likes clocks because of all the time traveling he does!”

Chrysalis stared at her in confusion. “Wait, now you’re telling me he’s a time traveler?”

Pinkie nodded. “He’s got magical yellow box which is really a spaceship!”

“Now you’re telling me he has a spaceship.” She was now less convinced by what she was hearing. She didn’t believe that she was pulling a fast one on them, but Pinkie wasn’t the sharpest pony she knew. Although, Chrysalis was curious of how Pinkie learned so much about him all of a sudden. The fact that she said he was a time traveler and the fact he owned so many clocks did raise her curiosity.

Zecora, however, kept an optimistic attitude. “My, he sounds like quite a fellow. Since we’re here, let us go and say hello.”

The three stepped inside the shop and it was filled with the sound of the ticking of clocks, which added to the eerie atmosphere. In the dimly lit store, they could not see a sign of another pony. They split up and looked around, searching for the fabled doctor. Chrysalis found herself drawn to the shelves, surprised that a simple clock could be designed in so many ways. She could tell each one was hoof crafted at high quality, so time traveler or not, this pony was very talented. She then found one with Luna and Celestia on it and picked it up, finding it cute and considered buying it since it made her think of her lovely little alicorn. Pinkie suddenly screamed, startling the other two mares. They ran to where she was and saw that she was pointing at something. To their surprise, there was a large yellow box in the corner of the room.

“See!? I told you he had a spaceship!”

Chrysalis stared at it, shocked that Pinkie was telling the truth of something that seemed so ludicrous. Right before her eyes was evidence that proved the existence of a pony with powers that could be compared to the alicorns. “I didn’t want to believe it.”

“There’s nothing wrong with believing.” They quickly turned around and saw a brown stallion with an hourglass as his cutie mark approaching them. “Sorry to sneak up on you ladies. I didn’t hear you come in. I only have six minutes and ten seconds to talk though, so how I may be of service?”

Pinkie screamed again and bounced like mad. “See!? I told you he’s real! It’s really Doctor Whooves!”

The stallion let out a chuckle. “Yes, that’s me.”

Zecora looked at him with awe. “Pinkie has told me some of the amazing things you do. So please tell me now, are they all true?”

Chrysalis slowly approached him, still in disbelief. She knew there were a lot of strange things in the world, but this was still hard for her to swallow. “Yeah, she says that you travel through time and space and fight monsters and things like that. Is that really true at all, or have I gone mad?”

Doctor Whooves just stared at her, and then burst out laughing. Her face was now flushed, knowing that she had just said something stupid. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I think your friend has let her imagination get the better of her. None of that is actually true.”

Pinkie was frantic, not wanting to accept that she was wrong about him being some amazing pony. “But I heard your transmission on the radio last night!”

Chrysalis quickly looked at her. “Wait, what radio?”

“Yes, and I’m sure you will hear it again during the same time next week, which is when my radio show airs.”

“RADIO SHOW!?” Chrysalis shot a glare at Pinkie, who was now hiding behind Zecora. She should have seen that coming from a mile away. It was obvious to her now that Pinkie would have taken his show as reality and jumped the gun without even doing research or use of common since. She really should’ve asked more about him before accepting his weirdness as fact.

He made his way to the front counter. “Yes, it’s called ‘The Adventures of Doctor Whooves,’ and I am currently working on the sixth season. I’m its producer, writer, and I voice the main character as well as many others. It’s been receiving quite a lot of popularity and I’m surprised none of you have heard of it until now. My real name is actually Time Turner and I’m just a humble pony who designs and sells clocks in reality. Five minutes and thirty-eight seconds.”

Chrysalis broke her attention away from Pinkie and looked at Turner. “Why do you keep saying that?”

“I’m trying to keep everything according to schedule. I cannot afford to dilly-dally with chit-chatting with every pony that comes inside expecting an autograph. I need to run the shop as well as work on my scripts. Five minutes and twelve seconds.”

Pinkie poked her head out from behind Zecora. “Schedule for what?”

He reached under the counter and pulled out a giant stack of paper in a folder. “My life, of course. I keep track of everything that I do and will do and make a schedule which I must follow accordingly.”

They stared at him in disbelief and Chrysalis found this much harder to believe than everything she heard Pinkie say about him. “That’s insane! How far does your schedule even go?”

“Up to my death, and the last time I checked,” he said as he pulled out a sheet of paper from the pile, “I will die in sixty-two years, four months, one week, three hours, fifty-eight minutes, and twelve seconds from now. This isn’t the exact time, since I have to update it for every unexpected variable.”

Chrysalis stared at him blankly with one of her eyes twitching. It was no longer surprising to her that his shop was completely empty of any ponies, despite a celebrity running it, as he was much more appealing to listen to on the radio than in real life. In her three hundred and sixty-two years of life, never once did she meet anyone as bizarre as him.

Zecora stepped in, not wanting to waste any more of their little time. “You seem like a pony of great imagination. From what Pinkie has said about your show, I’m filled with fascination.”

“Why thank you. I must say, you are quite the fascinating character yourself, Zecora.” The trio was taken by surprise. “Yes, I know who you are. There was quite a lot of talk about you before. You had everypony running into their homes simply with your appearance. I had always wanted to meet you, but I couldn’t just fit it into my schedule with the show, the shop, and all that sort of thing. Plus I couldn’t even find where you live.”

She chuckled as she stood in front of the counter. “Well, now I am here in front of you, so perhaps we could exchange a word or two.”

“You two go ahead while I have a private word with Pinkie.” Before the pony could respond, Chrysalis grabbed her foreleg and dragged her outside the clock store. Once they were outside, the changeling looked into her eyes. “I cannot believe you fell for the idea his character was real,” she scolded. “Not only was this a waste of time, but Zecora probably thinks we’re incompetent idiots. I feel so embarrassed right now and I hate to say it, but this was entirely your fault.”

Pinkie looked at her front hooves. “I’m sorry, Chrysalis. I just got so excited that I forgot it wasn’t real.”

Chrysalis sighed deeply. “Pinkie, you really need to control that imagination of yours. It gets so out of control sometimes that even I believe your crazy ideas.”

Pinkie sat on the grounds, eyes moist and lip quivering. “I’m so bad at my job! I can’t do matchmaking right at all! Zecora must think I’m so stupid and she’s right! I’m the dumbest pony alive!” She then exploded into tears and flopped onto the ground, attracting the attention of many ponies.

Chrysalis knelt down and patted her head. Usually Pinkie could get over such things in little time, but seeing her in such a state was always heartbreaking. She wanted Zecora to finish up inside so she could take her friend back home to comfort her and looked inside to see what she was doing, discovering something of interest. “Actually, she looks pretty happy.”

The pony immediately compressed her face against the glass. “What?” Inside, they could see Zecora and Turner engaged in conversation and both of them were smiling. Somehow, Zecora was getting along with the pony who made Pinkie look normal by comparison. “What are they saying?”

“I wouldn’t have a clue.”

Pinkie grabbed the back of Chrysalis’s head and shoved her face into the glass. “Read their minds! I want to know what they’re saying!”

The changeling pulled her head back. “I read emotions, not their thoughts,” she corrected angrily.

“Then read that!” she said as she pushed her face back.

Chrysalis repressed her annoyance and closed her eyes. The changelings’ ability to sense emotion was always passively seeking love while detecting other emotions required a bit of concentration. After a few seconds, she got a reading on Turner and from what she could tell, he was filled with great excitement, which she already knew from their conversation. She turned her attention towards Zecora, immediately detecting something of interest. Along with her own excitement, there was a small spark within her. “My, my, it seems this Time Turner has caught Zecora’s eye.”

“Really!?”

Chrysalis walked back and freed herself of Pinkie’s grip. “Really. Somehow, you managed to find her a potential lover.” After about a minute, Zecora headed for the exit and they approached her when she stepped outside. “So I see you got a bit friendly with our strange friend.”

Zecora nodded and looked through the window behind her. “Yes, it was much different than I feared. He wasn’t cruel or stupid, he was just plain weird! I would like to try to know more about him, but his obsession with time may bring me to my last whim!”

“So what do you want to do?” asked Pinkie.

“I will try to speak with him the next day and I want to hear everything he has to say. There is some much about him I wish to know and I hope a new side of him will show. I appreciate everything you two have done for me, but I insist for now that you leave me be.”

“Very well, Zecora. If you need any help, you know where to find us.” The zebra nodded and left as Pinkie waved to her. “Well today certainly turned out to be interesting. Somehow, that creep has won her over.”

“Yeah! Zecora is going to be so happy with him, even though he doesn’t really fight aliens.”

“Let’s hope. I honestly don’t think I can stand seeing him again. Anyway, let’s go back to Cupid’s Arrow.”

“Not yet! I wanna buy a Doctor Whooves clock!” Before Chrysalis could respond, Pinkie dashed inside, leaving her out in the snow. The changeling sighed and leaned against the wall, developing a feeling that this job was somehow going to become much more complicated.

It had been several days since they met the “Doctor” and Zecora had paid him a visit every day in order to know him better. Gossip arose in Ponyville from her frequent visits as ponies noticed that the strange zebra kept making visits to the strange pony. Since Zecora did not ask for their assistance, Pinkie and Chrysalis left her to do the work and focused on helping other ponies. Currently, Chrysalis sat in her office with a client, but this client wasn’t seeking a lover, but a gig at her upcoming fair. “So Ms. Scratch, Pinkie tells me that your musical talent would be a great addition for my event during Hearts and Hooves.”

The white unicorn slouched in her seat, acting cool. “It wouldn’t be a real party without an artist like me.”

“I believe you. Pinkie has told me about your shows and how the ponies there go wild.”

“Everypony loves DJ Pon-3!” exclaimed Pinkie. “She gets invited to all sorts of places. They even let her play during the royal wedding, right after we-” Chrysalis’s gaze shifted over towards Pinkie and pierced right through her. “Uh…yeah, she’s really good.”

“Pinkie’s word is good enough for me, so here is your contract.” Chrysalis slipped a sheet of paper to the unicorn. “Be sure to look it over and return it to me signed as soon as possible.”

Vinyl took the paper. “You got it.” She got off her seat and headed for the exit. “Peace out, Pinkie, and thanks for the gig!”

“Peace out!” Vinyl left, leaving only the pony and the changeling. “I am so excited for the fair now with her playing! I got some new dance moves I wanna show Fluttershy!”

“I’m excited too. With her on board, music should be fully covered now.” She reached into one of her drawers and pulled out a list on a clipboard. “I’ll let Flim and Flam know about her so they can set up an area for her to play.”

“So what’s left?”

Chrysalis looked over the long list. “It seems like we got everything covered, but we could always use more ponies to provide food or some sort of entertainment. It’s going to be a lot of money, but the profit will easily make up for it and the food created for my species will make it all worth it. I just hope Flim and Flam do a good job setting it up like they promised. At any rate, we better get back to work.” Chrysalis pressed the button. “Break time’s over, Spike. Send in the next customer.” A few seconds later, the door opened and a certain zebra appeared. However, Chrysalis immediately saw that something was off with her. “You don’t look so well, Zecora. Does Time Turner have something to do with this?”

The tired zebra sat down and nodded. “For days I have visited him, being his friend, but he obsesses about his schedule to almost no end! I try and try to learn about him more, but then my time is up and he shoos me out the door!”

Chrysalis and Pinkie exchanged looks of sadness. “I am sorry to hear that. It is truly a shame that he is a lost cause after all the effort you put in. But hey, screw him. He was a creep anyway and I didn’t like him. You deserve far better. How about we find you somepony normal free of charge?”

Zecora leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. “I came here to see if you could potentially help me, but judging by your tone, I suppose Turner and I were not meant to be.” She put a hoof on her face and sighed loudly.

Chrysalis leaned towards her. “Hold on. Are you saying you’re actually upset you couldn’t get that fruitcake to like you?”

“Mmm, fruitcake.” Pinkie started drooling.

“As strange as it may appear, I wanted to be somepony he held dear. He is interested in many things that most ponies don’t care for and his show is now something I adore. I thought I could somehow change his ways, but a pony obsessed with time is the way he stays.” She got off the chair. “I did what I thought what was best, but now all I want to do is get some rest. I know you both still wish to help me, but for now, leave me be.”

“But…but…” Zecora exited the room and closed the door behind her. Several seconds later, Pinkie broke into tears. “Oh my gosh, this is like the saddest thing ever!”

“Clearly you have already forgotten my situation,” Chrysalis said under her breath as Pinkie blew her nose on some tissue. “Don’t worry about it, Pinkie. Let’s give Zecora some space for a while and then we’ll find somepony better for her.”

“But he was like the best possible pony for her! Who else could we find for her!?”

“I’m pretty sure any pony who is qualified as sane is better than Turner.” She stood and got behind Pinkie, resting a hoof on her shoulder. “It’ll be okay, Pinkie,” she said in a soothing voice. “We’ll find somepony else for Zecora. That way, she’ll be happy with her new lover while Time Turner will be left to grow old and die alone without the chance of having any offspring, so everypony wins. Does that make you feel better?” Pinkie’s crying amplified in volume to almost deafening levels and Chrysalis put her hooves over her ears, wishing she had a magical time traveling box so she could prevent them from ever meeting him.

“I’m telling you, Luna, this guy was a nut! I’m surprised no pony has sent his flank to the asylum. Then again, I assume he would just draw his schedule on the wall of his cell.”

The alicorn giggled while slowly moving a hoof up and down Chrysalis’s chest. “I have never seen anything like that, but I really don’t think it’s all that bad. You just need to know him better.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Chrysalis cleared her throat and spoke like Turner. “I know! Let’s make out for exactly eight minutes and ten seconds, then go to bed for eight hours and two minutes, and five minutes and thirty seconds after I wake up, I will make us breakfast.”

Luna laughed uncontrollably and wrapped her in a hug. “Okay, I get your point. That’s just too weird. At least you won’t have to deal with him anymore since Zecora wasn’t getting anywhere with him.”

Chrysalis sighed as she flipped herself around, lying on her stomach on top of Luna. “Not exactly.”

“Huh?”

“While I don’t like him for obvious reasons, Zecora was really into that guy and the fact she visited him every day for a week shows how dedicated she is in trying to win him over. She was pretty crushed that she couldn’t get the guy to like her and I’m wondering how I need to approach this.”

She patted the changeling on the back. “You’re a smart pony. You can figure out what to do. Just hope Zecora’s magical cures can fix something like him, or it will be you going to the asylum,” she teased.

“If only they actually were magical,” she muttered.

“They are magical, Cherub, but I wouldn’t know what sort of condition ails him. I don’t think there’s anything that could care that sort of obsession.”

Chrysalis lifted her head up. “Wait, what do you mean they are really magical?”

“From what I’ve heard from Twilight, Zecora’s medicines contain extremely powerful magic. One time, young Apple Bloom tried creating her own cutie mark using a certain plant, but it ended up giving her multiple and even making her extremely talented in each of those fields.”

“Really? That’s very…interesting,” Chrysalis said with a devious smile.

“Cherub?” Chrysalis snapped out of her thinking and looked at her. “I believed you mentioned earlier about us making out?”

Chrysalis lowered her face in front of Luna’s. “Oh, so the greedy princess wants some kisses. Very well, Lulu. Take us upstairs and I shall comply with your demand.” Luna teleported them to the bedroom, where they rolled around and giggled while kissing on the bed. Chrysalis fed off some of her love while sucking on her tongue as Luna stroked her flank. In her mind, the false unicorn thought over what Luna said about Zecora’s potions, believing she knew of a way to solve her little problem. Perhaps it was time for Dr. Chrysalis to make a house call.

Chrysalis waited until Saturday and woke up early in the morning. She quickly made her way towards to the Everfree Forest while taking another guise, feeling courageous enough to traverse within alone after absorbing a large amount of love to give herself some powerful defense. Remembering the route Pinkie took her, she eventually found the zebra’s home. She quietly approached it and looked through the window, where she saw Zecora tending to her various brews. Chrysalis thought the design of her interior was interesting, but she wondered how she could sleep with those creepy masks hanging around.

After over an hour of waiting, Zecora departed from her home and headed towards town to likely do some errands. Once she was out of sight, Chrysalis went inside the zebra’s home. She looked around and found what she was looking for. It was a set of books on a shelf and most of them were about alchemy. Chrysalis took one of the books and skimmed through it. She spent the next ten minutes looking through the books, searching for a potion that would make Time Tuner normal, and then she found just the thing. “Potion of clarity. When one’s mind loses stability, drink this to bring back order to one’s thoughts. Sounds like the perfect medicine for Turner!” She placed the book down and read the ingredients. “Okay, first it requires a pinch of grounded dragon scales.” She looked through the shelves, scanning the various ingredients the zebra possessed, found them in a jar and took it with her magic. She wasn’t sure how much was a pinch, so she took a big chunk of it with her magic and tossed it into the cauldron. “Now for six petals of ash flower, whatever that is.”

Time passed as the changeling worked on the potion, working as carefully as she could. When she put the last of the ingredients in, she used her magic to stir the cauldron’s contents, resulting in the liquid to boil and a puff of smoke to appear. She was not prepared for what came after. “Sweet Celestia, this smells horrendous! What in Equestria have I created!?” She examined the brew in the pot, which was bright orange and slightly bubbling. She followed every direction and it looked safe to drink, but she was not foolish enough to test that herself. She took a small flask from the shelf and filled it. “I guess I will have to see how well it works. It’s not like whatever I could make could make Turner worse than he already is.”

With her magic, Chrysalis lifted the cauldron and brought it with her outside. She traveled a good distance from Zecora’s hut and dumped the liquid onto the ground. She returned to the house and made sure to eliminate any evidence of her visit. Once everything looked how it did before she entered, she exited and followed the path back to Ponyville, thinking she was about to do the world some good.

What she didn’t know was what happened to the plants she dumped the brew on. Shortly after they were exposed to the liquid, they erupted in flames and turned to ash. A few second later, they suddenly restored, only now of a different color and had razor sharp petals. They went under many more transformations as the day passed. What Chrysalis ultimately failed to do was read the introduction of the book she read from. In the introduction, the three golden rules of apothecary were written: use exact amounts of ingredients listed, always clean the cauldron after every brew, and to never handle the ingredients or stir the mixture with magic.

She waited until Sunday night before proceeding with the next step of her plan as going on Monday would be a great day to visit Turner without it looking too suspicious. She took the flask with her and made her way across town back to where Time Turner lived while wearing another disguise. She now had the form of a teenage, grey unicorn with an orange mane. Thankfully, this next part was much simpler. She went up to the door and knocked. As she expected, there wasn’t an answer, so she knocked again, this time much louder. She heard hoofsteps approach the door and then it swung open. “Who is it? Can’t you see-” Chrysalis didn’t bother to wait for him to finish and zapped him with magic. Time Turner fell silent as his eyes glowed green, going back inside with her following.

Once they were inside, Chrysalis closed the door and lowered all of the blinds. She pulled out the flask and uncorked it. “Now be a good boy and drink this.” The controlled pony took the flask from her and started to drink it. “That’s it, be sure to drink as much as you can.” Once he finished, she took it back. “There. Don’t you feel all bet-”

Time Turner suddenly brought his front hooves to his throat and gagged loudly, startling the former queen. After several seconds, he toppled onto the floor, not moving. Chrysalis panicked and ran up to him to check his pulse. Fortunately, he was still alive and his vitals seemed to be stable. After sighing with huge relief, she put him on her back and carried him to his bed. She set him down and placed him under the covers.

She spent a few minutes watching him, praying that nothing went horribly wrong as gagging and passing out was definitely not a good sign. Since nothing else happened as he slept, she decided that it was safe and time to head home. On her way out, she had thought of a precaution in case something went wrong. She took the empty flask, which had a small amount of fluid left, and tossed it into one of the trashcans, making sure it was in plain view in case they needed it.

Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.

Chrysalis felt anxious the entire time she was in the gym with some of her employees. She kept telling herself that everything was fine, but Turner’s reaction kept replaying in her mind. She didn’t see his name in the obituaries, but she couldn’t help but believe something went wrong. Her mind was so clouded with worry that she didn’t notice she was using much heavier weights than usual on the leg-lift, bringing her some weird looks from other ponies. When she and the others were finished, they walked together on their way to Ponyville. The dragon on Rarity’s back moaned loudly. “Why do ponies work out so early? I already want to go back to bed.”

“It takes some dedication, Spikey. With some time, you’ll be a big, strong dragon.”

“Until then, ya’re just a lil’ shrimp,” teased Applejack, causing everyone but Chrysalis to laugh. The changeling had barely said a word to them the entire time they were together, expecting the worst from what she did. Eventually, she came to a stop and looked off to the distance, which the others noticed.

“What’s up, Cherub?” asked Pinkie.

“I just remembered that Turner lives a bit down the road.”

“That crazy pony you mentioned? What about him?” asked Rarity.

“Zecora seemed to be really interested in the guy and I think I need to have a quick word with him. Maybe I can talk some sense into him.” She reached into her gym bag and brought out a key, which she handed to Rarity. “Go ahead and open up. I’ll try not to be long. Come, Pinkie. I may need your help with this.”

“Okie-dokie-lokie! I wanna see the time pony again!” Chrysalis and Pinkie separated from the group, walking in direction of the clock shop. While Pinkie sang the theme song from the show, Chrysalis could feel her heart pounding harder and harder as they came closer.

They soon arrived at the clock shop where the notorious stallion lived. Pinkie was hardly able to contain herself from the thought of seeing him again and threw the door open and yelled, “Hey, Time Turner, we’re back!” They went inside and looked around, waiting for a reply. It was exactly as they remembered it last week; the only thing that was missing was the owner. “Anypony home?”

The changeling was about ready to have a panic attack from his absence. They approached the counter and Chrysalis started ringing the bell. “Hello? Time Turner? You around?”

“I will be down in a minute!”

Chrysalis exhaled a deep sigh of relief, glad they confirmed he was alive. Pinkie bounced in place while Chrysalis was tapping her hoof impatiently. He didn’t sound sick, so perhaps the potion worked. They then heard him coming down the stairs. “Hi, Time Turner!” greeted the pink mare. “We just wanted to talk and HOLY MOLEY WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!?”

Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw. Time Turner’s coat was now a mix of blue, yellow, and green colors, his mane and tail had grown three times their original size, his cutie mark had turned into a question mark, and one of his pupils was even in the shape of a square. “I am terribly sorry for the delay, I have been feeling under the weather lately,” he said as he sniffed loudly.

Chrysalis stared at him with wide eyes. “Weather? It seems more like your body had gone through a natural disaster! What in the name of Celestia has happened to you!?”

Timer Turner just laughed. “Nonsense! I don’t feel that bad, it’s just a cold.” Immediately after he spoke, he sneezed, which caused fire to shoot out of his nose, causing them to jump back. His whole body flashed into a new set of colors. Now he was a mix of green, orange, and purple. “Maybe it’s a little more than a cold. Perhaps the flu?”

The two mares slowly took some steps back, worried of catching whatever he was carrying. “Well, if it’s the flu, just drink lots of water and get plenty of rest,” suggested the changeling fearfully.

“And don’t look in a mirror!” Chrysalis smacked the back of Pinkie’s head.

Time Turner looked at her strangely and made his way into the bathroom. “Mirror? What are you babbling about? I don’t think…” He screamed and rushed back out. “What has happened to me!?”

Chrysalis slowly approached him. “Now let’s just stay calm. Just stay here and-” It was too late. Time Turner was out the door, yelling for help as loud as he possibly could. Many ponies saw him and screamed, running off in many directions. Pinkie and Chrysalis watched as he ran out of sight and they both stood in silence for several moments.

“Chrysalis?”

“Yes, Pinkie?” she responded, still horrified by what she had put into motion.

“Is he going to be alright?”

“I don’t know. You better go get Zecora and I will follow him to make sure he doesn’t get worse.”

“Right.” They dashed out the store into the snowy streets and ran off in their separate directions. It was now clear to the changeling that she had made a horrible, horrible mistake.

It took Chrysalis some time to find Turner, who went straight to the hospital after seeing his own appearance. When she entered, the first thing that caught her eye was the crowd of ponies looking into a room. She made her way through the crowd and peered inside through the window. On the bed was Time Turner himself, who was now a different set of colors and missing his mane and tail. Chrysalis brought her hoof to her mouth and bit it, frightened by her creation. She got away from the window and sat on a chair, waiting for Pinkie to turn up with Zecora. She wondered how in the world this could have happened. She followed the directions as carefully as she could, so why did this happen? Somehow, she created such a mess and that the pony’s life was in her hooves because she had acted stupidly.

Chrysalis slapped herself. She could blame herself all she wanted, but it wouldn’t help. It may have looked bad, but his sickness could be easily reversed. Zecora was a master of potions, so she could just fix him up and it would all blow over. She didn’t care if she ended up back at square one, she just wanted this incident to end happily and move on.

Zecora and Pinkie eventually arrived and she felt huge relief. She motioned them towards her and showed them the room. When they saw the patient, they both gasped. “Oh my, this is a disaster! What has happened to the clock master?” asked Zecora.

“I don’t know,” the changeling lied. “Pinkie and I came to his place earlier today and we found him like that. We better ask his doctor and see what’s going on.”

A stallion doctor stepped out of the room, pushing his way through the crowd. Once he had gotten through, he noticed Zecora and approached her hastily. “Zecora, thank the alicorns you’re here! This patient has come down with the strangest illness I have ever seen in my life and we have no idea what to do!”

“Yes, the seriousness of it does indeed show. Please tell me all I need to know,” she said with concern.

The doctor looked at his chart. “He keeps changing color, his hair keeps growing and falling off at an incredible rate, sometimes breath fires, gained magic that he can’t control, and much more! We’ve tried many forms of treatment, but nothing seems to work. Based on its unusual nature and the patient it has appeared in, we have decided to name it Whooves Syndrome.”

“Is he going to be okay, doctor? Please tell me he’s going to make it!” Pinkie screamed as she shook him.

The doctor sighed. “From what we’ve seen so far, my colleagues and I have concluded that this disease is fatal!” Every pony in the room gasped. “I’m sorry, I meant to say freaky! This disease is most certainly freaky.” They sighed with relief.

“So he’s going to live?” Chrysalis asked nervously.

“Aside from his bizarre symptoms, he feels as sick as if he only had a cold, so he should be fine, but it’s best if we don’t wait and find out if that’s true.” He looked at the zebra. “You go in there and see if you can help him and I will do everything I can out here. The media is going to be breathing down our necks with something like this going on, so please hurry before panic strikes Ponyville.”

“Very well. I will be sure to do my best, but I think that curing this will prove to be a difficult test.” Zecora made her way into the room with Pinkie and Chrysalis behind her.

Time Turner sat in his bed, looking as bad as when they first found them, and brightened up when he saw Zecora enter. “Zecora! You have to help me! The doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong with me and won’t let me go home! I need to go back and run the shop, not waste my time here!”

Zecora walked over to him and started her examination. “I will do what I can to make you once again well. As for how long it will take, only time will tell. If it is true what the doctor has said, then your chances may be better with me instead.”

Pinkie looked over her shoulder. “What are you going to do, Dr. Zecora?”

“I have not seen something like this before, but at least his health does not seem poor. I will give him some of my potions and see what they do. If none prove to be effective, I will have to create a new brew.” Zecora pulled out a bag filled with different colored bottles and set it on the table that was next to the bed. “Now, I want you to try drinking each of these. Perhaps one will hold the answer to your disease.”

“I hope so.” Time Turner picked one at random and drank it. Nothing happened at first, but he suddenly sneezed, which triggered some of the magic he now possessed and several flowers grew on his bed sheet. “Well, that was interesting.” He and Zecora shared a laugh while Chrysalis and Pinkie observed from a safe distance. He swept the flowers off his bed and onto the floor. “I can’t believe this has happened to me. I still have so much I need to get done in my life. I’m not supposed to die now!” Chrysalis winced from that. She wondered if she could find a self-help book that would prevent her from creating stupid plans and going through with them without considering alternatives or consequences.

While he started to drink the second flask, Zecora brought a chair to the edge of his bed and sat in it. “Worry not. We will be able to save your life. Just relax and try to forget your strife.”

Chrysalis took the empty bottle and exchanged it with another. “Yes, Zecora has proven to be quite an amazing healer. It’s a shame she lives so far away in the forest, otherwise I would visit her all the time. And since we have all the time in the world with you, I need to ask why in Tartarus do you obsess over your stupid schedule?”

When he finished drinking the next potion, nothing happened and he sighed with relief. “Well think about it. What do we all have that we just keep losing no matter what we do? Time! Time is the essence of life! It is unstoppable, master of all of existence, and we go about every day wasting it! Do you know how many ponies sit around and do nothing, wasting minute after minute, second after second!? It’s unbearable!”

“The only unbearable thing is you,” Chrysalis said under her breath.

“I decided that I wasn’t going to be like everypony else and make the most of mine. And look where I am now! I’ve created a radio show with incredibly high ratings, I own my own store with products of my own design, possess a steady income, and all before thirty. I know you all think it is very unusual, but you can’t argue with results, can you?”

Chrysalis couldn’t believe he put up a strong argument for his weird obsession, but she refused to admit he was right. “That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life. I’m sure everything must be so easy for you now, but you are honestly as exciting as watching dead grass grow.” She now regretted trying to help Zecora win him over. This was a stallion who shouldn’t be legally allowed to reproduce. Maybe if she smothered him with the pillow, they would let her walk as she would claim it was a mercy killing.

“But Cherub, dead grass can’t grow.” Chrysalis just looked at Pinkie, unamused. “Oh.”

Zecora gave him a worried look. “I know that your mark is for how you handle your time, but I don’t think it meant it as something you should do as often as I rhyme. Your life is something you need to live your own way, not something you should plan day by day.”

He laughed and relaxed against his bed. “You three are not the first to say something like that to me, but I don’t care. I’m happy with how I live my life. I run the shop, I write for my radio show, I sometimes go see fans, and I update my schedule. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Zecora stood from her chair and sat on the edge of the bed. “But don’t you wish for something more? Living your life, always being the same, sounds like a great bore. What about seeing friends or family, or maybe going somewhere?” Zecora stalled for a moment and wore a sly smile. “Are you even interested in looking for a mare?” Chrysalis and Pinkie immediately turned their heads towards him, waiting for his answer.

“Of course I do those. Well, sort of. I do occasionally visit my family during the holidays. As for everything else, I’m afraid I don’t have any friends at the moment. And you’d think with my reputation I would have found a nice mare, but they just seem to lose interest in me for some reason. I wish I could figure out why that is.”

They all groaned loudly and Zecora gave him another bottle without even looking at him. Once Turner finished his drink, his ears grew out, now similar to those of a rabbit. Everypony in the room was trying to contain their laughter while he just rolled his eyes. “Is it all right if we take a break? I’m not sure how much more changes my body can go through.” He gave her the bottle and rested on his pillow.

Zecora stood up and made her way to the door with her head hanging low. “Take as much time as you need. While you rest, I shall go feed.”

“We’ll stay and keep an eye on him, Zecora,” offered Chrysalis. “Just hurry back, or I won’t be able to guarantee his wellbeing.”

Turner watched Zecora as she left the room. “She doesn’t seem to be really happy right now. Is it because she hasn’t cured me yet?”

“Yes, and a little more,” Chrysalis replied.

“Well, she shouldn’t be upset. I’m sure she’s a good doctor like I’ve heard.”

“The fact she hasn’t given up on you and started rooting for your disease yet might prove she’s the best doctor in Equestria.” Pinkie smacked the back of Chrysalis’s head, causing her to growl at her.

“She is the best doctor ever! If Zecora can’t fix you, nopony can!” Pinkie noticed Turner looking at her frightfully. “I mean, I’m sure she can help you. She cares a lot about you.”

The stallion sat up. “Really? How much exactly?”

Chrysalis put a hoof on Pinkie’s mouth. “As much as any other patient, Turner. She’s a very caring zebra.”

“Oh, well I suppose that’s true.” He looked at the ceiling and sighed.

Both mares caught on and Chrysalis decided to boldly investigate. “You seem pretty disappointed. Were you hoping for another reason?”

He looked at her. “Like what?”

She chuckled mockingly. “Like if she was interested in you.”

“But she is interested in me. She’s visited me plenty of times and I’m pretty sure she likes my show.”

They both groaned loudly while putting a hoof on their faces. “Not in that way, you idiot,” said Chrysalis in an annoyed tone. “I mean in this way.” She went up to him, stuck her butt out, and pointed at her cutie mark.

It took him several seconds to realize what she was implying and sprung up. “Now hold on a second! I think you’re jumping to conclusions!”

She shrugged. “Maybe you’re right. I guess I just looked into it a little much when she asked you if you were interested in mares and how she is the only mare to visit and speak with you multiple times. I remember how terrified she was when she heard about you getting sick and how she rushed over here as quickly as she could.”

He lied back down on the bed and turned his back to them. “I hope she comes back soon.”

“I bet you do.” Both mares giggled loudly while he put a pillow over his head. Chrysalis brought Pinkie with her to the far corner of the room so they could whisper.

“Did you see the way he reacted? He’s totally into her! What should we do next?”

“We’re going to wait for Zecora to come back and leave.” Chrysalis looked at the patient. “Turner won’t be able to send Zecora away and I bet he’s going to end up confessing how he feels about her.”

Several minutes went by before Zecora returned. “Hello once again to you all. I have returned from my trip to the dining hall.”

Turner turned towards her, smiling. “Welcome back, Zecora. I think I’m ready to try more of your potions. I really need to be getting back to work soon.”

“Speaking of work, Pinkie and I need to leave now, so we will leave you two alone.”

Pinkie grew a wide smile. “Yeah, we’ll just leave now and I will plan a party for when you get all better!”

He smiled weakly. “That sounds really nice.”

Chrysalis was already at the door and motioning Pinkie towards her. “Just remember that the party can’t happen if you die, so get well soon!” She then slammed the door shut.

Turner grew pale and violently shook. “Y-you’ll cure me, right?”

Zecora looked at him sincerely. “I will work to the best of my ability while I am here, so please do not let yourself to become overwhelmed with fear.”

He felt greatly relieved and smiled. “Thank you. I trust you, Zecora.”

“I can see that your predicament is bringing you woe. Let’s talk about something else instead, perhaps your show?”

Turner chuckled. “I suppose. It’s all ponies want me to talk about. They even named this disease Whooves Syndrome, which I admit is actually clever. Honestly, I wish so many ponies didn’t see me like this. It would have made a great episode. But to be honest, I want to know more about you. I don’t know very much about zebras at all.”

“Very well. I will tell you much of me and my kind. Ask me anything, you will be amazed by the answers you will find.”

“Let’s see.” He pondered on what he was going to ask and then remembered what he had always wanted to ask since they first met. “Okay, I have one. Why do you rhyme everything you say?”

Zecora pulled up a chair and sat down. “Well you see, I grew up in a village filled with flowers of orange.”

Chrysalis was very distracted during the rest of her work day, feeling guilty for the suffering she brought upon the poor pony, but she felt some comfort from the fact that Zecora was working her hardest to save him. Business actually slowed down greatly as when she returned, she announced to everypony what was going on, causing many costumers to run out the door and see the whole thing themselves. Somehow, she made it to closing time. With the customers gone, she began locking up. “I bet Twilight would go crazy if she found out about this,” said Spike. “She absolutely loves Dr. Whooves.”

“Ah’m still wonderin’ what kind of sickness he’s carryin’,” said Applejack. “It just don’t seem natural.”

“We’ll see soon enough.” Chrysalis reached for the front door, but something caught her eye. For some reason, Trixie was still performing tricks. “Trixie, what are you doing?” The mare didn’t answer her and continued to perform to a nonexistent audience, stuffing her cape into her hat. Everyone exchanged a worried look and Chrysalis slowly approached her. “Hello? Equestria to Trixie,” she spoke while waving a hoof in front of her face.

“She’s been acting strangely for a while,” noted Rarity. “I wonder what in the world is wrong with her.”

“I think I know what to do.” Chrysalis raised her hoof and bopped her on the head, only to scramble away when Trixie exploded in blue sparks. “What in the world!?”

“What in tarnation!?”

“Goodness gracious!”

“Oh my gosh! Trixie exploded!”

“Oh, now it makes sense.”

They quickly looked at Spike. “What do you mean, Spikey?”

“Trixie made this cool spell last week where she makes magical clones of herself. They act like Trixie, but they can’t respond to anypony and can only be made to do simple things.”

“Well boy howdy, that’s pretty impressive,” complemented Applejack. “It really looked just like her.”

“Are you telling me I’ve been paying a fake!?” shouted Chrysalis.

“I’m pretty sure that was the real Trixie earlier,” said Spike. “I wonder where she went.”

“She better hope it’s someplace I can’t find her,” threatened the former queen. “At any rate, let’s find the other girls and see what’s going on at the hospital.”

Once they gathered the others, with the exception of Trixie and Twilight as they were mysteriously absent, they headed towards the hospital to see how Time Turner was doing while giving out their own theories of what was ailing him. Pinkie was practically galloping ahead as she had been anxious the entire day, waiting for work to end so she could go visit. “Come on, girls, quit being slow pokes!”

“Now Pinkie, there’s no need to rush,” said Rarity. “We have plenty of time to see him.”

Pinkie took her hoof and dragged her. “But we need to go or we’ll have to wait behind more ponies!”

Before anyone could ask what she meant, they saw the hospital and they then understood what she said. Outside was a massive crowd of ponies, many holding signs. Some of them were demanding to know if there was an outbreak while others were claiming that it was a conspiracy by changelings, specifically Chrysalis. Just then, two large figures exited from the hospital and the sight of them made Chrysalis worry more of what she had done. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna appeared in front of the crowd, silencing them by holding up a hoof. “My fellow ponies,” the Sun Princess spoke, “as you all know, some unknown affliction as appeared in one of your residents. At this moment, we know nothing about his illness and have been unable to cure him. But do not worry, for we have brought with us someone who could help solve this mystery.”

Just then, Discord suddenly teleported in front of them, startling the crowd. “Me!” he exclaimed happily. The crowd murmured, unsure of what to think of this.

Celestia raised her hoof, silencing them once again. “Since this disease certainly seems chaotic, we thought Discord would be able to help in finding a solution,” said Luna. “His magic differs from ours and since we could not cure it, we believe he might be able to.” Chrysalis gulped. They couldn’t help Turner? How serious of a disease did she create?

“How do you know he didn’t cause it?” asked one pony.

He laughed and snapped his fingers, giving him sunglasses, a swimsuit, and a surfboard. “Because I was somewhere else far away, busy teaching the citizens of the Samarea Desert how to surf.”

“But there isn’t an ocean there,” said another.

“There is now! Now allow this reformed draconequus to work his magic and save the day!” He snapped his fingers and a cape appeared around his neck and an emblem with a large D appeared on his chest. He then stuck his arms out in front of him and made whooshing sounds as he ran inside.

When he was gone, Celestia quietly said to the crowd with a weak smile, “He still needs a little work.”

Inside, Turner sat alone in his bed, feeling hopeless about getting better. All the doctors were just throwing everything they could think of at him to no avail. They only saw the disease he carried and not the patient, not caring of how he felt mentally. He wished Zecora was around since she actually cared about him deeply, not to mention having an effect on him that caused an increase in his heart rate. He jumped up when the door was suddenly opened and Discord appeared in a doctor's coat. “Hello there, my little patient!”

“D-Discord!? What’s going on?”

“That’s Doctor Discord to you! Celestia and Luna heard about what was happening to you and are having me cure you.”

The earth pony felt incredibly relieved from the fact the rulers of Equestria had not given up on helping him. “Please do your best.”

“We sure will!” he assured as he stood over him.

“We?”

“Let me introduce you to my two colleagues.” He pointed towards the open door and two other Discords in doctor coats walked in. “Meet Dr. Discord and Dr. Fine.”

“Why isn’t his name Dr. Discord?”

“I had it legally changed. Now let us examine you.” The three draconequuses surrounded him and all looked at him closely with magnifying glasses. Dr. Fine took out a thermometer and placed in the pony’s nose.

“What are you doing?” asked Dr. Discord.

“I’m taking his temperature. What does it look like I’m doing?” Dr. Discord took it and smacked Dr. Fine across the face. “Ow! What was that for!?”

“You dummy! It goes in his mouth, not his nose!” He stuck it in Time Turner’s mouth and he spat it out immediately. “Why did you even think that was what you do?”

“But I thought we were supposed to be nosey.”

“Here.” Dr. Discord gave Dr. Fine some painkillers.

“What are these for?”

“For your headache.”

Dr. Fine scratched his head. “But I don’t have one.”

Dr. Discord then brought out a comically oversized mallet and smashed it over his head. “You do now!”

“Why did you hit him!?” asked Dr. Discord in surprise.

“Because he’s a real head case!”

“Well I think you have a vision problem,” complained Dr. Fine as he rubbed his sore skull. He brought up his lion paw in front of Dr. Discord. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Five,” he answered confidently, only to have Dr. Fine slap him across the face. “Why I oughta…”

The three doctors kept hitting each other, completely forgetting about their patient, who just slowly sank in the covers in defeat. Their fighting was interrupted when the door opened, revealing a Discord in a nurse outfit and with incredibly exaggerated female parts. The three doctors whistled from his appearance. “Helloooooo, nurse!”

Nurse Discord strutted his way to Turner, who was now even more afraid than when he was alone. “Hello, big boy,” he cooed. “Where does it hurt?”

“Um…everywhere?” he replied, afraid of what was going to happen next.

He closely examined him, looking over his visible symptoms. After a minute, he suddenly said, “Ah-ha! I think I have just the thing!” He snapped his fingers, covering the pony in light. After several seconds, it faded, revealing a normal looking Time Turner. “Feeling better?”

The stallion looked over himself in glee. “I-I’m normal! I can’t believe you-” He suddenly felt something within him. After some seconds, he belched out a massive wave of purple fire. When he finished, only one Discord remained, covered in soot. The patient saw his body has changed once again and slowly sank back into his bed. “I should have known it was too good to be true.”

Discord brushed himself off. “I thought for sure that would work. I need to leave for only a moment and I want you to know that saving you is my number one priority!”

Turner found himself smiling. “Thank you, Dr. Discord.”

“Now get some rest. You will need plenty of it.” Discord closed the door behind him and made his way to the front of the hospital. When the ponies saw Discord exiting from the hospital, they began loudly talking to each other, curious of what he was going to say. The Lord of Chaos stood in front of the crowd and held up his hands, silencing them. “After careful examination, I have reached a diagnosis.” Everypony was dead silent as he cleared his throat.

“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S WRONG WITH HIM! HE’S GOING TO SPREAD IT TO US ALL! THIS IS THE END! GET OUT OF HERE NOW BEFORE WE ALL GET SICK TOO! MARES AND CHILDREN FIRST!”

All of the ponies screamed and scattered, panicking uncontrollably. They were trampling over each other and fighting other ponies who got in the way of their path of escape. Celestia, furious by the panic he started, approached him. “Discord, what do you think you’re doing!?”

“Warning the public! I’ve tried everything and it didn’t work! He even made my magic disappear! Get out of here while you still can! It’s not safe here! I am making like a glacier and leaving as fast as possible!” He whistled loudly and stuck out his thumb. “Taxi!”

A yellow cab suddenly pulled up from nowhere and he jumped inside. “Where to, mac?” asked the driver, who was Discord.

“Just get me out of here! And step on it!” The car drove away at top speed, disappearing after a few seconds.

With the citizens gone, all who remained were Chrysalis and her friends, who just stood in surprise. They thankfully stood far behind the crowd and were not caught in any of the chaos that unfolded and despite Discord’s warning, they were determined in solving the mystery. They quickly ran ahead to catch up with the alicorns, who were entering the hospital. “Luna! Celestia!” Chrysalis called.

The two alicorns turned quickly and saw them. “I take it you saw Discord’s display?” asked Celestia.

“Yeah, and Ah’m wonderin’ if he’s right and we outta get out of here since he couldn’t do a thing.”

“Worry not,” said Celestia. “I’m sure we’ll find the answer soon. We just need to remain determined and calm. An answer is sure to show up.”

“Do you mind if we come with you?” requested Rarity. “We want to help the poor dear in any way we can.”

Luna nodded and led them inside. “Please do. I’m sure Twilight will be thrilled to see you all.”

“Twilight’s here?” asked Fluttershy.

“Yes. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was going with him and they wanted her to study him. It was she who told Luna and I of what was happening,” said Celestia.

“I believe I caught sight of young Trixie as well,” spoke Luna.

“Figures,” spat Chrysalis.

They went inside and approached Time Turner’s room. Inside were many doctors, trying many kinds of physical therapy and medication in attempt to succeed where Discord failed.

“Sir, hold still while I make the first attempt at organ massaging!”

“I think a placebo effect is what you need. Take this pill, I promise it will cure you!”

“I think the problem lies here, so we’re going to have to amputate.”

“But that’s my head!” Turner yelled in fear.

“Dr. Casa, maybe-”

“It’s not that one disease, you moron! Now go and fetch me some gummy ponies.”

“Fear not, Trixie shall cure you with her amazing magic!”

The false unicorn growled when she saw Trixie, believing it was her fault this all started. Had she not betted Dash into eating all those doughnuts, none of this would have happened. It was totally not Chrysalis’s fault that she ended up creating an incredibly weird disease through alchemy and forced it down Time Turner’s throat. “Trixie, get out here!” ordered Chrysalis, causing the mare to jump and to come out of the room.

Time Turner somehow looked worse than before. Besides the symptoms he had earlier, he looked as if he had aged, had one hoof replace with a claw, and his cutie mark now had more question marks. Pinkie felt her heartstrings being pulled as she looked at him. “This is just awful! Why can’t anypony make him better!?”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “It’s because they’re all idiots. They don’t know what to do, so they just keep trying something stupid until he either gets better or dies.”

Fluttershy was alarmed. “We can’t let him die! We just can’t!”

“He won’t die as long as I’m here!” Trixie tried to reenter, but Chrysalis grabbed her tail and held her in place. “Hey!”

“It’s best if you stay out here, or else you may end up in prison for posing as a doctor,” advised Luna. Trixie crossed her forelegs and grumbled to herself.

Chrysalis turned back into the room and looked around. “I don’t see Zecora in there.”

“She’s with Twilight at the moment,” answered Celestia. “The two of them have been working together on finding a cure and I haven’t checked up on them in a while.”

“We better find her before those idiots somehow make things worse,” suggested Dash.

The princesses led the group to one of the break rooms and found Twilight and Zecora, who looked stressed while sitting at a table with several open books and scattered papers. Twilight looked up from her work. “Hey, girls. I’m guessing you heard about what’s going on?”

Pinkie was at the verge of tears. “I wanted to see how Time Turner was doing, but now I regret it!”

Chrysalis ignored her and sat with Twilight. “I suppose you’re here because you’re a fan of his and the news of an unknown disease caught your interest.”

“Yes. Right now Zecora and I are trying to think of how to solve this. I’m afraid none of my books have anything on what he has and I have no idea what to do.”

Zecora rested her head on the table. “I have tried everything I had, and to no avail. I fear that if I try anything else, it will only fail. Then those doctors came in to see what all the fuss was about. They just want him to themselves, so they tossed me out.”

Chrysalis could not believe she had created something so powerful on accident. She was certainly glad she didn’t try alchemy out when she was queen. Thankfully, she took caution the day before. “I find it strange that a disease would suddenly just pop up out of nowhere.”

Twilight skimmed through one of her books. “Well it’s not unheard of, but I see your point. But we don’t know where it came from so finding the source could take ages and I’m afraid we don’t have that much time.”

“Maybe he really is a magic pony and he got it from an alien overlord from another dimension!” Pinkie exclaimed frantically, causing Dash and Applejack to put a hoof on their faces and shake their heads.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’m sure he has plenty of time to go around and do exciting things. He probably schedules when he needs to go save the universe or something.”

Twilight’s face lit up. “That’s it!” she exclaimed, startling everypony in the room. “We can look at his schedule and see if he did anything that may have caused him to get sick!” She looked through her pile of notes. “According to what he said, he couldn’t remember anything after seven-thirty last night.”

“And Pinkie and I found him in his bizarre state before nine, so it has to be between those two times,” added the changeling.

Zecora stood up and hastily walked to the door. “Let us not waste time by continuing to speak. Let us go to his home and look for the answers we seek.”

“Tia and I shall wait here to ensure everything is under control,” said Luna. “We wish you the best of luck.”

“We’re going to need all the luck in the world,” Chrysalis said under her breath as she left with the others.

The group arrived at the clock shop and entered by having Celestia’s student teleport them inside. Twilight went to a desk in his bedroom and looked in one of the drawers. Eventually, she pulled out a piece of paper and placed it on the desk. The others grouped around her to see what she had found. “Alright, I found his schedule. Now let’s see if we can find some clues.” They scanned through it, all hoping to find an answer to the mystery, except for Chrysalis, as she already knew it. As she expected, they did not find anything. “Hmm, I don’t see anything totally unusual, but it doesn’t look like he had left home in quite some time.”

“So I guess that means there’s nothing here,” spoke Dash.

“Perhaps we should have a look around the shop anyway,” suggested Trixie. “Maybe we can find something of interest.”

They separated and started their investigation. Zecora looked in the bathroom, hoping to find any sort of strange medication. Twilight looked through the aisles, checking every clock for any sort of magic spell that may have inhabited one of them. Pinkie looked through the bedroom, taking a huge interest in Time Turner’s personal life. The others just explored everywhere else, carefully examining each object they could find. Chrysalis, who decided to let the others to find the clue she had left behind, went into the kitchen and raided his fridge while pretending to look around. After several minutes, Zecora looked through his trash and found the flask. She called the others to her and held it to them. “I have discovered this unusual potion. Perhaps it is the cause of all the commotion?”

Pinkie went up to it and looked at it. She took the cork off and then suddenly pulled away with a hoof over her nose. “Wow! That is really stinky!”

Twilight examined it carefully. “He never said anything about taking any potions. Zecora, can you find out what exactly it is?”

Zecora put the flask in her bag. “I shall take it with me back to my home. Maybe its name can be found in my alchemy tome.” She then ran out the door, heading towards the Everfree Forest.

Pinkie pressed against the window as she watched Zecora run off. “But it could be forever until she finds out what it is! What are we supposed to do now!?”

Chrysalis held the front door open. “The only thing we can do now is wait and hope to Celestia that she comes up with something.”

Pinkie had her head down as she followed and Twilight put her hoof around her. “I’m sure she will find a cure. I have faith in Zecora. Let’s see her tomorrow morning.”

“The rest of you go home and rest up. I will stay with Celestia and Luna to keep an eye on things,” said Chrysalis. She walked off on her own back to the hospital, praying deep down that Zecora could end this nightmare.

The next morning, Luna rounded up the other ponies and teleported them to the entrance of the Everfree Forest and needed Twilight to show her where the zebra lived. Pinkie was impatient and kept telling them to hurry, eager to hear what Zecora had found. Chrysalis felt tired and thought about how badly she wanted to resolve this. Eventually, Zecora’s hut came into sight and Pinkie bolted towards it, banging on the door. “Zecora! Zecora! Are you in there!?”

The door opened and Zecora appeared with bags under her eyes and her hair was slightly messy. “Yes, I am in here, little one. Take a look at this and see what I have done.” She pulled out a large bottle and gave it to Twilight.

Everypony looked at it and then looked back at her in absolute confusion. “It’s a bottle of…cauldron cleaner?” spoke Twilight.

Zecora took it back and placed in her bag. “Yes, this is what he will need. I have to admit, it very strange indeed. The potion we had founded was the cause, but only because it is filled with the biggest of all flaws.”

“What exactly do ya mean?” asked Applejack.

“Every ingredient for a potion contains a small trace of magic. When handled by an amateur, it is just tragic. I believe this potion was made with one mistake being missed, with that being the addition of a magical catalyst.”

“But aren’t potions already magical or something?” questioned Spike.

“The ingredients are, but she means somepony may have added some additional magic, causing those ingredients to act screwy,” answered his caretaker.

“That is correct, Twilight. Whoever had made this was not very bright.” Chrysalis felt better that it was curable, but guilt still rode on her conscious.

“I don’t get it,” said Trixie. “If it’s just a mix of random stuff with additional magic, why couldn't the princesses cure him with their magic?”

“The ingredients’ magic can’t be simply sent away. They will remain in his body and, unless digested, will continue to stay.”

“I’ve noticed he never got hungry or used the bathroom the entire time I was there,” said Twilight. “The potion must have frozen his entire digestive system or something, so the potion stays inside and his body keeps absorbing the magic.”

“So how exactly does a cleaning product solve his problem?” asked Rarity.

Twilight looked at her. “Cauldron cleaner neutralizes the effects of any alchemic ingredient, so a little bit should be enough to fix him without any troubling side effects.”

“But what about Discord?” asked Fluttershy. “He’s way more powerful than Luna and Celestia. Why couldn’t he help him?”

Luna immediately thought of answer. “Do you honestly think he tried to cure him, or simply made the symptoms go away and hope for the best?”

“The second one,” everyone replied at once, followed by some laughter.

Pinkie jumped for joy. “Time Turner is going to be so happy when we tell him you found a cure, Zecora! I’m sure he’ll be your special somepony now!

Twilight stared at Zecora, who was now blushing. “What is she talking about?”

Chrysalis sighed. “We can talk about that later. Let’s just get him better and be done with this.”

“Gather around,” spoke Luna. When they did, she teleported them to the hospital. The outside of the hospital was just the same as the day before, if not worse. The crowd was much larger in size and many were holding signs up, saying stuff such as, “The end is here!”, “Give us the truth, Celestia!”, and “Where is Chrysalis?” The changeling noticed on their way to Zecora’s earlier that there were panicking ponies around Ponyville, but she didn’t think it was this bad. At least it couldn’t get any worse now that they had the cure. “Let us get to Turner and stop this madness." Before they reached the door, many ponies from the crowd started screaming. When the group turned around, they all gasped. A massive force field covered the sky and eventually all of Ponyville. “Oh no!”

“What’s going on!?” shouted Fluttershy as she hid behind Pinkie.

A pony pointed towards the sky and shouted, “WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!” The crowd exploded in panic and once again dispersed in the most chaotic way possible.

Celestia bolted out of the hospital and looked towards the sky. “Those fools! I told them this isn’t necessary!”

“What the heck’s going on!?” yelled Rainbow Dash.

Celestia looked at them. “News of Turner’s disease has spread to every city in Equestria and the higher ups in Canterlot wanted to impose quarantine. I told them it wasn’t contagious, but it appears they didn’t listen! Please tell me you found something!”

“Zecora believes she knows what’s wrong with him and may have a cure,” spoke Rarity.

“Luna and I need to calm the citizens before riots erupt. Hurry, my little ponies! Cure him before things get worse!” The alicorns took flight as the rest charged into the hospital. Right as they entered, they were met with the sound of several screams. They all ran towards the source of the noise, trying to see what was happening. When they got there, they saw a group of doctors fleeing in terror as another pony that they couldn’t identify ran down the hall.

“Leave me alone! I can’t stand it anymore!” he shouted as he disappeared.

Twilight took notice of one of the nurses standing there and ran to her. “Nurse Redheart, what’s going on!?”

“It was Turner! He started getting worse so the other doctors here tried some more extreme measures of treatment, but then he just freaks out and starts screaming at them to stop, but those quacks just ignored him! He suddenly starts glowing with magic and fought back. He’s completely out of control and if he doesn’t calm down, he might hurt somepony or himself!”

Pinkie became absolutely panicked. “What are we going to do!?”

“We’re just gonna have to find a way to get him to drink the cleaner and hope it works,” answered Applejack.

“Let’s go, girls!” Twilight was about to run, but Chrysalis put a hoof in front of her face.

“But you heard what she said. He’s completely snapped and I don’t want a personal demonstration of what he can do with that magic of his.”

“Well we can’t just stand around and wait, so pony up and let’s go save the Doctor!” They ran up the stairs in pursuit with Chrysalis tailing behind, not wanting to be his first victim. They swept through every floor, trying to find the missing patient, but to no success. Eventually, all they had left was the roof.

At the top of the stairwell, Applejack slowly opened the door and peeked outside. She could make out a figure standing close the edge, looking down. “Ah think Ah see him. What do we do now?”

Twilight reached into Zecora’s bag and grabbed the cauldron cleaner. “I’ll try to give him the cure. You all stay back.”

“Be careful, Twilight,” said Spike with worry. “It sounds like he’s gone crazy!”

“I’ll be fine, Spike.” The unicorn stepped out on the roof. “Time Turner! We managed to find-” He suddenly whirled around and shot a bolt towards her.

“TWILIGHT!” all her friends cried in horror.

She put up a hoof and closed her eyes. Instead of an impact, she heard the sound of a feminine grunt.

“CHERUB!” shouted Pinkie.

Twilight opened her eyes, finding Chrysalis standing in front of her. Before she could say anything, the matchmaker grabbed her with her mouth and ran back to their hiding spot.

“All of you stay back!” Time Turner shouted, attracting the attention of the others. “I don’t want any more needles, pills, surgery, leeches, or animal sacrifices! I just want to be left alone!” They then all got a good look at him and were horrified. Several spots on his body were rapidly changing color, his mane was gone, his tail was similar to a dragon’s, and he had one wing on his back that was much larger than him.

Chrysalis set Twilight down on the floor. “Are you okay? You really had us scared!”

“Yeah, but looked what he did to you!” shouted Twilight in shock.

Everyone looked at her and gasped. All of Chrysalis’s legs were turned into long blocks of cheese with holes in them. “Wha…wha…is this some sort of sick joke!?”

Pinkie rushed in to give her a hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay and now delicious!” She licked her lips and reached her mouth towards one of Chrysalis’s legs, only to be smacked on the back of the head.

“I’m so glad you’re safe, Twilight! I was scared to death!” Trixie closed her eyes and rushed the unicorn, planting her lips on hers while hugging her tightly.

“Trixie, you missed,” spoke Dash while sniggering.

The magician opened her eyes and saw that she was kissing Fluttershy, causing her to immediately back away. “Oh my gosh! I am so sorry!”

“It’s…okay…” The pegasus then fainted.

While Pinkie held her marefriend, Rarity peeked out the door. “Well he’s officially gone crazy and is going to attack anypony that approaches him. Anypony got an idea?”

Zecora stepped forward. “I shall be the one who goes for I am somepony he knows.”

Twilight got in front of the door and shook her head. “Zecora, it’s way too dangerous. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Curing the sick is something I must do. Now please, Twilight, stand aside and let me through.”

“If he sees you coming, he’s going to zap first and ask questions later. If only we could distract him or something.”

All of a sudden, Trixie sprang up. “Fear not, for the Great and Powerful Trixie shall save the day!”

“Why is she talking like that again?” Dash whispered to Rarity, receiving a shrug in return.

“With my illusions, I shall provide the cover you need to reach him!” She pushed aside Twilight and opened the door. “Come, Zecora! Let us be heroes!” With her magic, Trixie conjured several copies of herself all over the roof. “Hey, you!”

The sick stallion quickly shot a bolt, destroying one of the fakes. “I said stay back! Don’t make me hurt you!”

“Yoo-hoo! I’m over here!” Turner destroyed the illusion and attacked the next.

“Now’s your chance. Go, Zecora!” said Twilight and Zecora went out the door while keeping her head low. Trixie made sure that her clones were positioned in spots away from Zecora so Turner wouldn’t see her coming and continued to call out to him.

“How are you throwing your voice like that?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Before I became a magician, I was a ventriloquist for a short while.” She visibly shuddered. “Those were dark times.”

“I’m guessing you gave up because your act was wooden!” Spike laughed loudly until he saw many furious mares looking at him, causing him to stay silent.

Time Turner frantically attacked the illusions, not registering the fact they turned into sparks when he hit them. Suddenly, he saw one flying by flapping her legs, causing him to stare in confusion. “A flying pony that isn’t a pegasus? Perhaps I may have gone a bit mad.”

“Time Turner.” He whirled around and was ready to retaliate, but halted when he saw who it was. “Please do not fear. It is only I that is here.”

He rubbed his eyes and leaned closer. “Z-Zecora? Is that you?”

“Yes, Turner. I have come back for you. I am now ready to do what I was meant to do.”

He slowly walked towards her. “You mean…you can cure me?” He suddenly stopped and shook his head. “No! It’s just another lie! Those other doctors said the same thing, but all they did was just bring me pain!”

Zecora slowly lifted a hoof and gently stroked his cheek. “I cannot imagine all that you have been through, but do not think once that I ever do something like that to you. I come to you not only as a healer, but as a friend; A friend who wants nothing more than to see your torment end.”

Time Turner stared into her eyes and then he fell onto the ground, weeping. “Please make me better! I can’t stand going on like this anymore! I just keep turning more into a monster! I just want everything to be normal again!”

Zecora took out the bottle, unscrewed the lid, and held it to him. “Out of the many possible cures, this is the only one. Just drink a little of this down and it will all be done.”

He took the bottle from her and looked at it. “Cauldron cleaner? Are you really sure this will work?” She nodded at him. He stared at her for a while and then sighed. “Okay. I trust you, Zecora. Well, bottoms up.” He brought the bottle to his lips and slowly drank it, trying to fight the urge to gag from its foul taste. When he finished, he dropped it onto the ground and started coughing. His body shook and he fell to the ground. Chrysalis and the others ran to him to see what was happening to him. His body’s rapid color change soon began to slow down and reverted back to its original color and his excessive features faded away, now resembling his normal self.

“You did it, Zecora! He’s back to normal!” exclaimed Pinkie. “And look! Cherub’s normal too!”

Chrysalis examined her legs, which had reverted to normal in terms of her illusion. “That’s a relief. I’m pretty sure Pinkie was ready to turn me into fondue.” They all laughed at her and stopped when they noticed Time Turner getting up. “I think we should get the poor guy into bed. He must be very exhausted from all those quacks bugging him.” Before she could pick him up, he held his stomach and moaned loudly. “Oh no, what now!?”

“I…I…”

“What’s wrong!?” exclaimed Twilight.

The stallion sprung onto his hooves and ran to the door. “I need to find a bathroom!” He disappeared down the stairs, leaving behind a bunch of laughing ponies.

An hour had passed since Turner had returned to normal. He was kept in the hospital for further examination as everypony worried of him suddenly getting ill again. He rested on the bed in his room while speaking with the other ponies until the door to the room opened, showing Luna and Celestia. They walked in and examined the stallion. “I’m glad you are better, Time Turner,” spoke Celestia. “How exactly did this all happen?”

“It was simply a potion accident, no real harm. You should go to the ponies outside and tell them there’s no need for any more alarm,” said Zecora.

“And Zecora totally saved the day,” complimented Dash.

“So did I!” argued Trixie. “I’m going to tell the media that it was both of us who saved Time Turner!”

Zecora yawned and sat on the edge of the bed. “Please do not give them my name. I do not desire a life full of fame.”

“Are you sure?” asked the younger alicorn. “You have accomplished an incredible feat and I think it is only fair you are recognized for it.”

She nodded at her. “I am quite humble with my life of solitude. The only reward I desire is mere gratitude.”

“Very well. We will respect your wishes and not mention your name.”

“Wait a minute,” Trixie said suddenly. “Does that mean I can tell them I saved the day!?” Zecora chuckled and nodded her head. “Yes! Come on, Celestia! Let’s go make some headlines!” The magician went out the door with a skip in her step while the princess sighed and shook her head as she followed.

“I’m guessing a lot of ponies are going to visit the shop now, but they might worry about catching what I had. Please tell me this is the end of my disease.”

Zecora took his hoof. “Yes, there is nothing more to fear. You will also be able to go home today, my dear.”

Time Turner fell back onto his bed. “That’s good to hear. I think I’ve had enough excitement for a while.” He then sat right back up. “What in Celestia’s name was wrong with me anyway?”

Twilight took out the empty flask and gave it to him. “We found this in you shop. It was a flawed potion that had powerful magic mixed into it, which caused all your symptoms. Do you remember drinking it?”

He took it and held it up. “I don’t remember ever seeing anything like this. Where in Equestria could I have possibly obtained it?”

“Well shouldn’t it be obvious? Didn’t you write down ‘drink weird potion and see what happens’ in your stupid schedule?” questioned Rainbow Dash.

Turner shook his head. ”Don’t be absurd. I would never do such a thing.”

Luna approached him. “I’m afraid ponies are going to be asking many questions about this and, to my reluctance, we’re going to have to question you, Zecora.”

“WHAT!?” exclaimed everyone in the room.

“I’m sorry, but it needs to be done. Turner’s bizarre illness was confirmed to have been caused by a potion, which is what you specialize in, Zecora. There’s also the fact that it was you who has been visiting him on many occasions recently. At the moment, everypony will be looking at you as the prime suspect.”

“But she’s innocent!” protested Turner. “She would never do such a thing!”

“I believe that as well, but I will try my best to clear her name.”

“You can’t bring her in! Everypony will think she’s guilty if you do!” shouted Rarity.

The ponies and dragon argued loudly with Luna until Chrysalis whistled over them, making them silent. “If I may, I think I have an explanation.”

“You do?” asked Luna.

“Of course. You see, from my line of work, I have learned that there indeed are some weird ponies, so obviously Turner here has some strange fans. Rumors were already going around about Zecora continuing to visit him and a certain pony, who I am assuming is a mare, became jealous. They must have created a potion for whatever reason and then offered it to him or sent it in the mail or something. It must have been a unicorn as we learned this potion contained magic, which Zecora obviously does not possess. Besides, why would she ever poison the guy? You girls have known her for a while and know she is not capable of such a thing. What would it even accomplish? He could have died from drinking a faulty potion. Let’s not forget that it was sitting out in the open, which Zecora wouldn’t have done if she was our culprit. More than likely somepony left it there on purpose in attempt to frame her.”

“You have a very good point,” spoke Luna. “Okay, Celestia and I will personally question you later in private. We know you are innocent, but we just want to be sure we have all the facts while we investigate this matter. We’ll also keep the cause of your sickness a secret for now to ensure ponies don’t jump to conclusions.” She then smiled. “After all, I don’t see Zecora as somepony who would hurt somepony she cares deeply for.”

Everyone in the room smiled when they saw the two of them blush. “N-now let’s not jump to any conclusions here! She and I are merely acquaintances!” stammered the stallion.

Zecora leaned towards him, which caused him to lean back while sweating. “That is something we do not merely need to be. Don’t you want to get to know more of me?”

“O-of course! I didn’t mean any offence by not making enough time for you. You are very interesting, you have an incredible knowledge about medicine, and I like you a lot more than any of those other doctors.”

She slowly smiled, making him nervous. “You say that you like me more? I’d like to know what it is about me you adore.”

He trembled on the bed as the others grinned at him. “W-well, you know! You were much friendlier, you were always reassuring me while those jerks kept me in the dark, you actually cared about me and not just the illness, we actually got to talk about things, and you’re pretty.” The mares suddenly giggled loudly and he realized what he had just said. “I-I mean y-you’re pretty interesting! That’s what I meant! And I would like to get to know you better sometime.”

Chrysalis could detect love growing between the two and decided to reassure its continuance. “Yes, I bet you would. But of course, with all that has happened, you must be behind on your life. You probably won’t have time to see her for about a week or so.”

He gasped and put a hoof on his head. “You’re absolutely right! I am very behind right now so when I go back, I will…” He then noticed Zecora, who had a disappointed look on her face. “You know what? I think I need a break and just go with the flow. I’ll just take the time to relax and do something different for once” He grabbed Zecora’s hoof and looked at her with a blushing face. “I know this is sudden, but do you want to go out sometime?”

Zecora laughed. “You certainly have a way for going for a mare’s heart. Very well, I will give it a start.” To everyone’s surprise, she moved Time Turner to one side of the bed and got on. “Now if you don’t mind, don’t make a peep. I’ve been working tirelessly and now I require much needed sleep.” She got under the covers and closed her eyes.

Time Turner yawned loudly. “I feel quite exhausted myself. If you all don’t mind, I would like to be left alone while I rest. I have had enough excitement for a lifetime.”

Luna nodded. “Take as much time as you need. Come on, everypony. Let’s leave them alone.”

They walked out while Pinkie hopped with excitement. Twilight was just about to leave, but then turned around and ran to Turner. “I’m sorry, it’s just I’m such a huge fan!” She took out a poster of Doctor Whooves and a quill with ink on the tip.

He chuckled as he took both items. “Just couldn’t resist, eh? Very well.”

She wore a nervous smile. “Could you make it out to Twilight Sparkle?”

He put the quill in his mouth and signed the poster. Twilight immediately took it back as soon as he finished and looked at it. On one of the bottom corners, it said, “To Twilight Sparkle. From Time Turner, aka Doctor Whooves.” She jumped excitedly. “Thank you so much!”

Twilight left the room and closed the door behind her. Turner got into his sheets and rested against Zecora. “You know, it’s quite nice to be this close to you, Zecora.”

“And I am glad that all of this madness is done.” She looked up at him. “If you don’t feel that tired, perhaps we could have a little fun?”

“Fun? What kind of fun?” Zecora smiled at him and got out of the bed. She took the chair and brought it to the door, blocking it. She got back on the bed and sat on top of him, causing the stallion to blush deeply. “O-oh my! What is it you are going to do?”

She reached down and pecked him on the lips. “You.” She pulled the blanket over them and they laughed as they moved around on the bed.

When the others returned outside, they saw Trixie and Celestia standing before a massive crowd of ponies. “And that is how the Great and Powerful Trixie saved the day!” The crowding erupted in cheering, chanting her name.

“Trixie, on behalf of Equestria, we thank you for your heroism,” spoke Celestia.

“Trixie demands that she is given a medal for her deeds!”

Celestia chuckled loudly. “A medal it is then.”

“And a parade in Trixie’s honor!”

The princess rubbed the back of her head. “A little excessive, but I’ll think about it.”

“And a glorious golden statue made in Trixie’s image!”

“You’re pushing it.”

As Trixie and Celestia spoke to the crowd, the others slipped by and headed back to town. “And so ends another exciting adventure,” spoke Spike.

“Not really an adventure, but certainly exciting,” commented Rarity. “It’s going to be a long time before everypony calms down from this incident.”

“I’m just glad you fixed him before anypony got hurt,” spoke Luna.

“What about when Cherub had cheese for legs when she got zapped by him?” asked Pinkie.

Luna gasped loudly and looked at her marefriend. “What!? Why didn’t you tell me!?”

Chrysalis shrugged at her. “It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

Luna pulled her in for a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re safe, my wittle cutie-cupid!”

“Luna, not in public!” she shouted as the others snickered at her.

As Chrysalis tried to get away from Luna’s public display of affection, Twilight walked up to her. “Cherub, I never got to thank you for protecting me back there. It was really brave of you, so thank you.”

“I just saw you in danger and I reacted. I would feel terrible if anything happened to you.” To her surprise, saying that didn’t result in her usual shuddering or gagging. “Anyway, I think we should take today and tomorrow off from work while everypony calms down. I’ll see you girls later.”

“Bye, Cherub. See you later!” said Pinkie as she and her friends walked away, leaving Chrysalis with Luna.

“Mind taking me home?” Luna’s horn glowed and the next thing she knew, they were in her bedroom at Cupid’s Arrow. “You’re the best,” she said as she threw herself on the bed.

Luna got on the side next to her. “So Cherub, about what happened to you.”

Chrysalis chuckled, finding it amusing that early that day part of her body turned into dairy products. “I’m fine, Luna. I was cured as soon as Turner was. It wasn’t that bad.”

“And I am relieved by that, but I am still shocked you were attacked.”

Chrysalis hugged her and Luna returned the gesture. “Such a sweet pony for worrying about lil old me. He just went kind of crazy from all those loser doctors.”

“Cherub, I have to say that it was very heroic of you to protect young Twilight like that. I never thought you could be like that.”

“Well I care about the kid and I didn’t want anything to happen to her.”

Luna kissed her on the lips. “Try not doing anything stupid like that again.”

“No promises.” Luna chuckled as Chrysalis snuggled against her.

“You know, I think you need a break from everything and do something nice for once.”

“I guess I should, but do you have something in mind?”

Luna suddenly blushed. “Well, I’ve been thinking this over for a while and I think this is the perfect way to reward you for your heroism.”

“Oh my. What does my little Lulu have planned for me?” Luna leaned into her ear and whispered. A few seconds later, Chrysalis gasped loudly and then kissed Luna.

Author's Note

Rhyming is HARD!

Can you believe this was originally supposed to be the third chapter? Thank God I pushed it back until much later.

Date of Deceit

“Now Luna, I need you to think very carefully of your choice. A wrong choice could ruin everything before you even begin.”

Luna bit her lip as her eyes shifted left and right, examining both of her options. “This is too much! I need more time to think!”

The Sun Princess shook her head. “There isn’t any time left. You have to choose now.”

Luna could feel her heart racing as she thought hard of what was the best choice. Both options seemed to be the right choice, but she had no way of knowing. They could both be wrong for all she knew. After some very careful consideration, she made her decision. “I choose…purple!”

Celestia placed the blue dress down on the bed and gave the purple dress to Luna. “I think that is a good choice. Something of a different color from your coat should really make you stand out.”

Luna went behind a dressing screen and began putting it on. “It looks lovely, but I just hope Cherub likes this.”

“Knowing her, I think she might be more interested in getting you to take it off,” Celestia teased.

Luna rolled her eyes. “It’s been over a thousand years since I have been on a date and my first one with a mare. I actually feel very nervous.”

Her sister chuckled. “You? A mighty alicorn afraid of a simple date?”

“I haven’t done anything like this in so long and I haven’t even researched dating in this modern era. I just want to impress her.”

“And you will. With everything planned, I’m sure this night will be unforgettable for the both of you, so relax and have a good time. It’ll be just like whenever you two are together, only with a bit more romance.”

Luna moved the screen aside, showing her in the long, dark purple dress that showed the various phases of the moon around the edge of the skirt. It was rather simple in design for alicorn attire, but Celestia felt it would be more than enough for tonight. “How does it look?” she asked with a nervous blush.

“You look so cute, Lulu. I can tell now that purple was a good idea.”

Luna sat at her mirror to brush her hair. “Have you spoken with Cadance yet?”

“Yes and she has everything prepared for you two. I’m sure you and Cherub will find it to your liking.”

“Such a sweet girl for helping her old aunt.”

“She loves you, Luna. You shouldn’t be so nervous about asking her for help.”

“I know. It will be nice to spend some time with her and Shining while we’re there.”

Celestia retrieved a small box and placed it in front of her sister. “And I should also let you know that Nymph is dying for the details of what you two do tonight.”

Luna opened the box, containing sapphire earrings, and began putting them on. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Because she is nosey for gossip and has been obsessing over you two since your relationship had been announced to the media.”

Luna giggled. “So very true. At least it’ll keep her distracted from worrying about Chrysalis.” When she finished, she let out a sigh. “I wonder where that changeling is right now.”

Celestia shrugged and rested her head on a hoof. “That is the million bit question. I’m quite surprised she has not tried anything against my student and her friends after all this time.”

“She must be planning something big, but that wouldn’t explain why she would send a letter or even mention that she was involved with somepony.”

“There are a million possible reasons for why she hasn’t carried out her revenge. I hope she has used her time wisely to think over what she has done and better herself. However, no matter how sorry she is, it is going to be living Tartarus for us all when she shows up.”

Luna got off her seat and flopped on her bed, thinking about all of the ponies and even changelings demanding that they shove Chrysalis into some deep, dark hole. “Even I still have yet to get everypony past the whole Nightmare Moon incident. I’m afraid she is going to find it much harder to achieve forgiveness than I have since her invasion is still fresh on everypony’s mind.”

“That is if she is in fact sorry for what she did.”

Luna nodded. “We can only pray. She will face many trials to earn the trust of both our kingdoms.”

“I’m sure no matter what, Nymph will force us into accepting her.” Celestia smiled as Luna chuckled from her remark. “But what about you? Can you find it in your heart to forgive the evil queen?”

Luna developed an irritated scowl and crossed her forelegs as she looked at the ceiling. “It all depends on her. Even so, it will be difficult for me to do so for obvious reasons.”

Celestia moved to the edge of the bed, placing a hoof on Luna’s shoulder. “It’s in the past, Lulu. You never have to worry about that again. Now let’s stop worrying about such things and think about your date. We wouldn’t want your niece’s lessons to go to waste, do we?”

Luna smiled. “Of course not. Tonight is going to be a time of joy, not misery. I shouldn’t ruin the mood by worrying so much. I’m sure Cherub is relaxed and taking her time, so I should do the same.”

Chrysalis slammed her hooves down on the table. “How many more things are on your stupid list!? This is taking forever!”

Twilight huffed in annoyance while examining her scroll. “There’s still your make-up, your hair, and your dress.”

Chrysalis snatched the list from her and looked it over. “Luna’s going to be here any minute! Why are we so behind on everything!?”

“We’re almost done and you have almost an hour, so just relax,” Dash snapped in frustration.

Chrysalis whirled around and looked directly at her. “Have you ever been out on a date with an alicorn?”

“No, but there’s no reason to act like a jerk!” shouted Trixie, only to quickly dodge a magical bolt shot straight at her.

Chrysalis was very high strung about the situation. Right after the incident with Time Turner, Luna worked up the courage to ask her out on a romantic date to help her take her mind off of things, which she accepted. It had been over a week since then as Luna was suddenly busy with ponies rushing to her and Celestia, worried about another outbreak of Whooves Syndrome. However, Chrysalis was the type of changeling who wanted things exactly how she wanted them. She had done so while posing as Cadance, but now she was more aggressive than before. This was going to be a romantic date with a pony she actually had feelings for, which was something she had not done in a very long time. They had been sitting at one of the many tables at the speed dating section of her home with her yelling her head off almost the entire time as they helped prepare her for the night. She swore if anypony ruined this night for her, she would snap their neck. “When is Rarity going to be here? She’s three minutes late!”

“She’ll be here before Luna comes, so please just shut up and chill out,” pleaded Applejack.

Before Chrysalis could shout some more, Pinkie appeared and held her hoof. “Now, now, Cherub. Luna wouldn’t like it if you were all angry and stuff on your date. We don’t want you to be like the old Cherub, remember? Just relax and everything will be totally okay. You have to trust us.”

Much to everypony’s surprise, the changeling relaxed. “You’re right. There’s no point in getting upset over some little things. I’m so sorry for snapping at you all. You’re all doing your best and I’m just being a pain in the flank.”

Applejack chuckled. “It’s fine. We know ya just want to impress Luna.”

“Fluttershy,” she called, causing the pony’s head to poke out from behind the couch. “I’m so sorry for yelling. It’s okay to come out.”

The pegasus slowly came out. “O-oh, I-I hope so.”

When she fully came into view, they noticed Spike clinging to her leg. “Spike, how long have you been hiding there?” asked Twilight.

“As long as she has.” He let her go and remained on the spot. “No offense, but I feel safer over here."

“Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to yell anymore,” Chrysalis promised. “Why don’t you come on over here and help?”

He quickly took a step back. “N-no thanks.”

“Come on, scaredy drake,” taunted Rainbow Dash. “Even Fluttershy’s over here. You’re not actually scared of Cherub, are you?”

“N-no way! I’m not scared of her!” he argued while taking another step away.

“He totally is,” mocked Trixie. “So much for being Rarity’s brave knight.”

He could feel his cheeks burn as the ponies laughed at him. “O-oh yeah!? I’ll show you!” He marched over and stood right in front of Chrysalis. “There. I am totally not-” Chrysalis bent down and scooped him up, causing him to break into panic. “Help! She’s got me! Celestia, where are you!?”

“As I thought,” Chrysalis taunted as she dropped him on the floor.

He stood by Twilight and crossed his arms. “This is the last time I’m ever helping you,” he muttered as Chrysalis laughed at him.

Chrysalis was interrupted when the front door of Cupid’s Arrow opened and Rarity walked in with a large, flat box on her back. “Hello, Cherub! I have your dress right here!” she called with delight.

Chrysalis shot up excitedly. “About time you arrived. Did you make it in the way I wanted?”

The unicorn walked up to her and held out the box. She opened it a tiny bit and Chrysalis looked inside, smiling widely afterward. “Of course. I promise you that Luna will absolutely love it! Now let’s go upstairs and give it a try. Fluttershy, can you come lend a hoof? We also have to do her hair real quick.”

The yellow pony gulped and trudged as slowly as she could towards them. “S-sure.”

Chrysalis took the box and made her way into the bedroom with the two ponies following. While she was getting dressed, the other ponies and dragon talked. “This is so exciting! I can’t imagine what it will be like for her to go on a date with Princess Luna!” said Trixie.

“I must admit, this is totally surprising. I never saw them as the kind to actually love each other,” spoke Spike, “especially with how scary she was a few minutes ago.”

“Maybe if it goes well enough, there will be a second royal wedding in the future!” exclaimed Pinkie, causing all of the ponies to giggle.

“That would be pretty awesome,” said Dash. “Hopefully nothing goes wrong this time.”

“Yeah. I think we all had enough excitement with the last one, but I really doubt the changelings will want to try something like that again,” said Twilight.

“And think about it, Twilight. Ya and Cherub are goin’ to be related! Ain’t that somethin’?”

Pinkie laughed. “That would be so funny because…” She fell silent, realizing she could not tell them what she was thinking. It was amusing to her that Chrysalis would end up being related to her when she had failed doing so before.

“Because what, Pinkie?” asked the unicorn.

The pink pony thought desperately. “Because…you would be related to two ponies who work with love and yet you don’t have any!”

All of the ponies but Twilight laughed hard. “Wow, thanks,” she grumbled.

“You know we can easily fix that,” cooed the magician as she brought her face close to Twilight’s. “Haven’t you heard the news? I’m quite a big deal right now. I could show quite a few of my private tricks.”

Before Twilight could voice her protest, they heard the door upstairs open. They all quickly gathered at the bottom, waiting for the lucky mare to descend. Rarity and Fluttershy appeared first. “I give you,” Rarity pointed up the stairs, “Cherub!”

They all gasped when Chrysalis came into view. Her dress was a mix of red and pink stripes with little hearts around the sides. She wore ruby red shoes on her hooves, her hair was tied up into the shape of a bun on the back of her head, and her lips were coated with lipstick. No pony said a word while she descended to the bottom as they were in awe. “How do I look?” she asked shyly.

“Cherub, you look amazing!” exclaimed Twilight.

“Seriously, I think even Luna’s gonna be jealous by how beautiful you are,” complemented Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie happily yelled, “If I wasn’t a lesbian already, I would totally become one right now!”

Everypony laughed with her. “That’s certainly an interesting compliment, Pinkie,” said Chrysalis with great amusement.

“Any idea what Luna has planned for the both of you?” Rarity asked curiously. “I bet it is absolutely romantic since she is royalty.”

Chrysalis sat at one of her couches and they gathered around her. “She hasn’t said a single thing. It must be a really big surprise for her to keep silent about it for this long.”

“You sure I can’t come along? I can do a great show while you two have dinner,” pleaded Trixie. “You’ve seen how amazing I am!”

The changeling grinned tauntingly at her. “Why certainly, Trixie. I’m sure we’ll go somewhere that has plenty of curtains you can set on fire.”

Everypony laughed while Trixie blushed. “Oh come on! That was just a simple mistake!”

“I suppose. I guess it’s common of a pony to set off fireworks inside of a building,” she reminded in a somewhat harsh tone.

She crossed her forelegs and turned her head away. “Don’t blame me, blame the audience.”

“At any rate, I’m sure whatever Luna has planned will be great. She has access to the most wonderful places in Equestria and I am more than confident she will not disappoint. Then again, this is her first date in a thousand years, so she might be a bit nervous about pleasing me.”

“Are you nervous?” asked Fluttershy.

Chrysalis leaned against the couch and placed her hooves on the table. “I admit I’m getting cold hooves. I’ve never actually been out with a pony like her before and I pray she will not be critical on me. I really never thought about what her standards are as royalty since we get along so well.”

“You’ll be fine. She loves you for you,” said Twilight.

“I know. I just wish you all were sitting nearby, keeping an eye on things and helping me do things right like I have done for some of you in the past.” She sat up. “Girls and Spike, I just want to say that I am so glad to have met you all. I know you all thought I was an insufferable, moody pony during the first few weeks after I arrived here in Ponyville, but I’m glad we all became friends.”

“You should be thankin’ Pinkie for all that,” noted Applejack as she pointed at the other earth pony.

“I know I should. She is the reason I came to know any of you and Luna as well as I do now.” She pulled in the pink mare for a hug and nuzzled her lovingly. “We’ve spent so much time together that I kind of consider her to be like a daughter to me.” Pinkie giggled as all the ponies simultaneously said “Aw.”

“Hey, Cherub, you ever going to tell us about your secret past yet? We’re just dying to know what’s your deal,” stated the blue pegasus.

“In good time, Rainbow Dash. I would prefer having everything attended to before I do so. I must make sure it all goes according to plan.”

“Can you at least give us a hint of what it is?”

She shook her head with a smile. “I cannot.”

“Ah don’t mean to invade yar privacy, but why are ya so secretive about it in the first place? Ah thought ya just came here after almost getting married.”

“That is true, but I’m afraid there is a lot more to me than you know. What I told you about me is merely the tip of the iceberg.”

“Are you like a secret agent on a top secret mission?” asked Spike with awe.

She chuckled at him. “I’m afraid it’s not that exciting. Your imagination is almost as big as Pinkie’s.”

“Witness protection?” guessed Rarity.

Chrysalis grinned at her. “After your time working for me, I’m sure you could tell that ponies need protection from me.”

The seamstress chuckled. “Very true.”

“Are you some sort of criminal in hiding?” asked Trixie.

While Pinkie became nervous, Chrysalis remained very calm. “Good guess, but if that was true, I wouldn’t be trying to get published on magazines. I know you’re all very curious, but I beg you all to be patient. For now, let us wait for Luna to arrive.”

“Until then, let’s sing the Winter Wrap-up song!” exclaimed Pinkie.

Dash loudly groaned. “Pinkie, we did that like five times four days ago. You know, when Winter Wrap-up actually happened?”

“Well that doesn’t mean we can't sing it again! Are you ready, everypony!?” Pinkie took a deep breath, but Fluttershy reached over and closed her mouth.

“Uh…aren’t we supposed to do that thing we all said we’d do?”

Everyone but Chrysalis gasped. “How could we forget about something so important!?” exclaimed Rarity.

“What are you talking about?” She watched as they huddled together in a circle, whispering amoungst each other. After a while, they all faced her, with Pinkie standing in front of all of them.

“Cherub, we’ve been doing a lot talking about you and we just want you to know that we all love you so much as a friend. Even though you were pretty mean at first and still are sometimes, we’ll always be here to support you. We know your past was really rough and you still worry about making up for it, but we want you to know that your future is looking pretty bright! No matter how bad it looks, just remember that you have a lot of friends who love you! We’re so grateful with how you help us find love and even got us a job, so we decided to give you something!” Pinkie pulled out a small box and held it to Chrysalis.

The changeling took it and opened it. Upon seeing its contents, she gasped and put a hoof to her mouth. Inside were two earrings, which were rubies in the shape of little hearts. They were each attached to a golden chain and had “C + L” written on the side of each heart. “Oh, I adore it!”

“Put them on. I want to see how it looks,” said Twilight.

She quickly put them on and brought a small mirror to see how she looked. “They’re so lovely.” She lifted her head and looked over the group. “Thank you all so much for your gift. It…it really touches me.”

“It wasn’t too much trouble. Rarity knows many excellent crafts ponies,” said Trixie.

“I’ll always treasure these earrings. Maybe I should consider getting Luna a gift just as nice for our next date.”’

As the ponies spoke in agreement, Pinkie cleared her throat. “Cherub, may I have a quick word with you in the office?”

Chrysalis nodded and stood up. “Sure. Excuse us.” They entered the back room and Chrysalis closed the door. “What’s on your mind, Pinkie?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking a lot and, well…” Pinkie frowned and looked away.

Chrysalis detected the powerful anxiety she was carrying and knelt in front of her. “What, Pinkie? What’s wrong?”

The pony slowly looked at her. “I think you should tell Luna who you are tonight,” she said in a timid whisper.

Everything in the room became completely still. The only thing that Chrysalis could hear was her own breathing and her heart beating with enough force to burst out of her chest. “Pinkie,” she said as calmly as she could, “we’re sticking with the plan, remember? We won’t tell her until later.”

“But why should we wait? She’s totally in love with you! You should tell her after your date instead of fooling her like this. It’s not right at all!”

Chrysalis’s eye twitched as she roughly stroked Pinkie’s mane. “I appreciate you looking out for me, but I’ve got it covered. It’s perfectly fine.”

“No, it’s not! If you really love her, then don’t keep lying to her! You have to-”

“Pinkie!” The pony jumped back and could see the incredibly unfriendly look Chrysalis was giving her. They stared at each other for several seconds before Chrysalis’s expression softened. “I’m sorry for snapping, but I really don’t want to think about that tonight. I want this date to be one about love and happiness, not sorrow.”

Pinkie sighed. “Alright. We’ll wait for after Hearts and Hooves like we said. I’m sorry I made you upset.”

“It’s fine. I know you’re looking out for me.” She lightly nudged Pinkie. “Cheer up. It will all work out in the end. Let’s go back out before our friends get worried.” They returned to the main room and sat down. “It is going to be a while before Luna arrives, so does anypony have something fun in mind that doesn’t involve singing?”

“I do!” answered Trixie. “For the next few moments, I shall show you all Trixie’s amazing skill and mastery through a game of…charades!”

They all played charades with Trixie, who was much more skilled than they gave her credit for, for nearly an hour. Eventually, they heard a noise outside that surprised them. All of the ponies and Spike hid in the back room as Chrysalis waited in the main room. She could feel her heart beating intensely as she saw a figure approaching her door. Her doorbell went off and she knew it was time. She went to the door and opened it, finding Luna standing there in all her glory. “Wow,” Chrysalis said in amazement as she looked at her. “You are absolutely stunning.”

“Thank you. You look great yourself.” They both gave each other a quick peck on the lips. “So are you ready to go?”

“I am. What are we going to do tonight?”

“You’ll see.” Luna walked over to the carriage and opened the door for her.

“You are such a lady.” Chrysalis stepped inside and Luna went in after. Once the door was closed, the pegasi that were pulling lifted into the air.

The others exited from Cupid’s Arrow and watched as the carriage disappear into the orange sky. “I hope they have fun,” said Rarity.

Twilight nodded at her friend. “I’m sure they’ll be fine. Why don’t we do something fun for ourselves tonight to celebrate?”

As the group spoke in agreement with each other, Pinkie suddenly panicked. “Oh no! I completely forgot!”

All of her friends immediately looked at her. “What!? What did you forget!?” asked an extremely panicked Twilight. “I thought we checked off everything on the list!”

Pinkie pulled something out that greatly shocked all of them except Spike. “I forgot to give her the safety balloon!”

Twilight grabbed it and quickly hid it, hoping no ponies passing by saw. “Pinkie, she doesn’t need that! And that’s not a balloon!”

Chrysalis looked out the window and saw that they were incredibly high up in the sky. Overwhelming fear began to take hold as she gained an incredible phobia of heights from being thrown out from Canterlot and almost dying from the landing. She had her hooves wrapped around Luna’s foreleg and she slowly tightened her grip. Luna took notice of what Chrysalis was doing and looked at her. “Is everything alright?”

“I’ve just never been so high up before and I’m a little scared.”

Luna placed one of her hooves on hers. “You are perfectly safe with me.”

Chrysalis laid her head on Luna. “I know. So how come we couldn’t have just teleported to our destination? It really would have saved us a lot of time.”

“It is much too far for me. Besides, isn’t it fun to just be in a private little room together for some time instead of just cutting to the chase?”

“I would agree if I wasn’t so high above the ground.”

“Just relax and enjoy the ride. I do it all the time and nothing bad has ever happened.” Chrysalis laid her head on her lap and Luna ran her hoof through her mane. “So how have you been, Cherub?”

“Fine. The whole Whooves Syndrome incident is starting to become a distant memory for me and things have pretty much returned to normal. I must thank you again for taking me out. It is awfully sweet of you.”

“Anything for you, my little cupid.” She lowered herself and pressed her lips against Chrysalis’s. They remained connected and when the changeling started to get active with her tongue, Luna pulled away. “Awfully eager, aren’t you?”

“How can I not be when I’m alone with you, Lulu? You are the most beautiful mare I have ever laid eyes on and you know how to make me smile.”

“Well I hope you can restrain yourself. It will be a while before we get there and I don’t want us to do too much too soon.”

Chrysalis suddenly let out a yawn. “Then I suppose I should get some rest. I have simply tired myself out worrying about tonight and could use a nap.”

“Here.” Luna lied herself down on the seat and pulled Chrysalis on top of her. The former queen rested her head on Luna’s chest and the alicorn wrapped her wings around her. “Are you comfortable?”

“Mmm, very. You make a nice bed. You’re comfy, your wings keep me warm, and I’m sure your big, soft butt would make a nice pillow.”

The princess laughed. “Please don’t remind me how immature you can be. Just get some rest before our date.” Chrysalis nodded and closed her eyes, falling asleep within a few minutes.

Eventually, the carriage began to descend and the changeling woke up. She got up from Luna and sat back on her side. “I’m glad you’re awake, Cherub. We’re almost there.”

Chrysalis stretched herself while yawning. “Already?”

“Why don’t you look outside? I’m sure you will be surprised.”

Chrysalis turned toward the curtain and pulled it aside. The next thing she saw blew her mind. They were now in a beautiful city, where some of the ponies were actually glowing and there was a large palace in the center that appeared to have been made from crystal. “W-what is this place?”

“This, Cherub, is the Crystal Empire.”

The false unicorn was enthralled with the sight. She had always wanted to go see this place for herself, but never did for some reason. Maybe it was because Cadance and Shining Armor ruled there and being around either of them sometimes generated stress for her. Once the carriage landed, one of Luna’s night guards opened the door for them. When she stepped outside, Chrysalis looked at her surroundings, feeling breathless. Many buildings were made of crystal and although night was approaching, the city shined brightly. “I cannot believe a city more beautiful than Canterlot exists.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Luna spoke as she stood beside her. “I thought this would be the perfect place for our first date.”

“So what are we going to do here?”

“I will show you some of the town and then we will meet up with Cadance and Shining to have dinner at their palace. After that, we can figure out where to go from there. It will be a nice date where we can relax and take it easy.”

“Lead the way.” Chrysalis and Luna walked together through the streets of the empire. While Chrysalis took fascination of her surroundings, many ponies took notice of them, all of them gasping, waving, and even taking photos. “I see the citizens here recognize us.”

“What do you mean us?” Luna joked.

“Okay fine, they recognize you.” She couldn’t believe how a crystal pony’s body shined like an actual crystal. She wondered if she could somehow acquire a similar appearance through a spell to add on to her own beauty. “So have the crystal ponies really been gone for a thousand years?”

“Hard to imagine, right? It’s one thing for a single pony, but for a whole empire? I was amazed Sombra had that kind of power for a unicorn.”

“Hasn’t anypony done something about him by now?” she asked as she remembered Shining mentioning he was still around somewhere in the mountains up north. The last thing she needed was an evil king crashing their date.

“We’ve tried to apprehend him several times, but he just disappears, which is easy since he is just a massive shadow. He’s as elusive as Chrysalis.”

“But nowhere as sexy,” the changeling added playfully.

Luna looked at her with a perplexed look. “Anyway, with the Crystal Heart filled with love, he won’t be able to lay a hoof on anypony here, so he shouldn’t be too much of a problem as long as ponies don’t wonder too far from home.”

Chrysalis figured the massive amount of love she was feeling was from the Crystal Heart itself. “Can we go see the Crystal Heart?”

“Sure we can. It’s right under the palace.” Luna and Chrysalis went to the center of the city, where the palace stood. Floating underneath it was the heart itself, radiating brightly as it floated in place. Chrysalis was stunned by the incredible amount of love emanating from the object, unknowingly licking her lips. She figured that security around it would become intense once the changelings were allowed in Equestria in order to prevent a feeding frenzy as she herself could feel her restraint breaking. “It’s absolutely beautiful.”

“It truly is. Can you believe that it gets all of its power from love?”

“I can, actually. Love is a wonderful emotion that can motivate a pony into doing unpredictable things.”

“And you have done a wonderful job spreading it through Ponyville. You should be proud of your accomplishments.”

“I know I should. I’m the best there is.” Now that she gave it some thought, she wondered if matchmaking was something she would keep doing after she revealed the truth. She would probably still be a princess of the Changeling Kingdom, but more than likely the council would keep her on a short leash to ensure she didn’t do any more damage. Without much of a political career, she would stick with her current job, despite not needing to earn a living if she was with Luna. She would do it because it was something she loved doing. Not only that, but it would help keep her people full and satisfied.

“You know, you’ve never told me how you got your cutie mark.”

Chrysalis snapped out of her thinking and looked at Luna nervously. “I haven’t? We’ve known each other for so long and I haven’t thought about it.”

“Why don’t you tell me all about it? I would love to hear it.”

Chrysalis quickly looked back at the Crystal Heart. “I know you would, but perhaps another time. It is very personal.”

Luna sighed in defeat. “If you say so. Looks like another secret for your massive pile.”

One side of Chrysalis’s face cringed. “Everypony has secrets, I just happen to have more than most.”

“What else is new?” Luna looked at a nearby clock tower. “It’s about time we met up with Cadance and Shining for dinner, so it’s good we came here.”

“Free dinner in a palace of an empire that disappeared for a thousand years and is mostly made from crystal? You are just spoiling me.”

The alicorn giggled. “But Cherub, how could I possibly do that when you already were spoiled?”

Chrysalis chuckled and nuzzled against her. “Well you got me there.”

They approached the entrance of the crystal palace and the guards opened the doors for them as they recognized Luna. As they entered, they found Cadance and Shining Armor waiting for them. “Welcome to the Crystal Empire,” greeted Shining Armor. “I hope you both have been having fun so far.”

“Oh, you two look so great!” exclaimed his wife excitedly.

“Thank you, Cadance. The girls spent so much time helping me get ready and Rarity even made my dress.”

The Princess of Love circled around her, examining her dress with great admiration. “I love the design! It would fit me so perfectly. Cherub, I don’t mean to be unoriginal, but could I perhaps get one made that looks exactly like that? I think we would look great together on Hearts and Hooves!”

“Of course you can, Cadance. I’m sure it will look cute on you.”

The prince and princess led them into the dining hall and they seated themselves at a large table. Shining and Cadance were seated together on one side while Chrysalis and Luna were on the other. Several servants came in and set the food on the table. For their meal there was warm bread, vegetable soup, garden salad, and pasta covered with various sauces. Cadance brought out a wine bottle and poured some into everyone’s glass. Once she finished, she raised her own. “A toast to my aunt’s first date in a thousand years!”

Luna blushed as they toasted their glasses. “Please don’t remind me how long it has been since I’ve dated.”

Chrysalis decided to have some fun. “Then we won’t talk about that. Hey, Luna, when was the last time you had sex?” Luna froze dead on the spot and the couple across from her was just as surprised while the changeling giggled from all of their reactions. She removed her shoe from one of her hind legs and rubbed her hoof up and down Luna’s leg as she leaned near her. “Well? Let’s hear it,” she whispered.

Luna snapped out of her state of shock and proceeded to eat her food. “C-Cherub, I think you should be trying this food. Cadance and Shining Armor did invite us here for dinner, after all.” The changeling smiled and decided to do what Luna wanted. Across the table, she could see the expressions of the Crystal Empire’s rulers. While Shining Armor still looked surprised, Cadance looked excited as she ate, probably hoping that Luna and Chrysalis would end this date with a bang.

Once she calmed herself. Cadance asked, “So what exactly happened in Ponyville? Everypony in Equestria was going ballistic over the news of some mystery disease that was going to end the world as we know it.”

“It was the craziest thing,” said Chrysalis. “A pony named Time Turner drank some weird potion and it gave him these crazy powers that would make Discord jealous. I thought it was the end for sure.”

“How did he even get a thing like that?” asked Shining, concerned. “I didn’t think it was possible to make such a thing.”

Luna shrugged. “The poor thing doesn’t remember, which is strange. He could have gotten it in the mail for all I know. We investigated Zecora, but we found no evidence against her. I personally do not think she was involved.”

“They’ve been saying some teenage pegasus mare was there the day before he got sick, so I bet she had something to do with it,” Chrysalis said, thankful that she thought ahead with that plot.

“It is very possible. It was indeed a very bizarre incident,” spoke Luna. “Thankfully, we were able to put it to an end before things got out of control.”

“I just hope Turner hasn’t gone back to his own ways,” commented Chrysalis as she stabbed her fork into her meal.

Cadance looked at the former queen. “And from what I’ve heard from Twilight, you were very heroic, Cherub.”

Chrysalis felt herself blush, suddenly remembering the stunt she pulled. “She told you that? It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“It was a big deal,” spoke Cadance. “You risked your life to protect her and we are so thankful. We’re actually glad Luna wanted to bring you here as we wanted to repay you for being so heroic.”

“It is amazing how much you have changed from when we first met,” Luna commented.

Chrysalis took a sip of her wine and nodded. “Very true. Normally I would’ve stayed behind, but she as well as the rest of them has really grown on me. I was so scared when I saw Turner try to attack her that I acted without thinking.”

“I was worried you got hurt,” said Luna in a somewhat serious voice while rubbing a hoof against Chrysalis’s side.

“Better me than her.” Chrysalis paused as she was in disbelief of what she was about to say out loud. “I would die for Twilight.”

“How very noble of you to say that.”

Detecting a small spark of envy, Chrysalis laid her head against Luna. “Don’t worry. I’d do the same for you, Luna, and you as well, Cadance.”

“What about me?” asked the stallion.

“Meh.”

They all shared a friendly laugh. “So how’s your Hearts and Hooves fair going?” asked Cadance.

“It’s pretty much ready at this point. I got food, entertainment, security, and all the other things figured out, so now I just have to wait for the big day. I guarantee it will be one holiday for the history books.”

Cadance smiled. “It sounds like it’s going to be great. I just wish Celestia would reconsider going with a date. She shouldn’t be all by herself.”

“I think it’s a good thing she’s going alone,” commented Chrysalis before sipping her soup.

“And why is that?” asked Luna with a hint of suspicion.

“I am going to use her to start a bid.”

Everypony looked at her in confusion. “A bid? For what?” questioned her date.

Chrysalis happily clapped her hooves together. “A bid to see how much money ponies are willing to spend to make Celestia their date for a day!”

The night alicorn sighed and shook her head. “You are a child.”

“What? I would do it not only for charity, but as a little experiment to see how popular she is.”

“Cherub, don’t you dare label my sister as an object that ponies can buy. I would not want to embarrass her like you do to me sometimes.”

“Me? Embarrass you? Why, whatever do you mean?”

Luna rolled her eyes with a smile. “Promise me you will not put up this ridiculous auction.”

“Fine, I promise. As for getting her a date, I can try to find one last minute if she reconsiders. And if all else fails, I could always be her date.”

“But you’re my date!” complained Luna, obviously offended by her comment.

“Can’t I have both?” Chrysalis asked innocently. The answer she received was an elbow jabbed into her side by Luna, causing her some pain. “So does this mean I shouldn’t expect to have a royal threesome with you two?” The princess jabbed her once again, using much more force this time, and knocked the wind out of Chrysalis. The changeling rubbed her sore side, thankful that she had a tough carapace underneath her illusion. Otherwise, she would have had some of her ribs broken.

“Keep it up and you will be walking home,” Luna scolded.

“Okay, I’m sorry, it was a bad joke.” Of course, she could never tell Luna that it wasn’t completely a joke. “Let’s talk about something else. Anything you two want to share?”

“I do,” spoke the prince. “Time Turner wrote an episode based on what happened to him in Ponyville and it was a huge hit. I think it broke some records.”

“He did?” Chrysalis asked with confusion. “What could he have possibly written?”

“Oh, it was great,” said Shining Armor with excitement. “So Doctor Whooves goes to this weird planet and he ends up catching this weird disease from eating some berries, but this weird alien pony he befriend that rhymes everything she says decides to help him get better. She takes him to where the cure is, but it is guarded by an army of ninja wizards. So they get around them, cure him, and right before he leaves, the alien pony admits she is drawn to him and wishes to go on adventures with him. I can’t wait to see the next episode with her tagging along.”

Chrysalis’s head was tilted as she stared at him. “I thought Twilight was supposed to be the biggest nerd in your family.”

The stallion blushed and sunk into his chair as Cadance hugged him. “My Shiny may be a big nerd, but he’s also a sweet and lovable hunk. I love him so much and wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world.”

“I see. At least you two are happy together and accept each other for who you are.” Chrysalis then imagined what her life would have been like had she ended up marrying him, predicting many nights filled with them playing Oubliettes and Ogres.

“To Luna and Cherub!” spoke Celestia as she raised her mug.

“To Luna and Cherub!” spoke the other ponies as they banged their mugs together right before drinking their hot chocolate inside Doughnut Joe’s shop.

Celestia placed her mug down and grabbed a powdered doughnut from the pile in the middle of the table. “It was so nice to help my dearest sister with her first date in so long. How was helping Cherub?” Much to her surprise, everypony but Pinkie groaned. “That bad?”

“Man oh man, you haven’t seen scary until you see what she was like worrying over a date,” spoke Dash as she reached towards the large plate of doughnuts. “I don’t know about you, but I think she’s a bit nuts.”

“She seemed normal to me,” argued Rarity.

Spike clung to her. “She was totally super crazy before you came. I hope this date goes okay. I wanna live.”

“With Cadance helping, I am confident everything will be perfectly fine,” spoke Nymph from the crystal ball that sat at the center of the table. “How could she not find joy in the Crystal Empire? It sounds like an absolutely romantic place.”

“It could have been better if she brought Trixie with her for a grand performance.”

Dash looked at the unicorn across from her. Rather than her magician getup, Trixie wore a medal around her neck and two sashes around her body, trying to score autographs during their night out. One sash read, “Hero of Equestria", while the other said, “Best Pony". “Seriously, Trixie, why are you talking like that again?”

“Talking like what?”

“In third person,” answered Twilight.

“Trixie can talk however she wants. There’s no law against it.” She bit into a jelly doughnut. “Anyway, Trixie is sure that Luna will make Cherub very happy, but if it doesn’t go well, Trixie has prepared an emergency bunker in the basement at Twilight’s to escape her wrath.”

“Ah think we should just send her Pinkie if things don’t go well,” suggested Applejack. “After all, she does always manage to make Cherub happy.”

“No kidding. How do you even do that, Pinkie?” asked Rainbow. “One minute she’s ready to rip our heads off and then all of a sudden she’s super friendly. What’s your secret?”

“It’s because I’m her best friend!” Pinkie answered as she poured a massive amount of hot fudge over a pile of doughnuts.

“And because you know something about her that we don’t,” added Rarity.

“That too!”

“Could you tell us what that is?” asked Fluttershy.

“Nope! I made a promise!” Pinkie then slammed her face onto the table, devouring every chocolate-covered doughnut on her plate within seconds. When she lifted her head, her entire face was covered in fudge and frosting. “We’re going to need more doughnuts over here!” she shouted to Doughnut Joe.

Rarity made a face of disgust and shielded her eyes with her hooves. “Pinkie, where are your manners!? Go clean yourself this instant!”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie got up from her seat and hopped towards the restroom.

When Pinkie went inside the restroom, Dash leaned towards the others. “Okay, I really wanna know what the deal with Cherub is. I mean why is she so secretive about everything?”

“That is a very good question, but she said she would tell us soon,” said Celestia. “We just need to be patient and wait for her to feel ready.”

“Well I think I already know who she is.”

Everyone looked at her curiously. “Really? Who?” asked Nymph.

Dash motioned them all closer and then whispered, “A secret agent.”

Everypony looked at her in total surprise until Trixie started laughing. “Are you joking? That’s the stupidest thing Trixie’s ever heard in her life!”

Dash stood up and planted her front hooves on the table. “Oh yeah? It totally makes sense! She’s all secretive about herself, she gets to make profiles about a bunch of ponies, and she has connections to the princesses. It totally makes sense!”

“Oh please. Trixie has a far better explanation of who she is.”

“Oh yeah? What?”

“She’s a space alien!”

Dash sat back down while rolling her eyes. “Get real! There’s no such thing as aliens!”

“Oh yeah? She acts so weird and somehow knows which ponies are good enough for each other. I mean how else would she be so good at it without some sort of alien technology?”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Trixie may be on to something,” spoke Twilight. “Remember when she first came to Ponyville? She acted weird a lot and seemed to have trouble acting like a normal pony. Her being an alien would make sense after thinking about what she was like.”

“Twilight, this isn’t one of your books,” said Rarity. “Besides, her being a secret agent who risks her life to save the world and falls in love with Princess Luna is far more romantic. I would hate it if she was some sort of gross creature instead of the beautiful Cherub we all know.”

“No way,” argued Spike. “She’s totally an alien. That explains why she’s so scary and why she always has the window blinds closed. I bet when she closes Cupid’s Arrow, she turns into her true form and makes contact with her home planet! They could be plotting an invasion right now!”

“I-I-I really hope she’s not an alien,” spoke Fluttershy while poking out from under the table. “That would be really, really scary if aliens existed. I’d feel a lot better if she was a secret agent. I don’t think aliens even exist.”

“They do too!” protested Applejack. “Ah know some farmers that got crazy crop circles and no pony has been able to explain it. Once Ah invited Cherub to have dinner with my family and the whole time she was there, Winona growled and barked at her the whole time and she never does that! If Cherub is anythin’, she’s gotta be one of them space folk. Twi ain’t kidding about Cherub actin’ all weird.”

“I’m with her,” spoke Nymph. “If she really was an agent, then Celestia and Luna would know about it. Besides, it would explain why Pinkie is so drawn to her. She’s an alien!”

“That’s so stupid!” yelled Dash. “She’s an agent and you know it!”

“You’re stupid!” shouted Trixie. “She’s clearly from outer space!”

“Secret agent!” shouted half the group.

“Space alien!” shouted the other half.

“Ahem!” Everyone looked at Celestia. “I can’t believe you would all fight over something so outrageous when you have no proof of either theory. It is ridiculous and childish.” They looked away from her, embarrassed. “Besides, it’s possible she could be a secret agent space alien.” The others murmured with each other in agreement. “Whatever she may be, I think we will accept her for who she is since we are all her friends.”

“Not to mention how she helped some of us find our special somepony,” commented Spike as he leaned against Rarity.

Pinkie returned from the restroom and sat at the table. “I’m back! What are you all talking about?”

“About how Cherub helped you and your friends find love,” answered Nymph.

“She’s totally great at it! If it weren’t for her, I don’t think I’d ever be with Fluttershy!” Pinkie hugged her tightly. “I’m so happy that I think we should make-out right now!”

“N-n-n-not in front of everypony!” whispered Fluttershy in shock.

“I can’t wait to get older,” grumbled Spike as he slumped in his seat.

“You know, Spike,” said Nymph suddenly, “it must be so very nice to be around so many beautiful girls. You’re living every guy’s dream.”

“Yeah, but there’s only one girl for me and she is the best there is.” He took Rarity’s hoof and kissed it, causing her to blush.

“And I am very glad to see you two together. It is simply sweet to see the both of you together. I am just curious, though. Who was your second choice?”

“Huh?”

“Your second choice if things didn’t work out with Rarity. Surely you have thought about it since you always hang out with your other friends, who are all older mares,” said Nymph. “Perhaps somepony other than Rarity caught your eye?”

He gulped and quickly looked away and the ponies looked at him with great anticipation. “M-maybe.”

All of the girls grinned at him. “So who were you going to go for after Rarity?” asked Twilight. “I can’t imagine you liking anypony else after all the time you spent obsessing over her.”

Spike blushed as his breathing rate increased, trying to force himself to form his answer. “A-Applejack.”

The farmer was next to blush as everypony else gasped. “Aw shucks, Spike. Ya really know how to flatter a girl. Ah didn’t even think Ah was even your type.”

“What can I say? Not only are you attractive, but you’re all brave and stuff. I kind of look up to you as my hero.”

“Anypony after her?” asked Nymph curiously.

Spike closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Well…there was Fluttershy since she’s really nice and cute.” The pegasus gasped and hid her face behind her hair as Pinkie giggled in response. “Then after her, it was Tw…P-Pinkie! And then Rainbow Dash.”

Celestia chuckled and rubbed the top of his head. “Goodness, Spike, I didn’t-”

“Hold on a minute!” interrupted Dash loudly as she slammed her hooves on the table. “Why am I dead last!?” She leaned over and stuck her face in front of Spike’s. “You trying to say something about me? Well, tough guy?”

The dragon immediately hid behind Rarity. “I’m not! No offense, but you’re a little extreme for me, Dash. I think I would die if I did any stuff you like doing with you.”

“Fair enough. You’re too wimpy for me anyway,” teased Dash as she got back down.

“What about the crusaders?” asked Twilight. “Ever thought of dating one of them since they’re closer to your age?”

Spike quickly shook his head and even shuddered. “Not in this lifetime. Until they get their cutie marks, they’re going to be nothing but trouble.”

“Well if ya had to pick one, who would ya choose?”

“I think Sweetie Belle,” Spike answered with a shrug.

“Because she’s Rarity’s sister?” asked Trixie with a grin.

He sighed. “Yeah…”

“How about this?” asked Twilight. “If you got older and were still single, would you rather date Celestia or Luna?”

The dragon rubbed his chin. “Celestia. I like Luna too, but I’ve known Celestia longer.”

The princess kissed his cheek. “Good choice.”

He smiled as well as blushed, but immediately snapped out of it when he saw the harsh look Rarity gave him. “Well how about this for you girls? Would you rather date Discord or King Sombra?”

“Neither,” they all said with a laugh.

“Sombra.” Everyone immediately looked at Rarity. “What? He’s a king.”

“I got one!” said Rainbow. “Spike, would you rather date Nightmare Moon or Chrysalis?”

Spike munched into an éclair with gem shards sprinkled on top. “Ugh, just give me Nightmare Moon any day of the week.”

“You wouldn’t miss the sun?” Celestia jested.

“It’s better than being with Chrysalis, who would just eat all my love. I also want to mention how gross looking and butt ugly she is with those holes, her fangs, and those really big eyes. I’d rather jump off a cliff than kiss that bat-faced, bug-eyed, booger-nose, baloney-brained beetle-butt. She has to be the most unattractive person I have ever seen in my life.” Spike lifted up his mug to drink some hot chocolate and when he set it down, he could see Nymph giving him a look as if she was ready to send him to an early grave through the crystal ball. “What?”

“You really think all that about Chrysalis?” she asked coldly.

“Yeah. Thinking about her makes me want to puke.”

She leaned in closer. “And you are aware Chrysalis and I are very similar in appearance, right?”

“Well yeah, but…” The dragon fell dead quiet as he realized what he had implied, causing him to grow a look of horror on his face.

“Spike, do you think I’m…ugly?” she asked as her eyes glowed brightly.

Spike could feel himself quaking on the spot. “N-no! I don’t think that! You’re totally beautiful, Nymph! Right, girls?” When he looked around the table, he saw that he was the only one there. “G-girls?”

“Spike,” the queen seethed hatefully, “admit it. You think I’m repulsive.”

“I do not! I think you’re good looking! Honest!”

“And yet you are disgusted by my sister, who looks similar to me. How do you explain that?”

Spike had never been so afraid in his life. His hands were trembling, his teeth were chattering, his bladder was filling, and his spine was tingling. If he didn’t come up with something soon, Twilight was going to need a new assistant. “W-well, you see, it’s because…because…she’s evil! And, like, when a mare acts all mean, that’s unattractive because personality is everything. That’s why you look great while she doesn’t while looking kind of the same. Y-you know?”

The drake held his breath and his eyes met Nymph’s, waiting for her to answer. She continued her harsh stare, only to suddenly return to her cheery self in an instant. “Oh, you are absolutely right! Being mean really does wonders to a person’s appearance. I’m so glad you see more than what’s on the outside.”

All of the ponies returned from hiding under the table and sighed with relief. “It’s why he’s my Spikey-Wikey,” complemented Rarity.

“And now Spike-Wikey needs to take a tinkle-winkle.” Spike ran off to the restroom as all the mares laughed.

“I hope I didn’t scare him too much,” said Nymph.

“I think we should ask if he finds you or Cherub scarier,” suggested Pinkie, causing the others to laugh.

“Speaking of Cherub, I hope everything is going well with her and Luna,” spoke Celestia as she leaned against her seat and stared at the ceiling. “Then again, I really hope it doesn’t go too well.”

“Scared of finding love stains in the carriage?” teased Trixie.

Celestia blushed. “I’m only afraid of that because I don’t know that much about Cherub. I don’t want Luna to get hurt if they go too far.” She then produced a deep sigh and stared at the ceiling in the doughnut shop, not noticing Spike returning and swiping some of her doughnuts.

Cadance opened the door for them. “And this is where Shiny and I sleep. Isn’t it cute?”

Luna and Chrysalis stepped into the room with the large double bed. To the side was a balcony, overlooking the empire the couple ruled. Chrysalis went over to it and looked down below. “Such a lovely view. I can’t believe ponies as young as you two rule over all this.”

“It was strange to suddenly inherit an entire empire shortly after getting married, but we’ve been doing a good job so far,” said Shining Armor.

“You mean I have been doing a good job. You weren’t raised to be a ruler,” Cadance teased joyfully.

Her husband chuckled. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. At least I’m good with things involving the military.”

“That reminds me. Luna, could you perhaps take a quick look at something? I’ve been mulling over it for over a week and I’d like a second opinion.”

Luna nodded at her niece. “Of course. Cherub, you stay here with Shining Armor and we’ll be back shortly.”

“You better. We’re still on our date.” Luna blew her a kiss and left the room with Cadance, leaving Chrysalis alone with the stallion. She walked around the room and her eyes fell upon something on the nightstand. Much to her surprise, it was the apology letter she had written to them in a picture frame. She picked it up, staring at it in disbelief. “So this is the letter Chrysalis sent you?”

“The very same,” he replied bluntly.

“Does this mean you want to give her a chance?”

“It means that Cadance does,” Shining Armor answered bitterly.

Chrysalis set it down and looked at him. “So what about you?”

“I...I’d feel better if she didn’t come back at all.” Shining Armor sat on the bed and stared at the floor in front of him.

“I take it this means you’re not willing to forgive her yet.”

He shook his head. “Cadance and Celestia keep telling me that maybe she is sorry, but they need to wake up and remember what she has done. Chrysalis is a cruel, unloving thing that takes pleasure in making everyone suffer. I don’t care how sorry she is. She is not coming anywhere near here. I am not making any more mistakes.”

“Mistakes?”

The stallion slouched even more and the changeling could feel him emanating massive amounts of sorrow. “I was so stubborn and stupid that I couldn’t even figure out my own fiancée was an imposter. She acted nowhere near like the mare I loved and I was too stupid to notice.”

“Shining, do not blame yourself. She had everypony fooled. Besides, she had you under her spell, so there was no way you could have known about her.”

“And? That doesn’t excuse the fact I turned against my own sister. My Cadance was trapped somewhere and I couldn’t save her. I’m a pathetic excuse for a knight.”

“No, that’s not true at all. She loves you and you’re a great husband. You have to believe me when I say you are not at fault in any way. Chrysalis was a horrible changeling who used her magic to alter your sense of judgment. You weren’t you when she was around. You also saved your city when you created that barrier to throw them out, so try to let it go. Your nightmare with Chrysalis is over.”

“Yeah…”

Strangely, the unicorn seemed to be even more distressed. It was clear to Chrysalis that Shining Armor had something locked away deep down inside of him. “Was there something else?” Shining turned his head away and Chrysalis sat down next to him, holding his hoof. “You know you can talk to me. I’m your friend.”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Do I have to get Cadance?” He huffed loudly. “Just talk to me. I promise I won’t tell anypony else. You can trust me.”

Chrysalis waited as Shining remained silent. She couldn’t begin to imagine what he was thinking and felt very worried. Eventually, he sighed. “I… don’t know if it’s true, but I keep having this feeling that…that…”

“What?”

“That she…took advantage of me.”

Chrysalis’s entire body immediately became tense. “Shining, I really, really don’t think that happened.”

“How do you know? You weren’t there during the wedding. I can barely remember what happened when we were alone together. I keep getting these images in my mind over and over of her…you know.”

“Well I think you should talk to somepony. You really need to get these fantasies out of your head.”

He sighed deeply. “I’ve tried, but I can’t. Especially now.”

“What do you mean?”

Shining finally looked at her. “Have you ever wondered why she laid low for so long before now?”

“Because she was in hiding?”

“That, and she was waiting.”

The changeling gulped, fearful of what else could possibly be going through his mind. “Waiting for what?”

He immediately cringed. “To give birth.”

Chrysalis’s jaw hit the floor. “What?”

“I mean, that makes sense, right? If anypony saw she had a baby, she would be easier to find. And even worse, we’d all know who the father is. It’s the perfect cover, Cherub. We’re looking for a single mare, not a mother.”

Chrysalis could feel her stomach churn from listening to him. As much as she hated to admit it, Shining Armor was being very logical. She did go as far as try to marry him while posing as his lover, so it would have made sense for ponies to think she went that far since they remember how evil she was. There was also how her having a child would have made her much more difficult to find and it had been long enough since the wedding for her to have a child if she had in fact became pregnant from the stallion. It was a good theory to some extent, but she could not let him be burdened with such horrible thoughts. “That’s…quite an awful thing to think about, but we don’t know if that’s true.”

“Then what? Why did she choose to reveal herself after so long? Why else would she send us the letter and not Celestia or Twilight? She has something up her sleeve and I think it’s a little bundle.” He stood up, walked to the picture frame of him and his wife, picked it up, and looked at it. “I keep having this dream where I wake up in the middle of the night by the sound of an infant’s cry. I get out of bed and I go to calm the baby, but when I bend down to pick him up, I see that it’s a changeling baby. I back away with surprise and then I bump into somepony. When I turn around, there’s Chrysalis standing right there. She smiles at me and asks me to comfort our son. I wake up every time in a cold sweat and it’s sometimes difficult for me to get any sleep.”

“Have you talked to Luna about it? Dreams are her specialty and I’m sure she can help.”

“I’m too ashamed to have her find out I’ve been having such dreams. I haven’t even told Cadance about this.” Tears began to fall from his eyes as he looked at the picture. “She…she’s thinking about having a kid, Cherub. We’ve got such a wonderful life already and she loves children, so she wants to take the next step, but I keep telling her I’m not ready. I can’t ever tell her what may have happened between Chrysalis and I or even what may have happened from that. I can’t be a good father or husband if I cheated on my true love with a monster. How would she feel if I had a child with someone else before her? My Cadance deserves so much-”

“Shining, shut up.”

He snapped out of it and stared at her. “Huh?”

She stood up, snatched the picture, and looked dead into his eyes. “This is completely ridiculous. I strongly don’t think Chrysalis tricked you into having sex with her. She didn’t care for ponies at all and I think screwing you wasn’t one of her priorities.”

“But she needed my love to become powerful.”

“Changelings don’t take love from your penis,” she stated crossly. “Look, I assume Chrysalis would be more focused on her invasion instead of messing around with a guy of a species she could not stand. You need to pony up, stop getting these crazy ideas, and move on before you snap. We don’t know why Chrysalis chose to send you and Cadance the letter or why she’s been in hiding for so long, but I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that it has nothing to do with what you’re thinking, so stop worrying and enjoy your life with your beautiful wife.”

After a sigh, he grew a very small smile. “I’ll try. I’m not going to get anywhere if I keep driving myself crazy with these thoughts when I don’t even know they’re true. Just one more thing, Cherub.”

“What?”

“Let’s say I’m right and she shows up with a child? What should I do, Cherub? Could…could Cadance ever forgive me?”

Chrysalis prayed with all of her being that Luna did not have any thoughts like this about her. “Yes, Shining Armor. She loves you more than anything in the world. Now if such a thing were to happen, I want you to take care of the baby. The child is completely innocent of what happened and needs a family to love and raise them. If you do not care for the child, I will come for you. As for Chrysalis, if she really did such a thing with you, punish her as you see fit.”

“Alright. Thanks for listening, Cherub. You’re such a good friend. It’s no wonder Twiley looks up to you.”

Just then, Cadance and Luna returned. “We’re back. Did we miss anything?” asked Cadance happily.

Shining Armor gulped. “Er…”

“Only that Shining Armor is the biggest nerd in all of Equestria,” interrupted Chrysalis. “If I hear any more about Doctor Whooves, I’m jumping off the balcony.”

“Well then you’ll be happy to know we’re going to go out and see more of the city,” said Luna with a chuckle. “Come along. There is so much I wish to show you.”

The three ponies and changeling walked back to the entrance of the Crystal Palace. “Thank you both so much for dinner,” said Chrysalis. “We appreciate you both for having us over.”

“It was nice seeing you both. So what are you two going to do now?” asked Shining Armor.

“We’re just going to wonder through the city and head back after a while,” Luna answered. “It’s her first visit here and I just want to show her around some more.”

“Well I hope you two have fun. You’re more than welcome to stay the night,” Cadance offered.

“Thanks, but we’ll probably head home tonight,” spoke Chrysalis.

“Okay. Have a nice night!” Cadance and Shining waved goodbye as the other couple left to the streets. Once they were out of sight, the crystal princess turned towards her husband. “Come on! We still have work to do.” The Crystal Princess trotted up the stairs while humming happily to herself. Shining, on the other hoof, sighed and followed her, knowing exactly what she had in mind.

Luna’s tour extended for over an hour and most of it was filled with ponies staring at them in wonder and even trying to snap photos. Chrysalis made sure to stop by the flower shop to pick up seeds for some crystal flowers since with spring just starting up, she needed to be sure to plant some flowers in front of Cupid’s Arrow to give it some life. She hoped that her months of exile didn’t leave her rusty in the gardening field as it would be a great way to take up her time and deal with her stress.

Luna then wanted to take them to the outskirts so they could see the whole city in the night. As they passed by an alley, some stallions took notice of them. “Check it out, it’s Cherub and Princess Luna!” a brown unicorn with an orange mane called.

One of his friends, a blue unicorn with a brown mane, whistled. “Check out Cherub over there. She’s looking real fine.” Chrysalis grew a satisfied smile.

“Yeah, it’s a real shame the evil Nightmare Moon had to take her,” spoke the red pegasus hatefully. “Poor Cherub is stuck with a monster like her.”

Both mares whirled around. “Excuse me!?” exclaimed Luna.

“You heard me,” taunted the pegasus. “We don’t care what everypony says, you’ll always be Nightmare Moon. What good have you done since you came back from the moon?”

Chrysalis blew smoke from her nostrils. “You ungrateful s-”

“Don’t,” said Luna. “Let’s just go.” She walked away and Chrysalis reluctantly followed.

Chrysalis could feel her eye twitch as she heard the stallions behind laugh. “Are you really not going to do something about them? Let’s throw them in a dungeon or something!”

“They have the right to speak their opinions, so I can’t actually do anything. Besides, I don’t want to cause any trouble. It will just make things worse.” Chrysalis wanted to object, but she kept a tight lip as she had a much better idea.

They eventually reached a park and Chrysalis offered that they sat down at a bench for a moment. “Are you feeling okay, Luna? You’ve been awfully quiet.”

“I’d be lying if I said those ponies earlier didn’t bother me with what they said,” she replied gloomily. “I know there are still some ponies who dislike me, but their words are still very hurtful.”

Chrysalis gave her a hug. “Don’t be sad, Luna. You’ll always have me. Let’s try to forget about this and just focus on our date, okay?” Luna silently nodded. Chrysalis knew she was still very upset about them insulting her and did not want their night together to end with her feeling so down. “Why don’t you tell me about your night sky?”

“My sky? What would you like to know?”

“Well, you have so many constellations up there and I’d love to hear the stories behind them.” She looked up at the stars and pointed. “What about that one there? I remember Twilight mentioning it once, but I didn’t pay attention.”

The princess looked towards where she was pointing and then let out a laugh. “That is the Broken Legged Knight constellation.”

“Seriously? Why would a knight with an injury be made into a constellation?”

“My sister actually made it since the incident occurred while I was gone. The story behind it is simply fascinating, but it is also quite long.”

Chrysalis rubbed the bottom of Luna’s chin. “Well, why don’t you tell me the full story? I want to hear everything about it,” she cooed as her horn faintly glowed. "Just keep talking about it and don't stop until you finish the entire thing."

Luna leaned against the bench and looked at the constellation. “If you insist. Several hundred years ago, a great dragon terrorized southern Equestria, taking as many riches he could get his claws on. One day, a brave earth pony knight named Joust had enough of his misdeeds and decided to take action.” As Luna continued to talk, Chrysalis got up and slowly crept away.

Back in the alley, the three stallions shared a laugh while drinking beer. “Man, I still can’t believe we got to talk like that to Luna,” the blue unicorn gloated.

“Yeah. I don’t get why she gets a free pass for trying to make it eternal night. Politics sucks,” complained the pegasus.

The third stallion tapped on his friends and pointed. “Look, Cherub’s coming here alone!”

They all became excited and stood up to greet her. “Well, well, came here for a good time?” asked the pegasus.

Chrysalis chuckled. “Yes, I am here for a very good time.”

“So Joust found the cave where the dragon was staying and entered. Behind a massive pile of riches was the beast himself, staring evilly at him. Getting right to the point, Joust unleashed a battle cry and charged him. Now, he may have been one of the bravest knights around, but he certainly was not one of the most skilled. He tripped over a golden scepter the dragon left lying around and fell, breaking his leg. Poor Joust cried out in pain and threatened to sue the dragon for his pain and suffering.”

“Oh Celestia, somepony help us!”

“How is this mare so strong!?”

“I can’t feel my legs!”

“Come on, boys! Don’t you like it rough!? I can go all night!”

“So after two months of court, the judge ruled in favor of Joust, who received a healthy amount of the dragon’s wealth for compensation and even the scepter he tripped on as a crutch. As for the dragon, he decided to stop raiding towns since he didn’t want any more reckless knights charging into his cave and injuring themselves. Joust was then remembered as a hero for being the first pony to successfully sue a dragon and his heroics were so well received, Celestia made this constellation in his honor. Don’t you find that simply fascinating?” Luna asked as she turned towards her date.

Chrysalis smiled back at her. “I most certainly do. I would love to hear about more constellations, but I think we need to get going while the night is young.” Luna stood up and walked onward with Chrysalis beside her. She was glad she chose to have a red dress made as it made it easy to hide the spots of blood and with the additional memory wipe, it was the perfect crime.

Chrysalis and Luna walked up a small, grassy hill and lied on the ground. In front of them they could see almost the entire city, which was lit up and the light reflected off the crystal structures. Chrysalis leaned against her as they looked up at the empire. “I’ve always loved the nightlife.”

Luna rested her head on top of Chrysalis. “I’m glad you do. It still surprises very much how differently ponies view my night after all the time I was away.”

“It is truly a shame the ponies from back then did not appreciate this wonderful sight.”

Luna sighed, thinking about the ponies from earlier. “A huge shame. Once I was sent to the moon, Celestia devoted herself in holding night festivals to help ponies appreciate my work and even made astronomy a required class in her school. She did so much to ensure that history did not repeat during my return. And now, the night is filled with so much more activity then before. It’s just a shame ponies forgot I was even real and were shocked to see me appear out of nowhere.”

“Yeah, but at least plenty of ponies respect you now. Let us not forget that you’ve actually managed to find a sweet pony who loves you with all her heart.” She placed a hoof on Luna’s. “You know, I’ve actually had a huge interest in you long before we met, even before I knew you were real.”

Luna lifted her head and looked at her. “What do you mean?”

Chrysalis rolled onto her back to look at the stars and Luna joined her. “One thing I loved to read as a child was myths and fairytales, sometimes wondering if they were true. The one story I always took a fascination in was yours, Luna.”

“The tale of Nightmare Moon.”

“The very same. It was one thing to believe that Celestia had a sister, but another to think that there was a pony on the moon for so long, all alone. I felt so bad for you being there by yourself and wished I could have given you company.”

Luna turned her head to her and kissed her cheek. “Never thought you would end falling in love with me, did you?”

“Not once, but I’m enjoying it very much to be in love with such a beautiful mare.” She brought her foreleg around the alicorn and brought her in closer. “Speaking of beauty, I have strongly admired your stars all my life and I will admit something to you, but please do not laugh or share it with anypony.”

“My lips are sealed.”

She cleared her throat. “I came from a rather poor and simple family,” Chrysalis lied. “Never went to school and got an education, just learned stuff from my parents.” This, however, was true to some extent as changelings were pretty behind in scientific knowledge before Chrysalis began her mass scavenging, which made this story a little more embarrassing for her. “The point is that for a long time, I didn’t know what stars really were. I thought that they were gems so beautiful, that you put them in the sky to keep ponies from taking them. I had dreamed of bringing one home, making it the most precious treasure in my family, besides myself.”

Luna giggled at her comment. “How is that embarrassing?”

“I’m getting there. So one night, I went to go relax outside and enjoy the night sky, which is something I sometimes like doing. As I lied on the grass, a shooting star suddenly came by,” she said as she reached out a hoof and moved it across their field of vision. “The moment it caught my eye, I just felt adrenaline rush through me and I immediately pursued it without a second thought. I left my home without telling anypony where I was going or what I was doing. I thought it was my one chance to acquire a star and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me. I just ran in the direction I saw it go for days, barely sleeping during my travels.”

“Days!?”

“Yeah. Four days was how long I spent trying to find your star. As time passed, I felt doubt grow within me, making me more desperate in finding it.” She sighed and rubbed her face with her hoof. “When I could no longer push myself, I admitted defeat and returned home. The journey back was a dreadful one as not only was I crushed that I failed, but I knew my family was going out of their mind and I had nothing to bring them. And when I returned, my parents were absolutely furious with me.”

“Did they ground you?”

She rested a foreleg over her eyes, groaning. “I was locked down at home while they sent doctors to me to make sure I hadn’t gone insane. I still kick myself mentally whenever I think of back then, knowing it was stupid to leave home for so long without saying anything and for believing I could catch a star.”

Luna giggled loudly while wrapping a wing around her and kissing her lips. “I am flattered you would go through so much just to get one of my stars. You really sound like an adventurous and imaginative filly to do all that.”

“Yeah…now comes the embarrassing part.”

“And what could that possibly be?”

“I was twenty when I did this.”

Luna was dumbfounded. “You ran away from home to chase a star that you thought was a gem as an adult!?”

Chrysalis turned her back towards her as she could feel her face heat up. “Yes…” At first, there was only silence, but it was ended by the pony’s sniggering. “D-d-don’t you dare laugh at me!” Despite her protests, Luna’s laughter eventually broke out in full and Chrysalis pressed a hoof on her own face. “Why did I even bother to tell you?”

The alicorn hugged her from behind. “I think it’s really cute of you to be so imaginative at such an age and to love my night so much.”

“I suppose. However, I am very surprised by my story’s new ending.”

“Hmm?”

“After my attempted search, I had given up my dream, crushed with the belief that it would never come true.” She turned herself and faced Luna, showing her flushed cheeks as well as her smile. “But many years later, the most beautiful star of all came down from the heavens and I had not realized it for so long. But now, I have found it and I will cherish her forever.” As Chrysalis stroked her cheek, Luna blushed deeply and then, all of a sudden, started crying. “Luna? W-what’s wrong? Was it something I said?”

“Cherub,” Luna sniffled, “that was one of the most beautiful things anypony has ever said to me.” She nuzzled against her. “It has been so hard for me ever since I became Nightmare Moon. It was so many months before anypony could talk to me without feeling so nervous. Only Celestia made me feel so happy and loved, but now, there’s you too.” She pressed her face against Chrysalis’s chest. “You make me feel so special, Cherub.”

Chrysalis wrapped her legs around Luna as the alicorn got on top of her. “It’s because I love you so much, Luna. Nopony has ever done anything as wonderful as this for me or even made my heart beat the way you do. No matter who you are, I will always love you, Lulu. I wish I could spend every moment of every day with you so that I could feel like I’m living in paradise. I want to be in your embrace and have my body against yours.” She whispered into her ear, “I want to be yours, Luna.”

Luna kissed her lips, holding that position for several seconds. “You are a true artist with words, Cherub,” she said softly. “I too wish to spend more time with you. I feel so in love with you.” Suddenly, she blushed heavily. “Maybe one night, you and I could go out and make beautiful love under the stars we cherish so much.”

Chrysalis kissed her. “It’s a promise.” She pulled Luna closer to her as they continued to tongue and roll around on the grass, laughing in joy.

“Oh, such a wonderful sight always makes me smile.”

Shining Armor pulled away from his telescope and looked at his wife. “I’m glad that they’re having a nice time, but I really think we should just leave them be. I certainly do not want to keep watching if they suddenly decide to go all the way.”

Cadance giggled as she continued to watch Chrysalis and Luna kiss. “I know, but I just want to make sure Auntie Luna has a nice time after being gone for so long. This is date is so important to her and I would hate for anything to go wrong.”

“You know, I remember you getting very upset with Celestia when she did the same thing with us. I guess this sort of habit runs in the royal family,” teased the stallion.

Cadance pulled away and looked at him. “W-well she was treating me like a child!”

“And what about now?”

The alicorn blushed and looked at her hooves. “I just want to make sure Luna’s happy.”

He put a hoof around her and pulled her close. “And she is. Cherub is taking good care of her, although I still wonder where she wandered off to that one time. Besides, I know you’re also doing this because you helped them get together in the first place.” Shining Armor put a hoof under her chin to lift her head. “They’re doing just fine, so why don’t we just stop invading their privacy?”

“Alright.” Cadance sighed, but then smiled. “Speaking of us, I also remember what we did when we got Celestia to stop spying.” It took a moment for the stallion to get what she was imply and when he did, he grinned at her and lowered himself. The alicorn climbed onto his back and he carried her into the bedroom, closing the door behind him with his magic.

Finally, Luna and Chrysalis were ready to retire for the evening and returned to where the carriage was parked. The guards began hooking themselves to the front while one opened the door for them. “Welcome back, Princess Luna. How was your evening?”

“Wonderful. Take us to Ponyville so I may return Cherub home.”

“At once.”

When Chrysalis climbed in, a voice asked, “Excuse me?” They looked and saw a yellow crystal mare standing there. “P-Princess Luna?”

“Yes?”

“I-I know you’re on a date, but…could I get an autograph?” She timidly held up a picture of the princess and a quill with ink at the tip.

Luna smiled and approached her. “Why, certainly.” As Luna dealt with the mare, Chrysalis crossed her forelegs and leaned back, creating a strange, crumpling sound. She sat up and felt around her body, feeling something strange in one of her pockets. She reached inside and pulled out a folded note, wondering how long it had been there without her noticing. Upon opening it, she saw it contained two words.

TELL HER!

Chrysalis gasped and quickly looked at the door, seeing Luna saying goodbye to the mare. Right before Luna turned around, Chrysalis quickly crumpled it up and shoved the note into her mouth. Luna stepped inside and closed the door, causing the carriage to move forward and eventually take flight. “So how did you like your first time at the Crystal Empire, Cherub?”

Chrysalis swallowed, cringing as the rough corners brushed against her throat. “It was really great, Luna. You really know how to sweep a mare off her hooves.”

“I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it. I’ve been planning this for some time and I am glad it worked out the way I wanted it to.”

“It certainly helped me get my mind of what happened.”

“Would you like to thank me?” she asked seductively.

“I would, but I need to figure out how to beat your little surprise. I’m going to hate myself if I can’t find a way to beat a date at the Crystal Empire.”

Luna laughed as she lied against Chrysalis. “Don’t worry too much about it. Anything you do will always make me happy because you will be there with me.”

Chrysalis smiled, but then dropped it. She couldn’t make herself forget about the note she found. She knew it was better to keep it a secret for now, but how far was she going to take it? Chrysalis could feel a pit growing in her stomach as she made a decision since the night had gone so well. “Luna…I need to tell you something.”

The princess looked up at her. “What is it, Cherub?”

Chrysalis looked away, taking rapid breaths. “Something I probably should have told you long ago.”

“Cherub, I can actually feel your heartbeat and I can tell you’re stressed. What’s going on?” she asked nervously.

The changeling’s lip quivered. “Just…promise you’ll understand.”

“I promise, Cherub.”

Chrysalis slowly looked at her, seeing the curious eyes of her lover staring back at her. “The thing is…for the longest time…I never told you…the truth is…I…” She swallowed and closed her eyes. “I knew I was bisexual long before meeting you.”

Luna let out a gasp. “What? Truly?”

Chrysalis cringed as she slowly nodded. “Y-yeah.”

Luna let out a laugh and hugged her. “You really should have told me before so I wouldn’t have felt so weird around you back then, you silly pony!”

“Wouldn’t you have felt weird if you knew?” she countered.

“Maybe.” Luna pulled away. “So how come you never told me?”

Chrysalis turned her head to the window. “My parents were rather old fashioned and had a field day when they caught me with another girl. They tried to ‘fix’ me as they believed it was improper behavior for somepony like me, but I held my ground. Eventually they just let me be me, but their reaction to finding out is why I don’t go blabbing about it.”

“I see. Don’t worry. I’m not mad you kept this from me. I still love you for you.” Luna snuggled against her. “It’s going to be a while before we get back, so how we do something to take up the time?”

Chrysalis rested against the wall of the carriage with Luna on top of her. “You’re always full of good ideas, you know that?” Luna giggled and pressed her lips against hers. While the alicorn was absolutely enjoying herself, Chrysalis felt mental anguish for being a coward and knew she made an awful mistake.

The citizens of Ponyville were fast asleep when Luna’s carriage descended from the sky. The pegasi guards landed in front of Cupid’s Arrow and brought themselves to a stop. One of the guards opened up the door and Luna stepped out while helping her date get out. “Here you are, Cherub.”

Chrysalis hugged her lover. “Thank you so much. I really had a wonderful time, Luna. Heck, I feel even more motivated to make Hearts and Hooves the most unforgettable day in your life.”

The alicorn kissed her on the lips. “I’m already excited. Have a good night, Cherub. I will see you soon.”

“You too, Lulu.” As Luna entered her carriage, Chrysalis suddenly said, “Luna?”

“Yes?”

Chrysalis cleared her throat, trying to sound a little more serious. “I just want you to know that you don’t need to worry about my secret life. I promise you everything will be fine,” she said with a pained smile.

Luna smiled and nodded at her. “Okay. I trust you, Cherub.”

“I love you, Luna. I love you so much.”

Luna smiled and blew her a kiss. “I love you, too. My heart only belongs to you, Cherub, and no one else.” She then closed the door, signaling her guards to take off, and flew into the dark sky.

Chrysalis remained glued to the sky even after Luna was out of sight. Finally, she went inside Cupid’s Arrow. As she approached the stairs, she magically retrieved a container of ice cream and a spoon from the kitchen. When she got into her bedroom, she closed the door and placed the items on the nightstand. She removed her dress and hung it in the closet and then approached the mirror to remove her earrings, placing them in a box. Once she was fully naked, she closed the curtains and looked into her reflection as a particular sentence kept echoing in her mind.

Staring back at her was a red unicorn who possessed a high amount of beauty with her gorgeous mane, her shapely figure, her perfect smile, and everything else that made her so delightful. Her voice was angelic and she was respected for not only her looks, but for her intelligence and talent. She was truly a wonderful pony who was loved by many.

Chrysalis threw her hoof forward, smashing the image of Cherub.

She took a moment before she made herself pull back, only to strike it again. She then brought her other hoof out and struck the mirror with it. Chrysalis stared intently at what was left of her reflection as she increased in her pace, reducing the pieces of glass into smaller sizes. She cried in fury as she pounded with thunderous force, ignoring the fiery pain of her cuts. With every strike, more glass fell onto the dresser and more drops of green liquid fell from her hooves. Eventually, almost nothing remained of the mirror but a pile of tiny shards.

Chrysalis took loud, deep breathes when she came to a stop, her eyes never leaving her target despite obliterating it. Finally, she looked down at the mess of glass and blood on the dresser in front of her. She briefly looked over her wounds before picking up a large chunk of glass, holding it delicately in her hooves. She looked down at it and changed her appearance, reflecting an image of Luna in the glass. She struggled to make herself smile as the image became blotted with drops of tears.

“My heart belongs only to you, Chrysalis, and no one else.”

This Day Will Be Perfect: Take Two

Humble, old timey music played from the radio. “I say, dear brother,” said Flim from the radio, “isn’t it just a lovely day here in Equestria?”

“Quite so, old chap! Let us spend this day by-” Dramatic music suddenly played. “What’s this? That stallion is about to jump off that bridge! You, sir! What in the world are you doing!?”

“I can’t stand it!” the stallion sobbed. “I’m a total loser! I can’t score any mare because I’m so worthless! I’m going to end it all right here!”

“Not so fast, my fellow chump!” called Flam. “We actually can help with your problem!”

“How?!”

“By you simply coming down to Ponyville to partake in Flim and Flam’s Hearts and Hooves Love Fest!” answered Flim.

The dramatic music rose into something more upbeat. “Hearts and Hooves Love Fest? You mean the one event that is going to be run by Cherub, the famous matchmaking pony who is involved with Princess Luna?”

“Let’s us not forget the lovely Princess of Love herself, Cadance! They are bound to find you the pony of your dreams!” exclaimed Flam.

“Wow! Maybe there is a chance for me to find happiness after all!”

“Then come along, friend! Ponyville awaits!” spoke Flim.

The music dimmed to a silence and Flam spoke up again. “Are you a pony who just can’t seem to find the one? Do you lack any skills in creating that certain romance between you and another? Do you have a lot of money and like spending it? Do you already have a significant other, but want to find the perfect way to spend Hearts and Hooves Day? Maybe you’re the type of pony who wants to cut to the chase? If you said yes to any of these questions, then this event is for you!”

“Only on Hearts and Hooves Day will the greatest event of love take place in humble Ponyville!” said Flim. “An outdoor fair with food, games, live performances, merchandise, and all the romance you can handle! If you don’t come, you’re pretty much screaming to every pony around you that you hate your life and wish to grow old and die alone!”

“So why are you just sitting around listening to this commercial? Get off your flank, take a lot of money, and swing by Ponyville on Hearts and Hooves Day for the fair, which is brought to you by Flamflim Enterprises! FlamFlim Enterprises: Where There Are No Substitutes!”

“And No Refunds!”

Today was the big day for Chrysalis. After months of planning, Hearts and Hooves Day has now ultimately arrived. To her surprise, Flim and Flam had somehow quickly constructed a large fairground on the outskirts of Ponyville. There were many booths for games and food, stages for shows, a few small rides, and even a Tunnel of Love. The fair opened early morning and was flooded with an enormous amount of ponies less than an hour later. The day had barely begun and the area was filled with so much love, Chrysalis felt light-headed. She hoped Nymph had sent enough changelings to harvest it because she couldn’t stand the thought of letting it all go to waste.

With many changelings coming and reading ponies to harvest their love, Chrysalis had spent a lot of time preparing to elude their detection. Changelings could read emotions of anything that wasn’t their own kind, which was something that always bewildered her. If they noticed the host of the event wasn’t producing any emotion, they could get suspicious and things could go badly. For almost a week, Chrysalis toiled on creating a spell to give off some artificial emotions through the method of magic. It took many nights that resulted in painful headaches, but she was successful. She had never created her own spell before and pulling it off made her feel prideful, despite seeming like such a simple spell. With her new spell, she enchanted her earrings to keep the changelings fooled by having them emanate her emotions.

Earlier that morning, Luna had arrived at her door and escorted her. Despite what loomed on the horizon, Chrysalis decided to enjoy herself today and let everything work out later. Upon arriving at the fair, she saw a fair amount of ponies already there who all cheered when they saw them arrive. Some of them even pleaded for her services. Chrysalis met every pony she could reach and shook their hooves, thanking them for their attendance and wishing them a good day.

Like she expected and hoped for, several ponies from varies media outlets were present and all of them were interested in seeing her and Luna. Chrysalis answered many questions about why she was doing this event, her thoughts on the changelings, and even her relationship with Luna (the last one she avoided as much as she could). Suddenly, Chrysalis was interrupted mid-interview when Flim pulled her over, telling her that she needed to get a move on. Chrysalis felt tempted to punch him for laying a hoof on her, but she repressed the urge. He took her behind a large stage in the center of the area to wait with her co-star.

Ponies crowded around the center stage as a spotlight lit up and focused on the podium. Suddenly, two stallions popped out from behind it. “Hello, everypony! I’m Flim!”

“And I’m Flam!”

“We are the Flimflam brothers!”

The only response they received was dead silence. Not even the crickets bothered chirping for them. “Err…and now,” started Flim, “we give you the Princess of Love, Cadance!”

“And that other pony, Cherub!”

The ponies then burst into applause as they left the stage and Chrysalis and Cadance appeared, waving to the crowd while wearing dresses that were exactly the same in appearance. “Hello, everypony,” spoke Chrysalis. “Welcome to my Hearts and Hooves fair, where true love can be found for any pony.”

“We are very glad you all could come here on this day,” said Cadance. “Every pony deserves a chance at finding their soul mate and here you may able to do just that. Don’t be shy about meeting somepony. Just go out there and be confident! Even if this day doesn’t end with you finding the love of your life, we hope you at least enjoy this day and get to socialize with new acquaintances.”

“And if you already have a special somepony, then we hope that this day will be a very romantic one for you both. There are many fun activities the both of you can partake in, so just take it nice at easy. However, we are not spreading love only here. A significant portion of the bits made here today will be used to aid those less fortunate so they too can feel loved. We encourage you to spend money while you’re here, but don’t do it the point where you become a pony who benefits from our charity.” The crowd briefly chuckled. “So let’s not take up anymore of your time and get this day started!”

“Happy Hearts and Hooves Day!” said both mares as they each blew a kiss to the cheering crowd. They waved as they walked off the stage and met with Luna and Shining Armor.

“I gotta say this place already looks great, Cherub,” said Shining Armor as his wife jumped into his forelegs. “Everypony looks really excited.”

“Thank you. It’s mainly the work of the Flimflam brothers, but they used my ideas.” Chrysalis looked around and noticed something. “Where is Celestia?”

“She is currently in Canterlot doing official business,” answered Luna. “She said she’d come if she gets the chance but she may be a while.”

Chrysalis chuckled loudly. “I get it. Poor Celestia is too ashamed about not having a date and is currently finding comfort with cake. At least there’ll be more of her to love.”

The princess glared at her. “Cherub, quit making fun of my sister.”

“Oh, cake!” said the changeling in a voice that poorly imitated Celestia. “You are the only friend I can rely on! I need you inside me right now!”

Luna shook her head with a hoof on her own face. “Cadance gets a loving knight who is well-mannered and charming and I get you.”

Chrysalis nuzzled her. “And you wouldn’t trade me for anything in the world.”

Luna smiled while blushing. “True, but sometimes I could adjust you just a bit.”

“Oh, please. I’m perfect in every way.”

“What about me?”

“You’re perfect, too.” She looked at the other couple. “So what’s it going to be? Are we going to have a double date?”

“Oh Cherub, we’d love to, but we’re going to do a few things on our own if you don’t mind,” answered Cadance.

“Of course. You two have fun.”

The rulers walked away and as soon as they were out of sight, Luna put a foreleg around her and pointed ahead. “Come, Cherub! Let us see everything your glorious holiday fair has to offer!”

“Sure. But nothing could possibly top being with you,” Chrysalis cooed.

“Especially when this event ends,” whispered Luna happily.

“Hmm?”

“Nothing. Let us go.” Chrysalis wrapped her tail around Luna’s ethereal tail and they walked together. The changeling couldn’t help but smile from feeling the tingling sensation she felt from Luna’s tail. Before they could get anywhere in their search for something to do, they ran into Pinkie and Fluttershy.

“Hello, girls” greeted Chrysalis happily. “Are you both ready for a fun day filled with love?”

The two mares turned to them and Pinkie rapidly nodded. “You bet! I already got so many great ideas of what I wanna do today with my Flutter-Butters, but I was waiting for Luna. I’m totally ready, princess!”

The alicorn chuckled. “Very well. Sit still.” Luna’s horn glowed and then Pinkie was covered in a bright light. After a few moments, the light faded and revealed a shocking change.

“P-Pinkie!?” gasped Chrysalis.

Pinkie extended her newly acquired wings. “Surprise!”

Chrysalis and Fluttershy looked at her in disbelief. As Fluttershy examined Pinkie’s wings, Chrysalis looked at her date. “Luna, why and how did you do that?”

“She said she wanted wings today for something very romantic. Don’t worry. It’s only lasts several hours. Going to go flying with Fluttershy, Pinkie?”

“Yup! I want to sit on the clouds with her and look at all the ponies below. Not only that, it’s time for me to really shake things up here!” She suddenly pulled out a bow and a quiver. “I’m going to be a cupid and spread love across all of Ponyville on Hearts and Hooves Day!”

“Uh, Pinkie? Are those real arrows?” asked Chrysalis with worry.

“No, they are my arrows of love!” She pulled out an arrow with a wooden heart carved on the end and loaded it on her bow. “Watch as I make love come true for this lucky pony!” Before they could stop her, she released it. The next thing they heard was the deafening shriek of a mare. “Uh-oh! Gotta go!” Pinkie grabbed Fluttershy and took flight, disappearing from the area in a matter of seconds.

Luna put a hoof on her face. “Oh, what have I done?”

Chrysalis patted her on the back. “I’m sure Fluttershy will keep an eye on her. Let’s just try to do something fun and not worry about her.”

“I suppose. So what shall we do first that doesn’t involve being an accessory to assault?”

The changeling shrugged while grinning. “I’m not sure, to be honest. I was so focused on setting everything up that I haven’t thought of what I was actually going to do today.”

Luna rubbed her chin and a few seconds later, she suddenly started hopping like Pinkie. “How about we go find some games to play? I am always a fan of fun!”

“I know you are. That’s why I love you,” Chrysalis spoke right before kissing her cheek. They walked together towards another section of the fairgrounds, arriving at an area with many booths that offered games with the chance of winning a prize. Chrysalis scanned the area as many ponies were playing. She wasn’t familiar with many of them, but she was willing to give them all a shot. “What game shall we play first?”

“Hmm.” Luna put her hoof over her eyes and looked into the distance. “How about what young Spike is playing?”

“Spike?” Chrysalis looked to where Luna was pointing and saw the young dragon playing something with Rarity standing next to him. “Might as well check it out and see how they’re doing.”

They walked over to the couple and saw Spike throwing baseballs at some cans. All but one shot missed, but it didn’t budge them. “Aw, so close! Wanna try again?” taunted Flam.

Spike threw down bits onto the counter. “You bet I do!” he said angrily.

Rarity looked worried, but became relieved when she saw Luna and Chrysalis. “Hello, you two. Could you perhaps talk Spike out of this?”

“What’s going on?” asked Chrysalis.

Rarity turned towards Spike, who threw a fit right before putting down more money. “Spikey wants to win me a prize, but he has spent so many bits on this stupid little game. He’s going to be broke before he wins!”

Seeing Flam run this game immediately raised Chrysalis’s suspicion. “Alright, I’ll handle this.” She approached the stand and got in the stallion’s face. “Flam, you better stop ripping off this kid right now. Also, I thought you were supposed to be with Hoity today.”

He gave her a sly grin, something that always made Chrysalis angry. “I am, but I need to ensure that everything here is running smoothly today. He’s with my brother and Carrot Top somewhere around here. And rip off? Whatever do you mean? This is a fair game,” he claimed innocently.

“Baloney!” shouted Spike as he slammed his fists down. “I totally hit those cans and they didn’t fall over! This game is rigged!”

“I assure you it is not.” Flam hit the button under the counter, turning off the powerful magnets set underneath the stacks of cans. He approached one stack and tapped it with his hoof, knocking it over. “See? You’re just a little wimpy dragon.”

Spike shot fire out of his nostrils and Chrysalis stepped forward. “Mind if I give it a go?”

“Pay up first.” While Chrysalis reached for some bits in her dress pocket, Flam hit the button to ensure Chrysalis looked foolish. She placed down the money and he collected it, giving her three baseballs in return. Chrysalis took one and stood on her hind legs. She pulled her foreleg back, took aim, and launched it. In the blink of an eye the ball flew, knocked all the cans into the air and made a hole in the back of the booth. The ball disappeared into the morning horizon.

They all looked at the hole in amazement as Chrysalis chuckled. “Looks like I win.”

Flam tugged his collar, gulping. “I suppose you have.” He reached up and grabbed a large plush parasprite, handing it to her. “A big prize for such a big shot.”

“It’s for the kid.”

Flam handed to Spike and he happily took it. “Wow, thanks!” He then held it to Rarity. “For you, m’lady.”

She chuckled as she took it with her magic. “That is so sweet of you, Spike, but I don’t think I want it to carry it around all day.”

“Allow me to send it to your home,” offered the alicorn. With a flash, the prize disappeared. “Would you two like to join us as we partake in more fun?”

“Oh, of course!” answered Rarity.

As the others left, Chrysalis turned towards Flam, holding a baseball up to him in a threatening manner. “If you keep trying to rip ponies off, my next target is going to be your face.” She slammed the ball onto the counter and made her leave as the stallion made sure the magnets remained off.

Chrysalis caught up with Rarity and Spike as Luna ran around the area like a child in a candy store. She eventually ran back to them, hardly able to contain herself. “This place must have every game ever made! I’m going to go and win them all!”

“Unless I win them,” teased the changeling.

Luna smiled smugly at her. “Is that a challenge, my sweet Cherub?”

“What’s a game without competition? With the four of us, I’m sure it will be interesting.”

“Very well. Whoever wins the most games shall be known as the Queen of Games!”

“What about me?” asked Spike.

“Or king,” Luna corrected as Chrysalis and Rarity chuckled. “I decree we play whack-a-diamond-dog first!”

“Oh, I can’t wait,” said Chrysalis while evilly rubbing her hooves together. She already had a fun idea of what to do after beating Luna. With her victories, she would make Luna her trusty steed and ride her for the rest of the day, displaying her absolute victory over the princess to everypony in town.

It was only because she was competing with Luna did Chrysalis not go on a violent rampage. Losing over forty games in a row without a single victory was not her ideal way of beginning Hearts and Hooves Day. However, seeing Luna jump around with joy while carrying many tickets and prizes made her feel warm. Spike and Rarity seemed content with just playing and being together, so Chrysalis supposed everything was fine with everypony else in good spirits.

They took a short break so Luna could send all her prizes to her room in Canterlot and Chrysalis could only imagine anypony’s reaction to seeing a bunch of stuffed animals flooding the princess’s room. With the last prize gone, she looked at the others triumphantly. “Well then, we all obviously know who has won the title ‘The Queen of Games.’”

The changeling gave a defeated sigh. “I guess we do. So what now, your highness?”

“Your queen decrees that you buy her snacks!”

Chrysalis cocked her head. “Snacks? That’s what you wish for after kicking all our rears?”

“Yes, and you will all be paying for it! Just so you know, I have quite the appetite.” She held her hoof out. “Come on. Pony up. Your queen hungers.”

The three losers groaned slightly as they gave Luna some bits. As Spike reached into his bag, he made a horrifying discovery. He looked into his bag and dug around frantically. “Oh no, no, no!”

“Spike, what’s wrong?” asked Rarity.

“I’m out of money!”

“What!? Spike, I told you be careful with your bits with that silly little game! Also I told you didn’t have to pay for me every time! I have money, too.”

The dragon dropped the bag. “But…but there are so many things I want to do, but I don’t have any money left and it’s not even noon.”

Chrysalis could tell the poor kid looked ready to cry. Rather than let his special day with Rarity get ruined, Chrysalis reached into her pocket and pulled out a sack. “Here.” She took Spike’s bag and dumped an enormous amount of bits into it. “Spend it wisely this time.”

Spike looked into his loaded bag, gasping. “That’s a lot of bits, Cherub! It’s like over two-hundred!”

“I make enough money already. Besides, think of it as a little bonus for all of your hard work.”

“And I thought I was supposed to be the Element of Generosity.” Rarity looked towards Luna as she received her tribute from the drake. “Do you mind if I come with you? I’m feeling a bit famished myself.”

“Very well. We shall split the winnings!”

“We’ll wait for you right here,” said Chrysalis as she sat at a table. “Just try not to go crazy, Luna.”

Luna nodded and left with Rarity following. Chrysalis and Spike watched them and could barely hear Rarity ask, “So fair food is usually low on calories, right?”

When they were gone, Spike looked at the matchmaker. “Thanks for helping me again, Cherub.”

“What do you mean again?”

“You know, when you helped get Rarity to like me.”

“Oh.” Chrysalis leaned back on the table and looked towards the sunny sky. “My, that feels so long ago. I still can’t believe I made it work.”

“Me too. If it weren’t for you, I don’t think I could have ever gotten Rarity to like me.”

She chuckled and shook her head. “No, Spike. I only helped speed things up for the both of you. You would have won her heart eventually.”

He looked up at her in surprise. “Really?”

“Of course. You’re the only one I know who sweeps her off her feet and she can always rely on you. Knowing her, she would continue to have silly crushes and get disappointed in the end, but she would always have you.” She crossed her hind legs and smirked to herself. “Quite frankly, I actually thought you would have had a thing for Twilight when I first met you.”

Spike jumped. “No way! She’s kind of like my sister, if you haven’t noticed.”

Chrysalis smiled at his reaction. “I’m aware, but you two seem connected by the hip. Considering she was your only friend before coming here and you two practically spend every day together, I kind of figured she would have grown on you. Still, Twilight is pretty cute and I’m surprised you haven’t thought that before.”

Strangely, the dragon sweated while darting his eyes around. “W-we were just friends! Really! Nothing happened! I’m not hiding anything! Stop asking me stuff!”

Chrysalis loved catching others in a lie and looked at him eagerly. “Oh? Never looked at Twilight the same way you do with Rarity?”

“N-no!”

Chrysalis rubbed the top of his head, laughing mockingly. “You are a terrible liar. You had a crush on her before, didn’t you?”

He looked and made sure Rarity wasn’t coming. “Please don’t tell anypony.”

“I won’t. So tell me about it.”

He stared at the grass below him. “It feels so weird to think about now. She was the only pony that I really knew and I did think she was kind of cute sometimes, especially since she was the only girl I was friends with.” He suddenly chuckled. “I tried to get her to like me, but Twilight never really got the hint, you know? One time, I gave her a rose, but she thought I was giving it to her so she could study it.”

She suppressed the urge to break out in laughter. “That’s so Twilight.”

“Yeah. When she got older, she just became a bigger nerd and I just wasn’t feeling it for her anymore. I still like her as a friend and I feel bad she doesn’t have a date today.”

Chrysalis nodded. “She’s a great pony, so I’m sure she’ll find somepony someday. Most likely with my assistance, of course.”

Spike smirked. “Hey, if you do find her somepony, please don’t give her some giant nerd that will make Twilight even worse. Get her like an athlete or something.”

“I promise. Anyway, so how about you? Doing okay with not officially dating Rarity yet?”

“Yeah. It sucks I have to wait, but I understand why.”

“Don’t think about it too much. Everything will come together in the future.”

“I know.” They watched ponies pass by, who occasionally glanced at Chrysalis, until Spike quietly spoke up. “Hey, I got a question.”

“Alright. What is it?”

“Um…I’m just curious about something since I have to wait a long time.”

She looked at him and saw that he looked extremely embarrassed. “I don’t like where this is going, but let’s hear it.”

He looked around before motioning her closer. She leaned towards him and he whispered to her, “So…what’s sex like?” Chrysalis wore an emotionless expression as she stared at him with one eye twitching. “Too weird?”

“Spike, you will never ask me or anypony else that again.”

“G-got it.”

Rarity and Luna then appeared with the alicorn carrying many snacks. “We’re back!” announced the unicorn. “What were you two talking about?”

“Birds!” spat out Spike as he was startled.

“Bees!” answered Chrysalis at the same time as him.

The two mares looked at them strangely until Rarity stilled the silence. “Anyway, it’s been fun playing with you two, but I want to spend some quality time with Spike, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. I was thinking the same for Cherub and I,” said Luna.

“Thank you for all the fun. I really hope you two enjoy the rest of your day. Come on, Spikey.”

“Bye, Cherub and Luna,” said the dragon as he waved to them.

They waved goodbye to them and Chrysalis looked back at Luna, who was devouring several churros and giant pretzels. “I can tell you’re enjoying this day quite well.” The princess happily nodded while chewing her food. “Just remember the best part of this day for you is being with me, not stuffing your face.”

Luna swallowed. “Of course I know that, but how can I not enjoy my moment of glory?”

“Fine.” Eventually, Luna finished off all her prize food. “So Luna, what shall we do next? As the Queen of Games, you should get to choose.”

The alicorn clapped her hooves together. “Let’s get some lunch!”

Chrysalis’s jaw dropped. “Lunch!? After all that!?”

“That was merely an appetizer! I require much more food to be satisfied. Wait here and I shall bring us a delicious feast.”

Before she could protest, she could feel her stomach growl. Although there was a lot of love around, she still required physical food. “Well, I guess I could go for something as long as it isn’t the junk you just devoured.”

“Excellent. Wait right here.” Luna walked off with a skip in her step while Chrysalis eyed her rear, smiling to herself. She knew about the alicorn appetite, but it always took her by surprise how they could stuff themselves and yet retain their elegant frame. She could only imagine how much of a black hole they could become if one of them got pregnant.

After some time, Luna returned with a tray of food being carried by her magic. “So what did my loving Lulu bring us for lunch?”

She set the tray down. “Ta-da!”

Chrysalis looked down and then back up in complete confusion. “Hayburgers? You got us hayburgers?”

“Mhm! Let us dig in!” Luna grabbed one and proceeded to devour it.

The changeling crossed her forelegs and turned away. “I don’t get how a princess such as you could make herself eat that garbage.”

“It is not garbage! It is fit for Equestrian royalty.”

“Sure, you tell me that when you suddenly find yourself fat and-” Rather than let her continue, Luna shoved a hayburger into her mouth. The changeling wanted to spit it out, but when she tasted it, she lost all self-control and ate the burger given to her. Once she finished, she looked at Luna. “I guess one time wouldn’t hurt. So why burgers? Doesn’t strike me as princess food.”

“Exactly. You can only eat royal food so much before you desire something simpler.”

“I suppose.” The two of them ate in peace with their tails wrapped together under the table.

“I vill not!” Luna and Chrysalis turned their heads, finding two familiar ponies near them.

“Come on, Photo,” insisted Fancy Pants. “Just one bite?”

The mare shook her head. “I vill not eat them today. I vill not eat them far away. I vill not eat them late. I vill not eat them on a date. I vill not eat them, Photo Finish I am. What kind of self-respected pony would resort themselves into eating dis filth?”

Fancy Pants sighed, but then his eyes became wide when he saw who was near. “What about Princess Luna and Cherub?”

“What!?” Photo Finish turned around and saw them. Gasping, she leapt from her seat and sat at their table. “Hello again, Cherub! It is been too long! Why do you not write to me? And Princess Luna, what an honor to finally meet you!”

“Photo, Fancy, glad could both of you could make it,” said Chrysalis as the stallion joined them. “Enjoying yourselves?”

“Quite so,” answered the stallion as he bit into his lunch. “You’ve done an excellent job putting this all together, Cherub.”

Luna leaned against the changeling. “She does have vision.”

“Maybe so, but dis day vill be nothing compared to what’s coming!”

“And what would that be?” asked Chrysalis with absolute curiosity.

Photo giggled uncontrollably before placing a hoof on the table, showing the golden bangle around her leg. “Ve’re getting married!”

Luna and Chrysalis gasped. “Congratulations!” exclaimed Chrysalis while shaking her hoof.

“Oh, thank you. He proposed to me last week and it was the happiest moment in my life.”

“Wait until our wedding,” said Fancy Pants. “Cherub, we would be so honored if you could come.”

Chrysalis leaned back with her forelegs behind her head. She did like the idea of going, but she suddenly felt an unsettling chill. “I don’t know. I don’t have a good history with weddings.”

“You must!” spoke Photo Finish. “It is only because of you that dis is happening! You made me give dis fool another chance and it has been the best decision I made. You and Luna must come, or else I vill tie you up and make you come.”

Chrysalis chuckled nervously, unsure if she was serious or not. “Well since you insist, I suppose I could come.”

“Excellent! I vill give you an invitation as soon as we pick a date. Perhaps someday in da summer. Of course, we would be so happy you could join us as well, Princess.”

“I would be delighted.”

“Good! Since you are such a good friend to Cherub, then you vill obviously allow us to use the chapel in da palace.”

“The chapel? I guess I-”

“You said yes! You can’t take it back now! Thank you so much, Princess Luna!” she shouted happily while shaking the hoof of the confused mare.

“Maybe she could wed you, too,” Chrysalis suggested with an amused smile.

“An even better idea! You vill do this, yes?”

Luna shot a look at Chrysalis, who whistled innocently, and sighed. “I guess I have to now.”

“Splendid! We vill send you a letter when we picked a date.” She stood up and dragged her fiancé by his hoof. “Come, Fancy! Let us spread da news! Ve’re getting married at Canterlot palace by Princess Luna!”

“Of course, dear,” he chuckled as he was dragged away. “It was nice to see you again, Cherub.”

Chrysalis waved to them as they left. “Likewise. I hope you two enjoy your day here,” she called.

Once they were gone, Luna resumed her feast. “I can’t wait for the wedding, even if a certain somepony seems to like putting me in certain position without my permission.” Chrysalis shrugged innocently while sipping her soda. “Still, it would be nice to attend one without anything going wrong.”

“I agree. With it being about the two of them, I can imagine it will be fantastic.”

“I hope so.” Luna rested her head on her hooves and sighed happily. “You know, I wonder what my next wedding will be like if I get married again.”

Chrysalis took Luna’s hoof and kissed it. “I’m sure it will be the greatest moment in our lives.” Luna blushed heavily and they smiled at each other. Slowly, they brought their lips together and met in a passionate kiss. As they kissed, Chrysalis saw out of the corner of her eye a red pegasus stallion staring at them with his mouth open. Chrysalis pulled away from Luna and shouted, “Do you mind!?” The pegasus jumped and ran out of sight as fast as he could. “Pervert.”

“I would agree, but you clearly didn’t see the green crystal hanging around his neck.”

“Huh?”

Luna let out a laugh. “Cherub, that was a changeling you chased away.”

Chrysalis gasped and quickly looked in the direction he went. “Was it?”

“Yes. He was just trying to feed from our love.”

“Oh, how silly of me.” Luna giggled at her and she shrugged in response. “You know, I can’t imagine what life will be like with changelings around.”

“Neither can I.”

“How much longer do you think until they live here?”

“Oh, I don’t think it will be that long,” Luna answered optimistically.

“What about Nymph? How is she doing?”

“She’s just fine. She’s just working herself to death in trying to get changelings citizenship. It’s been very difficult for her since Chrysalis appeared.”

Chrysalis suddenly felt incredibly concerned. “It has?”

Luna nodded, now carrying a more serious expression on her face. “A lot of ponies were rattled with her appearance, so the meetings were put on hold for a while as many believed Chrysalis would attack if they got together.”

Chrysalis gulped. She knew contacting Nymph or Cadance and Shining Armor was risky, but she didn’t realize the talks themselves might have been affected by her actions. “Oh. They’re at least going again, right?”

“It took some time, but yes. A lot of ponies have put the past behind them, so it shouldn’t be long until it finishes up. I predict the changelings will be in Equestria in the very near future.”

Chrysalis finished off her hayburger and wiped her mouth, suddenly gaining an idea. “I wonder if I should make Cupid’s Arrow as a sort of restaurant and charge changelings for love.”

Luna produced a look of disapproval. “Don’t you dare. We already had enough ponies who tried to put love on the market and sell it to changelings.”

“Fine.” They soon finished their lunch and Chrysalis tossed the remains into the trash. “So are we ready to go?”

“Not quite. It is time for desert.” She chuckled when she heard Chrysalis loudly groan. “Relax. It’s just one small thing for us to share.”

“Well, alright. What is it?” Luna pulled out a pastry. However, it was one of Chrysalis’s infamous jelly doughnuts. Luna took a small bite out of it and held it towards her. Smiling back at her, Chrysalis took a bite, swallowing it as quickly as she could. Luna took some of the jelly with her hoof and rubbed it against her cheek. Understanding the gesture, the changeling leaned forward and licked it clean, causing Luna to giggle. Luna took what remained of the treat and tore it in half, handing one piece to her. Chrysalis took it and ate it, trying not to look squeamish as she chewed. Once she finished, she looked at Luna quickly and secretly drained her for a while in order to get the taste out of her mouth.

“You must tell me what is your secret ingredient,” said Luna when she finished with her piece. “It is simply delicious.”

Chrysalis gulped. Planning to tell Luna her true identity was already bad enough. How in the world could she ever tell her she has been feeding her and ponies her own slime as food? “I don’t know. Isn’t there some fun in not knowing?”

Luna crossed her forelegs and smirked at her. “Is that your sales pitch for your jelly or for being in a relationship with you?”

Chrysalis visibly flinched. “I promise to tell you soon about both. So are we actually done yet?”

“Yes, we are.” Luna stood along with Chrysalis. “Where next?”

Chrysalis shrugged while looking around. “Not sure. Maybe we should check out that Tunnel of Love. It’s a bit cheesy, but hey, why not?” The couple walked together through the crowd of ponies, many of which tried waving or snapping pictures of them. Chrysalis always enjoyed the praise, but that didn’t come close to how she felt from being with Luna.

Before they could go any further, they saw two familiar ponies up ahead. “Come on, Fluttershy! Don’t be a party pooper! You can’t give up on something as important as this!”

Fluttershy had her head lowered as she dragged a hoof across the grass. “I know it’s important, but maybe we could do something else. Could we do something where we don’t worry about other ponies and just do something together?”

“We are doing something together and what could be better than helping ponies fall in love!? Today is the most important day to make their dreams come true!” Pinkie drew another arrow and before she could shoot, she heard Chrysalis clear her throat. The mare looked up at the changeling and became extremely excited. “Hi, Cherub! Are you having fun!?”

Chrysalis’s eyes fixed on her arsenal and then onto Fluttershy’s gloomy expression. “Pinkie, please tell me you haven’t been still shooting more ponies with arrows.”

“She hasn’t stopped since she got wings. It’s not really working, though,” said Fluttershy, followed by a sigh.

“But what about that one mare? She totally fell in love with that paramedic, so it is working!” Pinkie quickly took aim. “I think I just need to try some more! I can’t be a good cupid if I don’t try!”

“Pinkie,” spoke Chrysalis as she snatched the bow from her. “Look, I really appreciate you trying to spread love and joy to ponies here today, but you have already done so much of that in the past, so you shouldn’t worry about doing any more. Besides, I think you’re forgetting about the most important pony that deserves a somepony special today.”

“Who?” The changeling grabbed her head and turned it towards Fluttershy. Pinkie immediately realized what she was saying and became extremely distressed. “Oh no! I’ve been so busy spreading love, I am neglecting my poor Flutters! I’m the worst marefriend ever!” She fell onto the ground and bawled uncontrollably, causing many ponies to stare. “I ruined our Hearts and Hooves Day together!”

Fluttershy knelt down and held Pinkie against her chest. “It’s okay, Pinkie. We still have time to do things together.”

Pinkie sprung onto her hooves, immediately cleared up of tears. “You’re right! We got much catching up to do, but what should we do?”

“Um…could we sit somewhere? I’m a bit tired from running away a lot from angry ponies.”

Pinkie looked around and then looked upward, causing her to gasp happily. “I know! Let’s go sit on a cloud! I got these wings just so I could be with you, so let’s use them!”

“That sounds nice. Would you like to join us?” Fluttershy asked the other couple.

“We would like that. Cherub, shall I give you wings so you may join us?”

“I’d rather not spend the time trying to figure out how to fly and look silly in front of you all.” Chrysalis climbed onto the alicorn’s back. “Onward, my trusty steed.”

“If you insist,” said Luna with some amusement. She took off from the ground and Fluttershy and Pinkie followed. There were numerous clouds above the fairgrounds, where many pegasi were seated along with their date. Luna managed to find one available and rested on it with the other two ponies joining her. Down below they could see just how large the event was. “Hasn’t Cherub done a fine job?”

“It’s so lovely. Everypony looks so happy,” commented Fluttershy.

“I was honestly nervous this wouldn’t work out, but this is going much better than I hoped. Just remember this is only for one day, so you two better start having fun instead of harassing ponies.”

“But it was fun!” Everyone gave Pinkie a deadpan look. “Thanks for doing all this, Cherub. This is almost as great as when you helped get Fluttershy to like me!”

Chrysalis laughed as she laid her head against Luna. “Oh, I remember those days quite well. I still can’t believe you told everypony in town you were gay.”

“Well it was exciting news, so they had to know! I just wish I told Fluttershy so we could have dated much sooner.” She rubbed her nose against the pegasus’s.

“It’s okay, Pinkie. I wish I was just as open about it like you were so you didn’t have to go through all the trouble,” said Fluttershy.

“Aw, don’t feel bad about it. I love you the way you are. I love you so much, we’re gonna get engaged and then married someday!” Fluttershy smiled warmly with pink cheeks and rested her head against her. “And then in the future, we’re going to have a bunch of babies!”

“Uh…Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked while hiding her entire face behind her hair. “We’re both girls.”

The winged earth pony ruffled the top of Fluttershy’s head. “I know. That’s why we’ll have Cherub get us pregnant!”

“WHAT!?” Many ponies in the area looked towards the red unicorn and Luna felt her ears ring.

“Yep! With your magic, we’re going to have our own family in the future! Isn’t that great? It totally is!” Pinkie rolled onto her back and stared into the sky. “But wait, wouldn’t that also make you a mom? Will our babies have three moms? That’s so cool!”

Chrysalis pressed her head on the back of Luna’s neck, hiding her face in her mane. “Well that’s going to be interesting when it happens, won’t it, Cherub?” Luna chuckled as the changeling groaned loudly in response. “We might have to find you a teacher so you could learn how to impregnate somepony. Won’t that be fun?”

“Yay me…” Chrysalis lifted her head and looked down at Pinkie. “I’m all for creating love and making couples happy, but this is seriously out of my comfort zone.”

“Oh come on,” insisted Pinkie happily. “Besides, don’t you want to learn so you and Luna can have a bunch of babies in the future, too?”

Chrysalis and Luna’s faces felt as if they caught fire and Fluttershy held a hoof open her open mouth. “P-Pinkie Pie!” stammered the alicorn. “That is not an appropriate topic for public discussion!”

“Why not? Don’t you two want any? And not appropriate? It’s not like you two need to have sex to make a baby. Oh, speaking of that, have you two done it yet!?”

Luna quickly stood up. “It was nice catching up with you both, but now we must go somewhere and do a thing immediately!” Before either mare could respond, Luna teleported her and Chrysalis somewhere in the middle of the fair. Many ponies were caught by surprise by her sudden appearance and Chrysalis climbed off of her. “That was…what’s the word?”

“The most embarrassing moments of our lives?”

“That’s more than one word, Cherub.”

“I think it fits what just happened perfectly.”

“True. I think we should avoid young Pinkie for the rest of the day.”

“I guess that might be for the best. But hey, it could be worse. Pinkie is nowhere as bad as-”

“Ms. Cherub!”

The changeling immediately developed a look of scorn and violently shuddered. “Them.” They turned around. Luckily for her, it was only Apple Bloom, who was with Applejack, Big Mac, and Caramel. Chrysalis sighed to herself as she and Luna approached the stand. “Why hello, little Apple Bloom.” She took a quick look around. “Where’s Featherweight?”

“He went to go win me prizes and stuff!” She lifted her right foreleg, showing a variety of bracelets. “See? Ain’t they pretty?”

“They sure are,” complimented Luna, “but why are you and Applejack working today? Don’t tell me you both are more in love with your jobs than your coltfirends.”

Applejack gave an embarrassed laugh as Caramel smiled at her tauntingly. “Nah, nothin’ like that. Ah’m just here to give my brother some company while he works.” She nudged her coltfriend. “Besides, we don’t need to always do some fancy stuff to be happy together.”

Chrysalis leaned against Luna. “I like the way you think, Applejack.”

“So how about you? How’s your day with the very lovely Princess Luna?” As Caramel scanned his eyes across the alicorn, Applejack and Chrysalis got up in his face with fiery glares.

“Just fine,” hissed the false unicorn. “Better hope your day stays the same way.” She pulled away from the nervous stallion and looked at Big Mac. “So you got a date today, big guy?”

“Nope.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Really? No mare for a guy like you?”

“Nope.”

She leaned over the counter towards him. “How about I find somepony for you? Somepony to…buck some apples?”

“Nope.” Despite Big Mac’s never changing expression, Chrysalis could sense that he was extremely embarrassed and would break if she kept pushing.

“A shame.” She then looked at the little filly as Big Mac wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“And what about you, Apple Bloom? I’m pretty sure children your age shouldn’t be made to work on a holiday, if at all.”

“Ah wanna help ma family and maybe get ma cutie mark! And if that don’t work, Ah’mma try the other thing ma family’s good at besides sellin’ apples!”

“And what would that be, young one?” asked Luna.

“Wrastlin’!”

All the ponies and the changeling looked at her strangely. “Wrestling? Since when did any of you do that?” asked Chrysalis, receiving a shrug from the older siblings.

“Like a lot. It musta been a family secret since nopony ever told me about it.”

More confused looks were exchanged. “Apple Bloom, just what in the hay are you ramblin’ about?” asked Applejack.

“Ah’ve seen you wrestle a lot, Applejack! Ah never said nuttin cause ya always try to keep it secret in the barn.”

“Who does she wrestle with?” asked Chrysalis.

“Caramel!” Everyone’s jaws hit the ground and Caramel became tense when he felt Big Mac’s hoof grabbing the back of his head.

Chrysalis and Luna slowly looked at each other, both knowing that the other just wanted to leave as quickly as possible. “Y-you don’t say. Perhaps you should keep it a secret. It might be strange to other ponies if they somepony like Applejack taking part in such a…physical sport,” suggested Luna with a nervous grin.

“Ah guess. Ah mean who would believe somepony like Applejack and Big Mac liked to wrestle ponies? Everypony looks up to them!”

The group once again became shocked and Applejack grabbed the back of her brother’s head, who was sweating bullets. “Apple Bloom, who does he like wrestlin’?” her sister asked with incredible tension.

“Ms. Cherilee!”

Everypony gasped and Applejack’s grip tightened. “Yar teacher!?”

“Yep! Ah don’t why doesn’t come and say hi, though. She looks like she’s tryin’ to be sneaky. Ah guess teachers aren’t allow to wrestle since it’s violent and stuff.”

Chrysalis took Luna’s tail and started dragging her away. “It’s been nice seeing you all, but we absolutely need to go someplace far, far away. So long!”

“Bye!” waved Apple Bloom as they went away.

Once they were out of sight, Applejack immediately shoved a few bits towards the filly. “Hey, Apple Bloom, why don’t ya fetch us some cotton candy? We’re just starvin’, aren’t we?” The stallions both rapidly nodded.

“Ya got it, sis!” Apple Bloom left the stand with the bag of bits in her mouth, happily humming to herself.

Once she was gone, Applejack looked at the stallions. “Okay, here’s the plan: We buy her a book that teaches her actual wrestlin’, buy a lock for the barn, and mention none of this to Granny. Deal?”

Big Mac and Caramel looked at each other and then at Applejack, both saying, “Yep.”

Luna and Chrysalis powerwalked for several minutes, neither of speaking a word the whole time. Eventually they came to a stop, found a bench to sit on, and stared into space, not noticing any pony who addressed them. “I don’t know about you,” Chrysalis said suddenly, “but I hope today doesn’t get as…interesting anymore.”

The princess fanned herself with her hoof. “I have to agree. I don’t think I want to hear any more about…that.” They continued staring in silence and Luna eventually scooted towards her to rest her head on the changeling’s shoulder. “We should do something to forget what we heard. So what was this tunnel of love you mentioned earlier?”

“Oh, it’s just a cute ride where you ride a swan shaped boat into a tunnel.”

“That sounds fun, but where’s the love?”

“I’m not really sure. Let’s go find out.” They both got up and as Luna skipped ahead, Chrysalis pulled out a compact mirror and some lipstick, chuckling to herself as she applied to some to her lips.

The line went rather quickly and the two hopped into the floating swan. Cherub had to grab onto the edge as Luna hopped on as the alicorn’s weight nearly tilted the boat for a moment. The current pushed them forward and they were carried into darkness. When they came to the light of the exit, Luna’s face was covered in red kiss marks, which was captured by the camera planted at the exit platform to catch those coming out. Chrysalis paid for the picture and she and Luna smiled at it, although Luna didn’t like how embarrassed she looked. For the next several hours, they went around the park buying trinkets, meeting ponies, and occasionally having their picture taken together all while Chrysalis tried to balance dealing with any ponies who wanted her help to find them the one.

Eventually, the sun went down and ponies crowded around Luna, watching her raise the moon. As simple as it looked, Chrysalis felt happy watching Luna do what she did best. Every time she raised the moon into the sky, she looked so peaceful and elegant. Once she finished, the couple resumed their walk together while Chrysalis looked up towards the sea of stars. “It’s so beautiful tonight.”

“Thank you, but it’s just a normal night like any other.”

“I know. Every one of your nights is beautiful.”

Luna pecked her on the cheek. “And every one of your compliments is sweet. So we still got a few hours left, so what do you want to do?”

Chrysalis tapped her chin. She didn’t feel like doing any more games and was in no way hungry. She felt clueless. She then realized she had not seen Twilight all day, making her worry that she was didn’t bother to come. “Honestly, I want to see how Twilight’s doing. I haven’t seen her around and I’m worried she didn’t show since she’s dateless.”

“I think Cadance said she would be with her and Shining Armor, so let’s go find them.” As they walked through the fair, they questioned any pony they came across about the whereabouts of the three ponies. Since many ponies recognized the rulers of the Crystal Empire, it didn’t take long to track them down. They soon found Cadance and Shining, who were speaking with a pony and a zebra.

“You’re Doctor Whooves!” exclaimed Shining Armor happily.

“And you’re Prince Shining Armor!” Time Turner replied.

Shining looked ready to explode from excitement. “Wow! I actually get to meet Doctor Whooves! This is easily the best thing that has ever happened to me!”

“Ahem.”

He nervously looked at his angry wife. “S-second best. So I heard my sister got an autograph from you before and I was wondering if it wasn’t too much trouble that I could get one, too.”

“I suppose I could give another, especially to somepony as important as you. Got anything for me to sign?”

As the unicorn desperately searched his bag, Zecora tugged on her date. “Turner, we really need to go. If we wait any longer, we’ll miss the show.”

“Show? What show?” asked Chrysalis as she and Luna approached.

The group quickly looked at her and Luna. “My, my, if it isn’t our good friend Cherub. Haven’t seen you since Turner was in quite a rub,” greeted Zecora. “And Princess Luna, what a delight! We thank you for bringing us such a lovely night.”

“Hello again to you both,” spoke Luna. “I hope no strange incidents have been going on since last time we met. I’m in no mood for controlling riots or worrying sick about my heroic little Cherub.” Chrysalis rolled her eyes as she blushed.

Turner chuckled. “No, not at all. Everything has been quiet normal, which is a bit boring for me.”

“Be careful of what you wish for,” jested Luna. “So what is this show you were talking about? Cherub and I have done just about everything and we need to find something new to do.”

“Trixie’s show,” answered Cadance. “Twilight asked me and Shining to come and watch her. Do you want to come with us?”

“We would be delighted,” answered the changeling. Cadance nodded and the six headed towards where Trixie would perform. “So where has Twilight been? I haven’t seen her around at all.”

“She’s been with us for most of the time while we had fun,” answered the prince. “She’s been pretty happy here, except when Cadance tries to find her a date every five minutes.” Cadance shrugged at him while laughing.

“I bet years ago, you thought one day you could be with Cadance without having to babysit your little sister,” Chrysalis spoke with a grin.

Shining rolled his eyes as the other ponies chuckled. “She wasn’t a bother at all, but she had to leave since Trixie’s show is starting soon.”

“Oh right. I forgot she was assisting her. Any idea what sort of tricks she’s going to do?” asked Chrysalis.

“Not at all. I can’t wait to find out.”

Chrysalis nodded and then looked at the other couple. “So how have you two been? I’ve heard you got Zecora on your show now from a very knowledgeable source,” she said while glancing at the unicorn, who mumbled to himself.

“Oh, it’s been great,” answered Turner. “She’s been a huge hit since I’ve added her and ponies have been flocking to meet her whenever she visits town.” The zebra sighed as he patted her back. “Hey, I said I was sorry. They’ll leave you alone soon. Anyway, she is just great and I love learning everything about her. She promised me that she would teach me how to make potions later.”

Zecora leaned against him. “Always such an eager learner, which is one reason I love Turner. Our time together is always so grand and I also plan on taking him to my homeland.”

“Your homeland? Maybe I should think about a vacation there in the future,” spoke Chrysalis. “So Turner, are you still going crazy over scheduling your life?”

“What? No, of course not. I’m totally not into that anymore.” They all looked at him. “Okay, maybe just a little bit. It’s good to have some organization over your life.”

Chrysalis loudly sighed. “Zecora, if he goes back to into being a time freak again, please hit him for me.”

“Cherub, how could you be so mean? He’s Doctor Whooves!” exclaimed Shining Armor.

“Shining, if you met him around the time I did, you would have already dumped your Doctor Whooves merchandise into the trash a long time ago.” The mares laughed out loud and the stallions hung their heads.

The six arrived at an open area with many tables that were set in front of a stage. Once they were seated, Chrysalis looked at Luna. “So would somepony like you even be entertained by magic tricks? I figured somepony like you would know all sorts of spells that are far more impressive.”

“Well ponies always do find creative things to do with magic, so we’ll just have to see what Trixie has to offer.”

Chrysalis nodded and then whispered to her, “You know, maybe later I could show you some of my own tricks.” Luna chuckled and leaned over to give her a kiss.

However, a pony popped his head between them. “Hi, Princess Luna!” The six ponies looked at the young colt who suddenly appeared.

Luna gasped with surprise and saw how annoyed her marefriend looked from being denied a kiss, causing her to crack up. “Hello, Pip,” she greeted with a laugh. “It’s been a while. How have you been?”

“Great! I’ve been looking all over for you so we could hang out, Princess!”

“I’m not surprised,” muttered Chrysalis. “So are you here just to say hi?”

“We’re here to see the magic show!” Sweetie Belle, his date, excitedly exclaimed as she caught up.

“Can we sit with you, Princess? Please?” Pip gave his best puppy eyes, causing everyone but Chrysalis’s heart to melt.

“Of course you can. You’re my friend and I would enjoy your company.”

The colt squealed happily and pulled up a chair, setting it right between Luna and Chrysalis. Chrysalis reached over to put her foreleg over the alicorn, but the distance between them was increased when Sweetie Belle pushed her farther so she could shove a seat right next to Pip. The changeling sighed in defeat and growled when she heard Zecora snickering at her.

Chrysalis looked at the children next to her, who were both talking nonstop to the princess. A week before Hearts and Hooves Day, Rarity and Applejack came to her and requested that she help the Crusaders find a date. She was reluctant at first as she didn’t really like helping children, especially those three, but they eventually convinced her. After some hard work, she and Pinkie came up with three colts for the fillies. Sweetie Belle got Pipsqueak, Apple Bloom had Feather Weight, and Scootaloo was with Rumble. However, Pipsqueak was the hardest to deal with as he, much to Chrysalis’s surprise, had a crush on Luna. Chrysalis tried to tell him that she was Luna’s lover, but he didn’t believe her. She later had Luna come over and tell him the truth, resulting in the poor child’s heart being broken.

He seemed to be happy with Sweetie Belle, but she doubted he was going to let go of the alicorn so easily, so Chrysalis decided to scan her newest company. Sweetie Belle gave off quite a bit of love while talking to Pip, which she expected from the filly being with her first coltfriend. Pip, however, seemed to be just a bit more interested in Luna. Chrysalis sighed to herself, wondering if the two of them would last after this day. Maybe she should check on them in the future, but only if she didn’t find herself in a prison cell if something went wrong with her plan.

She took a look at the other ponies around her, finding the Elements each sitting at their own table with the exception of Twilight, who were here to support Trixie and Twilight. Pinkie saw her looking and excitedly waved at her, so Chrysalis waved back. Their attention was taken away from each other when the lights pointing towards the stage dimmed. “Ladies and gentlecolts!” Flim’s voice announced. “Please put your hooves together for the hero of Equestria, the Great and Powerful Trippy!”

“It’s Trixie!”

“Whatever.”

The audience clapped excitedly as the curtains parted, revealing the magician behind it. Once the ponies quieted down, she stepped forward. “Greetings, everypony! Tonight, Trixie shall dazzle you with magic you never even imagined was possible! You may remember Trixie’s tricks from when Trixie first came to Ponyville, but those were nothing compared to what Trixie has learned!” Her horn glowed and three large boxes with doors on the front appeared. “For this trick, Trixie shall need her lovely assistant!” She looked to her left and everypony looked as well, finding nothing. “Trixie said she will need her lovely assistant!” No pony appeared. “Twilight, get out here!”

Reluctantly, she appeared, wearing a skimpy light-blue dress, causing some stallions to whistle at her. “This is so embarrassing,” she whispered to herself.

“W-what has Trixie done to my sister!?”

“Twilight looks pretty cute in that,” commented Chrysalis. The stallion looked at her furiously and she stuck her tongue out at him.

Twilight stood by Trixie while avoiding eye contact with the crowd. “Now, Trixie shall also require two volunteers for this very dangerous trick. Who among you is brave enough to come on up?”

“Oh, me! Me! Me! Me!” shouted Pinkie as she bolted onto the stage, causing Fluttershy to gasp.

“Excellent. Who else shall take part?” No pony said anything. “What’s wrong? Are you all too chicken for Trixie’s trick? Not one of you is pony enough to come on up here?”

“Fine, Ah’ll do it,” said Applejack as she stood up. She walked onto the stage and stood beside Pinkie and Twilight. “So what do Ah do?”

Trixie opened the door on each box. “Just step inside and be sure to stand upright.” The three ponies got into a box and stood as told. “And now, watch as Trixie slices them into pieces!”

“Wait, wh-” The doors closed, silencing Applejack. With her magic, Trixie summoned a giant magical chainsaw, which surprised the audience.

“Oh Celestia, please let them come out alive,” Chrysalis said under her breath. Shining and Cadance both looked completely terrified.

With her new toy, Trixie sliced the boxes twice horizontally, cutting them into three pieces. She then slid some covers between the cut areas. Once she finished, she lifted each of the nine pieces into the air, rotating them around her head. The audience awed in amazement and applauded her.

“Wow! Can you do that, Princess Luna?” asked Pip in amazement.

She slowly shook her head while focusing on the boxes. “I’m afraid not. Maybe with some practice, but that looks awfully dangerous.”

Eventually, Trixie set the boxes down and stacked them into three separate stacks. “And now, behold the amazing power of the Great and Powerful Trixie!” She opened the doors, causing everypony to gasp and Fluttershy to faint.

Twilight put a hoof on her head after stepping out. “This is the last time I help Trixie perform. So what happened? Did it work?” The entire audience remained speechless. “Hello? Can you even hear me?” She raised her hoof to wave at them, but she made a shocking discovery. “W-what the!? Why is my hoof pink!?”

“Here’s a better question.” Trixie went up to Twilight, turned her around, and raised her dress. “Why is your butt orange?”

Twilight turned around, noting that not only her back end was orange, but her tail was yellow and her cutie mark was three apples. Pinkie and Applejack looked over themselves and realized that their bodies had also undergone some changes. “Trixie, what in tarnation did ya do!?” shouted Applejack in shock as she saw her purple front half and pink rear.

“Trixie sliced you all apart and put you all together again! Are you not amazed?”

The farmer hyperventilated as she realized what happened to her body. “This is too weird! This is too weird!”

“Relax. Step back inside and Trixie shall restore you.”

“Ya put me in this mess, so ya stay away from me!” shouted Applejack as she fled the stage, hopping awkwardly due to having Pinkie’s back legs.

Twilight was next to panic. “I-I-I need to go home and find some way to fix this!” She then bolted off stage and disappeared into the distance.

As Trixie called after her assistant, Pinkie bounced off the stage only to flop on her face. She got up and scurried off to who knows where. With her three volunteers gone, the magician chuckled nervously towards her audience. “Um...the Great and Powerful Trixie must pursue those ponies, so please enjoy this performance by the Trixettes!” With a flash of her horn, many Trixies appeared on the stages, do the can-can. “Get back here!” shouted the real one as she ran after the three. The crowd applauded loudly as they watched the illusions dance, throwing bits and flowers onto the stage.

“Wow, that was so cool!” shouted Sweetie Belle as she clapped. “I wanna be a magician like Trixie one day!”

The lights came on and the ponies began departing from the area. “Poor Twiley. I hope she’s okay,” said Shining as he looked towards the direction she ran off.

“She’ll be fine. I’m sure Trixie can fix it,” addressed Chrysalis, feeling just as concerned.

“I guess. What should we do now? The show kind of ended a little earlier than I thought.”

“I have an idea.” Turner pulled out a list, causing the other ponies to chuckle. “Yeah, Turner’s got a little schedule with him. Let’s just move on. Anyway, after Trixie’s show, Zecora and I planned on going dancing. There’s a nice little dance floor nearby and they’ve got some very talented musicians playing. You are all welcomed to join us.”

“Dancing? I think we shall!” said Luna as she put a foreleg around the changeling.

Zecora motioned a hoof up ahead. “It is just right this way. Follow us and dance the night away.”

They arrived at an open area with many ponies dancing together and musicians playing on the nearby stage. Chrysalis recognized them to be that group from Canterlot and felt at peace as the music flowed through her ears. In her moment of bliss, she did not realize the other two couples had stepped into the crowd, only to return to reality by Luna tapping her shoulder. The alicorn smiled and held her hoof to her. “Would you like to dance?”

Before Chrysalis could say anything, Pip took the princess’s hoof and dragged her to the dance area. “I would love to dance with you, Princess!”

As Pip took her away, Sweetie Belle appeared. “Hey! You’re supposed to be with me!” She ran into the crowd after them, leaving Chrysalis all by herself. The changeling sighed loudly and sat on the grass.

“Kids, am I right?”

Chrysalis looked to her left, finding Spitfire right next to her. “Well, well. If it isn’t the legendary Spitfire. Didn’t take you as the type to show up here at a lovey-dovey event.” Her joke then made her shudder when she remembered her life right before becoming Cherub.

“You’d be right, but I knew you were cool, so I decided to check this out. Besides, how could I not go when Tavi had a gig here today?”

Chrysalis looked back to the stage, staring at the cello player, who had her eyes closed as she played. “You know, I haven’t heard a thing about you two since the last time I saw you. Any luck with her?”

The pegasus chuckled. “Oh yeah. She showed up the academy about two weeks after we separated. Went out for drinks, talked, had her crash in my replace, and just that every now and then for about a month. Eventually, I went to one of her shows, she showed me her place, and we made our relation official via bedroom fun. Since then, we’ve been keeping a bit of a low profile since the media would harass us without end.”

Chrysalis growled as she looked at the crowd. “I know what that’s like.”

“Yeah, I heard about you and the princess from just about every news source in existence.” She slapped a hoof on her back. “You scored big time.”

“Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without her. She completes me.” Chrysalis looked back towards Octavia, who saw the both of them and smiled. “She seems so different from the snobby pony I remember.”

“She’s lightened up a bit. I think having somepony else know her dirty little secret has been good for her. That, or maybe making thunder has loosened her up for today.”

“Thunder?”

Spitfire stared at her in surprised before she laughed loudly. “A pony with your career and you never heard about making thunder? That’s too funny.”

“Enlighten me.”

Spitfire motioned her closer so she could whisper. “It’s when a pegasus and another pony go inside a cloud and get dirty. It’s even more exciting if you do it with a lot of ponies down below.”

Chrysalis sighed and shook her head. “I should have guessed.”

Spitfire nudged her. “So what about you and Luna? Do anything like that since the last I saw you?”

“No,” she replied sternly.

“Hey, I won’t tell anypony.”

“Mind your own business.”

Spitfire shrugged as she looked back at the dancers. “If you insist.”

“I do. I also think you shouldn’t be broadcasting what you and Octavia do in private.”

“I know, but she always looks so cute when she’s mad.”

“Maybe so, but if you insist on constantly provoking her, you two won’t last. Kind of a shame that you can’t dance with her since she’s playing the music.”

The Wonderbolt waved a hoof. “Nah, I got it covered. There’s a nice little rave that’s going to be starting later and I’m going to bring her with me.”

Chrysalis chuckled as she looked at the musician. “Good luck. I bet she won’t even come within fifty feet of the dance floor because it’s so ‘primitive.’”

“Is that a challenge?”

“Five bits says you won’t get her to dance there,” she spoke with a grin.

“Five? You need to live on the edge like I do. Make it fifty bits.”

“Deal.”

Chrysalis and Spitfire shook on it as Luna reappeared. “Hello there, Spitfire. How has your day been?”

“It’s been great, Princess. Although, I think your marefriend here is feeling left out.”

Luna smiled widely at the embarrassed matchmaker. “Aw, is my wittle Chewub jealous of a little colt?”

“Stop it,” Chrysalis snapped as both mares sniggered at her.

“Don’t worry. He’s now with Sweetie Belle, which means you have me all to yourself.” Luna held her hoof out. “Come dance with me, my love.” Chrysalis took the hoof and was immediately yanked onto the dance floor as Spitfire waved goodbye.

Outside the group of dancers sat Twilight, sighing to herself as she watched the many couples enjoy their evening with their special somepony. Suddenly, a bouquet of flowers was held up to her. “For Trixie’s next trick, she shall make this pretty unicorn smile!”

Twilight giggled as she took the flowers, but they quickly disappeared as they were only an illusion. “Well thanks for the gesture, at least.”

Trixie seated herself next to her. “It’s my way of apologizing for your episode of panic. I should have told you what I was doing, but I just wanted to impress you.”

Twilight kept looking over herself, relieved to have her body in one piece again. “You really did. I should be apologizing for running off and ruining your show.”

“Are you kidding? They loved it! I’m kind of glad I only got to show off one trick since I can use the other ones I planned for tonight for future shows.”

“I can’t wait. You’re going to knock them dead at your next one.”

“Yeah…” Trixie rubbed the back of her head and sighed. “Twilight, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“Please tell me you didn’t book more shows with me assisting,” she replied with a chuckle.

“You’re half right. You won’t be assisting me.”

Twilight’s laughing stopped and she looked at her with worry. “Wait, what do you mean?”

Trixie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Twilight, I’m leaving in two weeks.”

Twilight immediately sat up. “L-l-leaving!?”

“Yes. I’ve been sitting in Ponyville for so long and I think you’ve helped me enough. It’s time I packed my things, load up the wagon, and travel once again.” She could see the look of Twilight’s shocked expression and her lip quivering. “Are you okay?”

“I…I don’t know. It’s just weird you’re suddenly leaving.”

“I’ve been living with you for over three months. I wouldn’t call it sudden,” she joked lightly.

“That’s not what I meant. You’ve been around so long and it’s going to feel weird with you gone. We got to study together and talk about stuff after kicking Spike out of the room. We were like...like college roommates!”

“I know, but I will be sure to write you letters and…Twilight, are you crying?” Twilight shook her head while wiping her eyes. “I…I didn’t think you’d take it this hard.”

“Of course I would! One of my friends is leaving!”

Trixie got closer and they hugged. “Twilight, it’s hard for me too, but I want to do this. I want to go across Equestria and wow ponies just like I did here. I’ll miss you and everypony else so much, but I need to live my dreams.”

“I know. I guess I never really thought about you actually leaving."

Trixie pulled away and used her cloak to wipe Twilight’s eyes. “Look, let’s just enjoy the time we have now. There’s still plenty of time for us to have fun, so let’s think about now instead of later.”

Twilight sniffed and wiped her eyes again. “Alright. I’ll make a list tomorrow for all the stuff we could do until then.”

Trixie chuckled and nudged her. “That’s so you,” she joked, causing Twilight smile. “So how about we go dancing?”

“Dancing?” she asked, sound unsure.

“As friends,” Trixie clarified.

“Sure.” They stood up and Twilight took Trixie’s hoof as they joined the crowd.

For Chrysalis, dancing with a pony who was much larger than her was incredibly awkward for her since her problem was usually the exact opposite, but she managed. She looked deep into her eyes while using one hoof to hold Luna’s hoof while the other rested on Luna’s back. “My, you are such a good dancer even after a thousand years, Lulu.”

“Same to you. I didn’t know you even did any dancing.”

“What can I say? I love living the high life.” Chrysalis spun around Luna. “And what’s higher than being with the most wonderful princess ever?”

“Your words are just as sweet as ever.”

“So is my tongue.” Chrysalis held a kiss with Luna and even caused her to gasp by squeezing her rear. Once the kiss ended, they both laughed and pressed their foreheads together. “I love you so much, Luna.”

“I love you too, Cherub. You have turned out to be one of the greatest friends I have met and every moment I spend with you makes the day so wonderful.”

“And night.”

“That too.” Out of the corners of their eyes, they saw Fluttershy and Pinkie, who was restored to normal and no longer in possession of wings, dancing together. “Are you two having fun?”

They both nodded at her. “This is like the best day ever! I wish we could do this every day!” Pinkie cheered.

“If we did, this day wouldn’t be as special. Just remember that what makes today special isn’t all the games and food, but who you’re with.”

“I know. I just wish we got to hang out more today, Cherub.”

“Me too.” As they danced, Chrysalis and Pinkie glanced at each other. They made motions with their eyes and hooves and as if they could read each other’s minds until Chrysalis suddenly said, “Switch!”

Before Luna could react, she was suddenly spun around and when she looked at her dance partner, it wasn’t Chrysalis anymore, but instead Fluttershy. “What the!?”

“Aw, they look so cute together!” commented Pinkie, who was now dancing with Chrysalis.

Luna repeated shifted her gaze at Fluttershy and Chrysalis. “Cherub, what is the meaning of this!?”

“I’m just spicing things up,” she teased as Pinkie laughed. “Go ahead and have fun with her for a bit.”

Before either mare could protest, Chrysalis and Pinkie disappeared into the crowd. Luna and Fluttershy looked at each other, both blushing. “So…how are you?” asked Luna.

“Good…You?”

“Good.” Both mares darted their eyes around. “So…how are you?”

Chrysalis and Pinkie danced together at the edge of the crowd. Chrysalis snatched Pinkie not only for some fun, but so they could speak in private. “So are you ready for tomorrow?” the changeling asked.

“I think so. I’m a little nervous, but I think it’ll be okay. What about you? Are you excited?”

“More like completely terrified,” she answered sadly.

“Don’t worry. Our friends will totally give you a chance. I mean how could anypony not believe you’re better after today?”

“Maybe. You know, just in case I don’t get a chance tomorrow, I just want to so thank you for everything you have done for me up to now.”

“And thank you for spreading so much love! You’re like the best matchmaker ever!”

“I couldn’t have done it without you. I can’t believe how long it took me to realize just how amazing you are.” She looked off in the distance and sighed. “It’s funny.”

“What is?”

“Well, maybe if things had gone just a little bit differently, you and I…you know what? It’s not important. I just want to say that you no pony could ever be as great as you and I’m so glad we met.”

“Aw, thanks.”

Nearby, Rainbow Dash, who was dancing with Soarin, noticed Pinkie and Chrysalis dancing together. “You know, I really wonder what’s this secret Pinkie and Cherub share.”

“You’ve said that like a hundred times already, and that’s just today,” said Soarin with a chuckle. “What’s the big deal about it anyway?”

“It’s just that it supposed to explain everything about who the heck she is,” she answered while still eyeing them.

“You sound a bit suspicious of her.”

Dash looked back at him. “Well doesn’t it sound so suspicious? I think she’s great and everything and she has been awesome with helping my friends and everypony else, but why does she not tell us after all these months? Seriously, who the heck is she to be so secretive?”

Soarin looked at Chrysalis and who she was dancing with. “Maybe she’s Pinkie’s mom.”

“Pfft, please. That sounds so dumb.”

“Oh yeah? Well look at their colors. They sort of have the same ones. And didn’t you say it was kind of weird how Pinkie seemed so different from her family, who are all rock farmers while she’s a hyper party pony?”

“Yeah, but Pinkie is…well she…” Dash took another look at them. Now that he mentioned it, they did have similar colors. It would also explain why Cherub, despite being so rude and unlikable, managed to tolerate Pinkie for so long. “Whoa…”

Chrysalis and Pinkie happily hummed to themselves as they danced, only to be interrupted by their dates. “Um…I know you two are having fun, but I want to dance with Pinkie again, if you don’t mind,” requested Fluttershy.

“Hmm, I don’t know. Pinkie is pretty cute.” Luna glared at her. “But no pony is cuter than Luna, so she’s all yours.” Chrysalis released her friend and she immediately jumped to Fluttershy. Once they left, she took Luna’s hooves and they continued from where they left off. “I think you really fit in here, Luna. Especially on Hearts and Hooves Day.”

“How’s that?”

“Just look around. All of these dancing ponies, this wonderful music, and the romantic atmosphere. There’s just one thing that really brings it all together.”

“Which is?”

“Your beautiful night.”

Luna smiled warmly. “You always love to compliment my night, don’t you?”

“How could I not? Night and love are very connected. Ponies watch the sun set and the moon rise, go out to town for dinner dates, and let’s not forget the one thing that tops it all off.” Chrysalis went up to her ear and whispered, “Sex.”

Luna’s face lit up and she closed her eyes as Chrysalis chuckled at her. “I see your point. I would love to hear more of you speak highly of my night, but for now, let us just dance together.” They slowed their dancing as Chrysalis rested her head against the alicorn’s shoulder. The touch of Luna’s body, the elegant music being played by the nearby ponies, and the scent of Luna’s perfume brought her complete happiness. She wished she could relive this moment over and over, being close with the mare she loved so much. “I love you, Cherub.”

“I love you too, Luna.” They brought their faces together and kissed passionately, remaining connected as they kept on dancing.

Chrysalis didn’t keep track of how long the two of them were there, but they eventually stopped and left, deciding to find anything else they could do together before the day ended with the few hours that remained. As they looked across the area, a shadow flew over them. They looked up and saw Celestia’s chariot flying overhead, preparing to land. “Finally. I was worried she would never show. Cherub, could you wait by that stage you and Cadance were on earlier?”

“Can’t I meet Celestia with you?”

“You will, just wait for me there, okay?”

“Alright.” Chrysalis walked towards the spot as Luna flew after her sister, wondering if her date was keeping her in the dark about something.

Twilight and the rest of her friends also noticed Celestia approaching and ran to where she landed. Luna was already there as Celestia stepped off the chariot. “Hi, Princess Celestia!” greeted Twilight. “We’re so glad you could make it.”

“Me too. I’m sorry I couldn’t arrive sooner, but I had extremely important business to do.”

“Like what?” Celestia stepped aside and everypony but Luna gasped.

Chrysalis stood by the stage, noticing the crowd of ponies flocking around Celestia as she approached and Luna suddenly flew to her. “Cherub, could you tell the ponies my sister has an announcement to make?”

“Luna, what’s going on? There something you’re not telling me?”

The alicorn chuckled. “You’ll see.”

“I guess I will.” Chrysalis got onto the stage and cleared her throat over the microphone, causing every pony in the area to look. “Everypony, as you are all aware of, Princess Celestia has arrived. However, she has an important announcement to make to you all, so please give her your complete attention.” Chrysalis walked off the stage to stand beside Luna.

Celestia stepped in front of the podium and the crowd became silent. “Hello, my fellow ponies. I hope you all have enjoyed your day here so far.” The crowd responded with loud cheering. “I am glad. I’m sure many of you have been wondering where I’ve been while my sister has been spending her day here. What has been done today makes this day one that will be remembered for many years to come. On this day, Equestria has officially welcomed the changeling race into its borders!” The cheering returned, but there was also some murmuring.

“Wh…what?” mumbled Chrysalis in disbelief.

The princess waited until the crowd became quiet. “I am fully aware that there are many of you who may feel unhappy or even scared by this news, but I beg of you to take a moment and lend your ears to their queen, Nymph.” Celestia stepped aside as Nymph herself appeared from the side, causing much louder murmuring.

Once she was in front of the crowd, the changeling queen cleared her throat. “Citizens of Equestria, after many months of hardships, my kind have been given a chance at a new future, where they can go out and live successful lives beyond the borders of the Changeling Kingdom! No longer will they worry about acquiring love to save themselves from starvation! I must say that I feel very excited with what the future will bring after tonight. Today can be easily considered to be one of the greatest days in the history of our species.

“For those of you who still do not feel safe about my kind, I assure you that we are nothing like how you remember us. Please remember that the invasion was not just part of some mad conquest of power by my sister. For just about all our existence, we have been forced to seek out an unusual substance that is critical for our survival: love. It is unknown how this came to be, but this need has shaped our entire species. Changelings were forced to learn how to deceit others and extract it in order to survive. This lifestyle was not adequate, I’m afraid. Our need for love was a crucial problem that always lingered over our heads.

“What Chrysalis tried to do was to bring this to a permanent end without regarding the consequences. Unfortunately, she convinced many changelings to think the same way, mainly because they were upset with how they had to live. What resulted was a horrible moment for both our kind. What was supposed to be a wonderful day for Equestria became one of misery with ponies running in terror, a bride traumatized, and worst of all, the loss of several changeling lives.

“Since then, my kind has been hoping for a second chance. Our existence was revealed to the world and many saw us monsters. My subjects were scared for their lives, wondering every day if Celestia or some other ruler would come with an army and bring an end to us. Thankfully, Celestia chose to be merciful and gave us the chance we so desperately desired.”

Chrysalis stared with an eye twitching. Out of all the days for her to do this, she chose this one. Who was going to hear about Chrysalis’s event and her charitable donations if the news was going to be about nothing but changelings? All this work, all this time, was wasted thanks to Nymph. Chrysalis walked to the stage and climbed up the stairs, slowly approaching Nymph while never taking her eyes off her. She could feel fire in her own eyes.

“Tomorrow, changelings will be applying for Equestrian citizenship and they will be living here along with you all. Many of you have been verbal of your concerns such as how will they feed themselves and our ability to shape shift, but I assure you that all of these issues have been addressed. When they come here, living among you while pursuing careers or going to schools, I plea to you to take the time to understand them. There is so much we can learn from each other and I hope that this will be the start of a new age in Equestria; One of trust, understanding, and friendship.”

Once she was close enough, Chrysalis raised her hoof high in the air and gently brought it down around the queen, keeping a steady breath. “I for one am willing to welcome her kind here. As a pony who wishes to spread love and joy, it would be wrong of me if I didn’t try to show any to the changelings. So please, a round of applause for Queen Nymph and the changelings!” Many ponies happily stomped on the grass and she and Nymph waved to them.

“Thank you very much, citizens of Equestria! I wish you all a happy Hearts and Hooves Day!” Nymph shouted as she waved to them.

Chrysalis watched as she left the stage, only for the queen to be suddenly surrounded by many ponies flashing their cameras at her and asking her and Celestia questions. She turned the other way and got off the stage, finding Luna looking at her with an enormous grin. “You knew about this, didn’t you?”

“Pinkie is not the only one who can surprise others,” Luna replied happily.

Chrysalis forced a fake smile. “Well you certainly succeeded. How come you weren’t needed in Canterlot?”

“I already casted my vote and signed the document before coming here because I wanted to spend this day with my special somepony,” she answered as she put a wing around her.

“How thoughtful of you. I would have been crushed if I didn’t spend so much time with you today.”

Luna kissed her cheek. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to go catch up with Celestia and help her and Nymph get away from the crowd.”

Chrysalis nodded at her. “Go ahead, Luna. I will be around.”

“I won’t take too long, I promise.” Luna walked ahead and Chrysalis departed in another direction, having only a single destination in mind.

Chrysalis sat herself at an outdoor bar, requesting a glass of hard liquor. When she got her drink, she immediately took a gulp. She looked down at the remaining drops and sighed. Perhaps she shouldn’t feel so down. Sure, the news of her event would be greatly overshadowed by the announcement of the changelings coming, making it harder for ponies to keep track of her activities and to show the world that she had changed her ways, but she was just one changeling. Every other changeling out there had benefited from what happened, so she couldn’t help but smile. Besides, ponies would still hear about her activates since she was with Luna, so maybe not all hope was lost. Still, for all of this to happen so suddenly really pulled the table cloth from under the banquet for what she had in mind.

As she took another gulp of her second glass, someone sat next to her. “I’ll have what she’s having.” Chrysalis turned her head to see her sister smiling at her. “You know, I thought you of all ponies wouldn’t end up having alcohol being their date on this day.”

Chrysalis smirked at her. “Luna went to go see Celestia and I’m just waiting for her. What about you? Got a date tonight?”

Nymph took her drink and thanked the bartender. “I’m afraid not. I was too busy getting this done to consider it. I bet you are surprised to hear the news.”

“Very. You’ve done well, Queen Nymph.” Chrysalis raised her glass. “A toast to the changeling race.”

“And their beautiful queen.”

“Of course.” They tapped their glasses together and threw back their shots. “So how does it feel to make history?”

She clapped her hooves together. “It feels amazing, Cherub. I suddenly feel so free and relaxed. No longer will I will be burdened with making numerous trips to Canterlot and talking the ears off so many ponies. Even better, our hunger is sure to be a distant memory now. After a few drinks, maybe I’ll go dancing.”

“That sounds lovely. It’s a holiday and you’ve done so much, so go out there and have some fun. You deserve it.”

“I might as well tonight since Celestia only knows what tomorrow will bring.”

Chrysalis nodded and took another sip. “The news of changelings coming into Equestria is certainly going to stir things up.”

“Agreed, but if everything goes according to plan, I’m sure it will blow over much sooner.” She looked around to ensure no pony else could listen. “Has Luna told you why we were doing talks today?”

“She’s been keeping it as a surprise for me. I’m guessing you wanted to have it done on the day that’s all about love.”

“Oh yes, but it’s also the perfect day for me to reach full power.”

Chrysalis widened her eyes. “Full power?”

“With all the love here, I can easily reach my full strength and be prepared.”

“Prepared for what?”

“The real reason these we manage to get these negotiations passed: To lure Chrysalis out.”

Chrysalis sat up and turned her whole body towards her younger sibling. “All this to find Chrysalis?”

“Not entirely. Luna should have told you this before I came so you could keep an eye out because we thought Chrysalis could be lurking here. You see, the ponies have been worried that Chrysalis would carry out an attack ever since she wrote that letter and contacted me, so the negotiations took a bit of hiatus. I spent several weeks trying to figure out how to help bring their fears to rest and eventually, I had a brilliant idea. Many of us assumed Chrysalis would take part in Hearts and Hooves Day, possibly even here. However, we knew she wouldn’t possibly attack here today in such a crowded area with Luna, Discord, and the Elements around, but rather the next day when we all separated.”

“So that’s why you chose to today to push it. So what’s next? How does this help you find her?”

“If Chrysalis still desires to be queen again, then the news of this greatly jeopardizes her goal. Knowing her, she will no doubt wish to pursue vengeance on me. I will be staying here in Ponyville as it much less secure than Canterlot, tempting her to come after me. However, my guards will be replaced by Celestia, Luna, and Shining Armor while Discord will watch over the Elements and you. She won’t see it coming.”

“Better hope she doesn’t,” Chrysalis said amusingly before taking another sip. “So what’s going to happen to Chrysalis? Imprisonment? Made into Celestia’s personal servant?”

“It will depend. Celestia and Luna promise to be merciful since she has already been dethroned and banished from her home, so there’s no need to do any more to her if she’s sorry. However, we‘re still debating how exactly to handle her if she is still the same.”

“I remember Cadance and Shining Armor said they wanted to do something nasty to her, so she better hope they’re just as merciful.”

Nymph smirked. “She should be worried about Luna since the girl feels so much more strongly about her.”

Chrysalis flinched, knowing that it was unfortunately true. “I find that to be strange since she wasn’t even there during the invasion, but Lulu does seem to have a bigger temper than Celestia.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s also because of the rumors why she’s felt this way for so long, but ponynapping her niece and invading are also good reasons why she’d hold a powerful grudge. I hope she has let it all go after so long.”

“Rumors?”

“You know, the ones about her and the invasion. Those nasty ones.”

Chrysalis gulped. “What are you talking about?”

Nymph turned towards her, surprised. “You haven’t heard about them? I’m sure all of Equestria was talking about it. I’m surprised Luna hasn’t brought it up with you.”

“Just tell me what you’re talking about.”

Nymph finished her drink and set the glass down. “As the days went by since Chrysalis invaded, ponies began to talk. They wondered not only how could someone sneak into Canterlot without anypony knowing, but also where Princess Luna was during the attack.” She then sighed. “Sadly, ponies began to blend these two questions together and came up with an awful rumor.”

The moment Chrysalis realized what she was implying, her entire body suddenly felt cold. “No…”

“Yes. They thought Luna was involved. They believed that Luna was not there to defend Canterlot because she allowed the invasion to happen. Since Luna had tried taking down Celestia before, they began assuming she had tried once again with additional help.”

Chrysalis slammed her hoof on the counter, causing several ponies to look. “That’s a load of bull! She wouldn’t do that!”

“I know she wouldn’t, but that didn’t stop them. They thought that Luna was behind the invasion as a way to claim Equestria for herself. This kind of thinking made sense to many ponies and it got out of control. Ponies gathered in front of Canterlot palace, demanding that Luna admitted her crime as well as step down. They even threw food at the poor girl.”

Chrysalis closed her eyes. “I…I never knew.”

“You must have been under a rock or something since everypony talked about this until I arrived. The rumor was only around for a few weeks before they started making nasty ones about me, but it was absolutely devastating for Luna. She had been trying so hard to win back the trust of her kind and Chrysalis almost undid it all in a day.”

Chrysalis slowly looked at the grass beneath her. She suddenly felt lightheaded and wished nothing more than to lie down. Knowing she was at the verge of a meltdown, Chrysalis magically removed the mood expressing enchantment from her earrings, not wanting to appear extremely upset in front of her sister. “S-she never said any of this to me.”

“Likely because it would be something she would want to forget. As the rumors died down, her sorrow turned into hatred for my sister. She’s seemed to have calmed down, but I don’t think she should be left alone with Chrysalis when we capture her.”

“Nymph…how badly does she hate Chrysalis?”

Nymph loudly sighed and rested her head on her hoof. “She told me she would rather die than be involved in any way with her. She said the thought of being friends with her was revolting enough to make her puke. Rather than give her a chance, she wanted to mash Chrysalis into paste before tossing what was left of her into a prison somewhere far away. She harbors great rage for her, but I’m sure enough time has passed for her to cool off.” Nymph noticed the unicorn slightly wobbling in her seat, staring at the ground. “Are you feeling all right?” Before she could touch her shoulder, Chrysalis suddenly puked onto the ground, startling Nymph as well as some other ponies. The queen looked over herself and was relieved to see she had escaped the sudden vomit. “Cherub, are you feeling okay? Should I get a doctor?”

Chrysalis slowly stood up while shaking her head. “I’ll be fine. It’s just the drinks. I just need to go lay down somewhere. Please don’t tell anypony about this. I don’t want them to worry.”

“Well if you think it’s nothing, then alright. Get well soon, Cherub.” The unicorn slowly walked away as the worried changeling watched.

Chrysalis could feel her face breaking out into cold sweat and her vision became blurred as she kept walking. All she wanted to do was get out and go somewhere far away. She picked up her pace and power walked, ignoring the ponies waving or saying hello to her. She eventually saw Pinkie with Fluttershy and approached them. “Pinkie.”

The two ponies looked at her. “Hi, Cherub!” Pinkie greeted happily. “What’s up? Are you excited about the changelings like we are!?”

“I want you to know that I’m leaving for the rest of the night.”

Both mares produced looks of confusion. “Huh? But what about the fair? And the closing speech?” questioned the earth pony.

“Cadance can take over. Something has come up and I’m going to stay at Fluttershy’s house.”

“But why my house? Is something wrong, Cherub?”

She shook her head. “I’ll explain when you two are done with today. I just need to go.”

“But...” Chrysalis didn’t stay to hear her finish and was already on her way.

“Is she okay?” asked Fluttershy with concern.

“I don’t know,” answered Pinkie. “My Pinkie sense is telling me something is very wrong.”

As she walked, Chrysalis could feel herself hyperventilating. The area was too crowded and everything was just too loud. Her head felt ready to crack and her stomach felt ready to empty itself again. She could see the edge of the fair in sight and was dying to get out of the public area. She step outside and suddenly felt a brief sense of relief, but that did nothing to stop the storm in her mind. Unable to hold back, Chrysalis sprinted.

She ran and ran, pushing her body beyond its limits. Eventually, she arrived at her destination. Chrysalis slowly walked up to the edge of the water and laid on the grass just outside the house, looking down at her reflection. The face that stared back at her was a lie and she hated it. Using this lie, she had gone too deep with her relation with Luna and she was now going to pay the consequences. Luna would never believe she loved her, especially after those rumors. Was even getting involved with her such a good idea? Was this all doomed from the start?

Chrysalis buried her face into her hooves as tears flowed down her face. Everything she had done was for nothing. Luna and Celestia would never give her a chance now since they would believe she was taking advantage of the princess. It was all over for her. She thought she found the perfect lover for her, one who was smart, cute, fun, and could even outlive her so she wouldn’t experience the painful loss. Luna was everything she desired in a mate and now she was going to lose her forever, right after potentially damaging her reputation once more.

She heard the door of the house open and she looked up. Many of Fluttershy’s animals popped their heads out and stared at her. A variety of rabbits, birds, squirrels, and even a bear came out and surrounded her, each doing their best to comfort her. They held her hoof, stroked her mane, and some of the birds tried singing to lift her spirits. It did little to make her feel better, but she was still grateful.

Suddenly, all of the animals shrieked and bolted into the house, slamming the door in fright. They locked the bear out and he desperately banged on the door, dashing inside the moment they let him in. Once again, Chrysalis was alone, wondering why they reacted like that. She then had her answer when she heard loud buzzing and someone landing behind her.

“Cherub?” Chrysalis’s body became stiff and she wanted to hide inside with the other animals. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Nymph sit down next to her. “Cherub, are you crying?” Chrysalis said nothing and lowered her face into her hooves. She could feel her sister run a hoof along her back. “Cherub, what’s wrong?”

“I screwed up. I screwed up and Luna’s going to leave me.”

“What? Luna would never leave you.”

“She will. I should have been more careful, but now it’s too late. I'm just going to end up hurting her.”

“Cherub, I’m sure it’s not too late to fix whatever is wrong. There must be something you can do.”

She shook their head. “There isn’t.”

Nymph moved closed to her and held her hoof. “Come on. Let’s think of something we could do. Just tell me exactly what’s wrong and I will help you.”

“There’s nothing you can do for me.”

“There must be, otherwise Pinkie would have never asked me to talk to you.”

Chrysalis looked at her from the corner of her eye. “Pinkie sent you?”

“Yes. She knew something was wrong, but I don’t get why she would send me since you two appear to be much closer.”

“I think I do,” she muttered as she looked back down. She knew Pinkie meant well, but now was absolutely not the right time for them to meet. Why couldn’t she just come herself so they could talk? Heck, she wouldn’t care if Fluttershy had to find out about her since she was so kind, but no. Pinkie just had to send her sister, who Chrysalis couldn’t share anything with unless she planned on ending the day imprisoned.

“Well let’s talk about you and Luna. What’s going on?”

She slowly shook her head. “What’s the point? It’s going to just be a disaster no matter what I do. Just leave me alone.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. Luna cannot possibly love me anymore. I know you wish to help, but mind your own business and go away. You have nothing to do with this.”

Much to her annoyance, Nymph remained where she was. “Cherub, that’s not true. I know about you two and she loves you so much. I’m sure whatever it is you are hiding won’t change that. You should just tell her and see how everything will-”

Chrysalis suddenly lifted her head, starting Nymph. “Stop pretending that you know me! You have no idea of what struggles I’ve been through and what burdens I carry! You don’t know what it’s like to lie to somepony you love with all your heart because you’re afraid! You can’t understand how painful it is to wonder to yourself every single day that if you told them the truth about something you have done, you could lose them forever! You couldn’t even begin to understand what I’m going through, so just take your advice and shove it!” She pressed her face into her hooves, not wanting to look at her anymore as more tears came out. She loved Nymph, but she could not stand her being around and poking into her business. She should just go into the house while locking her out and wait for Pinkie to come to give her real advice.

“Actually,” Nymph spoke suddenly, “I…do know what it’s like.”

Everything in Chrysalis’s mind came to a complete pause. She slowly turned her head towards the queen, eyes wide as dinner plates. “You…do?”

“Yes.”

Chrysalis sat up, staring at her without even blinking. “What did you do?”

Nymph bit her hoof and averted her eyes. “I’ve…never told anyone this before.”

“Nymph,” Chrysalis asked as calmly as she could, “what did you do?”

The queen closed her eyes and shook her head. “I can’t talk about it. Let’s just help you since you’re so upset about you and Luna.”

“But I’m your friend. You can tell me anything that is bothering you.”

“P-please. I’m here to help you.”

“Well maybe we could help each other. Why don’t you tell me exactly what you did?” Nymph didn’t say anything. “Come on. Remember how good it felt when you talked to me before? Let’s do it again and see if we can rid you of your woes. So tell me, what did you do?”

A tense silence fell between them. Finally, Nymph opened her mouth and said, “Chrys…Chrysalis should have originally been the queen. It was meant for her and I…took it for myself by convincing Mother to give the crown to me.” She wiped her eyes. “It was easily the stupidest I have ever done in my life. I betrayed my own sister and I suffered for it. So what about you? What’s going on with you and Luna?”

Chrysalis didn’t hear a single thing she said after hearing her confession. She looked into space as her front hooves dragged across the grass, digging up the soil. Her body quaked and she grinded her teeth together with intense force. No more tears came out of her eyes as her breathing rate escalated.

She was going to deal with Nymph once and for all.

“Nymph,” Chrysalis spoke calmly, “why don’t we go inside and talk about what you just told me?”

“I…I don’t know.”

She roughly placed a hoof on her back. “I insist. Your problem clearly takes priority over mine.”

Nymph was silent for several seconds before sighing. “I suppose we should. No pony will know about this?”

“Of course. We should go inside to keep away from unwanted witnesses.” The changelings got up and walked up the hill to the door. Chrysalis reached for the door and turned the handle, finding it to be locked. She banged on the door, but received no answer. “Open the door!” She growled when there was still only silence. “I will blow the bucking door down on the count of three! One!” She counted no further as she heard the lock click, so she opened it up and stepped inside.

She led Nymph to the couch and they both sat down. Before she could say anything, she noticed all of the animals in the house watching them. “Would you mind stepping outside for a moment? She and I need to talk for a while in private.” They all got up and stepped out the door, each one staring fearfully at the queen. With them gone, she looked back at her sister.

“I don’t even know where to begin with this,” Nymph spoke sorrowfully as she looked at the carpet beneath her.

“Have you ever told anyone about this?”

“No. I couldn’t possibly let any of my subjects know what I had done.” Nymph lifted her head and looked around the room. “Is this where you live?”

“No, this is Fluttershy’s house. I came here to wait for Pinkie so I could talk to her about my own problem.” Nymph nodded and stared at the floor again. “I’ll go make some tea. I’m sure it will make me…us feel better.” Chrysalis stepped into the kitchen and found a teapot in one of the pantries. She filled with water and set it on the stove. As the water began to heat up, she looked all over the kitchen, opening and slamming cupboards and drawers. Eventually, she found exactly what she was looking for.

With the tea finally ready, she poured the drink into two cups. After setting them on a tray, she took what she found and poured some into Nymph’s drink, stirring the contents with a small spoon. She returned to the living room and set the tray on the table. “Thank you, Cherub.”

“It is no trouble at all.”

The queen took a sip from her cup. “Honey. How did you know that was my favorite?”

“Celestia mentioned it once and I just somehow remembered.” Chrysalis drank her entire cup, but it did little to settle her nerves. “So Queen Nymph secretly snatched the crown from her own sister. Who would believe it?”

“I am so ashamed. If Chrysalis were to ever find out, she would skin me alive.”

“Or worse. Far, far worse,” she snapped. “So you convinced your own mother to make you the queen instead of her? How? How did you do it?”

Nymph gulped down her tea and poured herself some more. “I did it many years before she fell ill. I went to her room one day to talk about some things. Eventually, I pushed the subject about making me the queen.”

“How did she react to that?”

Nymph sighed loudly. “How do you think she reacted? She was furious at me for suggesting such a thing, especially because of our family history. She wanted me to drop the subject, but I pushed her. I told her Chrysalis may not have been the best choice to leave in charge of the kingdom. Don’t get me wrong, Chrysalis was a very smart changeling and has proved to be skilled at ruling the kingdom, but she had another problem. She sort of had a problem with wanting things to go her way and did it by any means she found necessary, which would greatly upset her subjects if she went too far.

“She didn’t want to hear any of that. Mother spent so much time and energy shaping Chrysalis into being the perfect heir. How could she possibly let that all go to waste? But in my stubbornness, I kept pushing. Chrysalis’s plans to invade Equestria weren’t that recent. She had been plotting it for a very long time, constantly drawing out plans in her spare time. Mother and I both knew an invasion could only cause so much to go wrong and she wanted to believe Chrysalis would understand that and drop the idea, but deep down we both knew she wouldn’t give up.

“Eventually, Mother began to realize my point and was extremely distraught. On one hoof, Chrysalis could still be made queen, but she would inevitably invade Equestria and endanger the changelings by exposing us. On the other hoof, I could be crowed and prevent this, but we both knew Chrysalis would…retaliate. Fortunately, Mother did not want history to repeat and made very sure the both of us loved each other with all our hearts as we grew up, so I should thank her for not having my blood spilled by Chrysalis.”

“But why? Why did you do it? Why did you betray your own sister?” Chrysalis kicked the table in front of her, causing the cups to rattle. “Why did you betray your own family!?”

Nymph leaned against the back of the couch with her forelegs crossed in front of her chest. “I did it because…I was jealous of her.”

Chrysalis stammered. “You were jealous of her?”

The queen sighed and deeply rubbed her temples with her hooves. “I’ve been jealous for her for a very long time. She’s always been the golden child in our family, which was true. She was the future queen, so she mattered more. I felt as long as she was there, it didn’t matter what I did in my life. Our friends and even our parents admired her more than me. All Mother would talk about was what a wonderful little queen she’d be and that I would just have to support her. She spent a lot time making Chrysalis into being like her while I often felt…neglected."

She leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “At first, I tried to accept this. So what if Chrysalis was held higher than I was? I still loved her and I lived comfortably. However, later in my life, I started to think of something. What was my destiny? What was I meant to do in my life? Chrysalis would be the leader of all changelings, so what was I? What would be my greatest accomplishments? What would I be remembered for? These thoughts plagued my mind for so long. Deep down, I knew I wanted to be the queen. I wanted to have all the glory and fame, not to be just that other princess. I knew it wasn’t fair to Chrysalis, but it wasn’t fair to me, either. After so much debating, I finally decided to take destiny into my own hooves.”

She took a sip of her tea and slammed her cup down, placing a hoof on her forehead. “I…should have acted smarter. What part of me thought this could have possibly ended well? I knew Chrysalis better than anyone, so why did I ever think it was such a good idea to do this to her? She would never just sit by and allow this to happen.”

“Maybe you were blinded by your own need for power,” Chrysalis countered aggressively.

“Maybe. Why couldn’t I just accept things the way they were? In the end, I got my crown, but I lost my sister and all respect for myself. Those years after Mother’s passing were the absolute worst in my life. I tried so hard to fix things, but she never believed a word I said mainly because they were lies. It made her so cold towards other changelings and Chrysalis couldn’t trust any changeling anymore. How could she after what I did? Why should she bother befriending them? After all, they would just use her like I did. Everyone kept telling me that I should forget about her since she was so cruel to me, but every time when I look at her, I just saw a victim of my greed and I deserved to suffer her vengeance.

“Things will never be the same between us. I did something so rotten and look where I am now. I’m the queen and I’m more loved than ever while Chrysalis, who eventually took back what was rightfully hers, is now out there somewhere with no title or access to her own home, despised by everybody.” Nymph took her crown into her hooves, staring at it. “It’s not fair. It’s not fair! I don’t deserve any of this and yet here I am!” she shouted as she threw it against the wall. “Why does Chrysalis have to suffer? She never did anything wrong!”

“Nothing? I think you’re forgetting about a certain wedding invasion.”

“To help her people feed! Yes, it was horrible, but there was at least some noble intention behind it. As for me, it was for nothing but my own desire to feel important. They always say how horrible Chrysalis is, but I am no better. I am a disgrace to my family name for committing such treachery.” Nymph lied on her side and rested her head on a pillow as droplets fell from her eyes. “I can’t keep going like this. I need to find Chrysalis and keep her safe. Maybe one day, I can work up the courage to tell her the truth.” She looked at her. “Cherub? Do…do you think Chrysalis could somehow forgive me for what I have done?” Chrysalis stood up, not looking at her. “C-could she?”

“I need a moment to let this all sink in.” Chrysalis went up the stairs, leaving the distraught queen to languish in her own guilt. After stepping into the bathroom and closing the door, Chrysalis ran some cold water from the sink and washed her face. After a moment, she shut off the water and dried herself. She stared at her own reflection in the mirror, ready to destroy another one. The question now was how she was going to deal with her. She took a deep breath and decided to think everything over carefully before making a move. She had Nymph alone to herself in an isolated area and Pinkie and Fluttershy wouldn’t be coming back for a couple of hours.

Her mind was filled with so many ideas, but she took her time thinking over them. Eventually, after much debate, she made a decision. She sat against the edge of the bathtub as she heavily pondered what she was about to do. It was incredibly dangerous and could easily be the end of her, but she had made up her mind. She stepped out of the bathroom and descended the stairs, knowing there was no going back on what she was about to do. Nymph was standing by a window and looking out it while quietly sniffling, taking no notice of her return.

Chrysalis seated herself on the couch. “Nymph.” The queen looked at her. “Sit with me. We need to talk.” Reluctantly, she her joined her. “I must say I am still shocked by what you told me. Everything you have confessed has completely changed everything I thought I knew about you. I cannot believe you of all changelings would ever do something so low.” Nymph shut her eyes and turned away. “However, I know how hard it was for you to admit everything, so I thank you for being honest with me. It also makes me feel better that you are truly remorseful of your actions.”

“I’m sorry you had to find this out about me like this. I just wish I could tell Chrysalis. She has every right to know the truth, but how could I possibly tell her after all this time?”

“You already did.” Chrysalis’s horn glowed as a wave of green light flowed across her body, removing her disguise. Nymph’s heart stopped as looked at the face of her sister right in front of her.

“C-Chrysalis!? What…what…” Chrysalis quickly hugged her and rested her head on shoulder, causing Nymph to gasp.

“I’ve missed you.”

Nymph didn’t move a muscle as she looked down at her with wide eyes. “You’re…you’re not angry at me?” she asked in fear.

Chrysalis moved back to her spot on the couch. “No, I feel extremely angry about what you did. I actually feel like smashing things with my own hooves and screaming on the top of my lungs.” She then sighed deeply as Nymph flinched. “The thing is that I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to keep living a life where you and I are enemies. I can’t even begin to explain how I feel about what you’ve done, but I want this to end. We have both suffered enough and it is time for us to put everything behind us and be sisters again.”

Nymph gasped and put a hoof over her mouth. “T-truly?”

“Truly. From my stay in Equestria, I learned something extremely important. I learned that revenge was just a path of self-destruction and pursuing it would have prevented me from opportunities I never imagined were possible for me. I was given forgiveness for my crimes and it felt…good. I want you to experience the same thing.”

“Who? Who forgave you?”

Chrysalis looked at the wall and saw one picture of Pinkie with Fluttershy, making her smile. “Somepony special. I will be sure you two meet very soon.”

“What about me? Do you forgive me?”

The outcast’s smile steadily disappeared and she slouched on the couch. “…No.”

“No!?”

Chrysalis turned to her side away from her. “Nymph, I’m sorry, but I cannot at this time.”

“But…but Chrysalis…”

“Let me ask you something. Do you forgive me? Do you forgive me for every rotten thing I’ve done to you? Do you completely forgive me for making it my goal to make your life a living nightmare?” Nymph tried to speak, but she then halted and turned her head away. “Now you understand. What I did, we did, cannot be simply brushed aside and forgotten. We have both put ourselves ahead of each other all for a bloody title and we walked all over each other.”

“But what about now? What do we do? We need to fix this!”

Chrysalis shook her head. “There’s not much we can do. This sort of thing requires time. I’m still recovering from the shock.”

“But there must be something!”

Chrysalis thought about it, wondering if what she could have her do, until she had an idea that would be very unpleasant. “There is one thing you could do for me.”

“I’ll do it!”

Chrysalis took a deep breath before looking at her with a serious expression on her face. “You will tell Celestia and Luna of what you have done.”

“What!? I-I can’t!”

“They both know almost everything about me, including the nastier details. It’s not exactly fair that you get to keep your name clean after what you did.”

“They’ll hate me!”

Chrysalis patted her on the shoulder, somewhat calming her down. “No, they won’t. I’ve known them for a long time and they are quite reasonable. They’ll be ticked, sure, but it will blow over eventually.”

Nymph bit her hoof, occasionally looking at her. Eventually, she sat up. “I’ll…I’ll do it.”

Chrysalis smiled at her. “Thank you. Now is there anything I could do for you?”

“I don’t know really know, Chrysalis.”

“Nothing? Even after everything I’ve made you endure?” The queen shook her head. That’s when Chrysalis had an idea and she stood up. “Come here.” Nymph stood up and got in front of her. “Hit me.”

The queen cocked her head. “What?”

The older sibling pointed at her own face. “Hit me as hard as you can.”

She gasped and took a step back. “I couldn’t!”

“Do it. I deserve it.” Nymph rapidly shook her head. “What? You can’t fight back? You’re just going to let me get away with what I did to you?” Nymph remained silent and Chrysalis scoffed. “How can you be a queen if you have no backbone? Even after all these mon-”

Expecting a mere slap, Chrysalis was silenced by a powerful punch that landed in the center of her face. Nymph packed enough force in her hoof to send Chrysalis flying out of the living room and into the kitchen. She slammed onto the wall, leaving cracks, fell onto the counter, and then onto the floor. As she lied there in a daze, Nymph bolted to her side. “Oh, Chrysalis! Please tell me you’re okay!”

The elder sister managed to get onto her hooves, chuckling. “That was impressive.”

“How can you joke about that!? I could have hurt you!”

“That would have been a good thing. Don’t worry about me. I’m okay.” Chrysalis walked towards the living room, slightly wobbling with every step.

“Chrysalis?” She stopped and looked at Nymph. “Should I even…feel good about hitting you?”

The former queen smirked. “I’d say so.” They returned to the living and sat back on the couch, staring at the wall in front of them. Chrysalis saw the crown on the floor and grabbed it with her magic. “I want you to know I’m really proud with what you did tonight,” she spoke as she held it to her.

“Thank you, but it honestly feels like a hollow victory. I still do not believe I have truly earned my right to rule.” Nymph took the crown and placed it on Chrysalis’s head. “You are the true heir to the throne, not me. It’s not right of me to live out your destiny after acquiring it wrongfully.”

Chrysalis took the crown off and looked at, suddenly remembering many moments from her time as the Changeling Queen. She then looked Nymph and placed the crown back on her. Before Nymph could speak, Chrysalis put a hoof over her mouth. “I’m touched, but the reality is you did earn it the second time you were crowned. I had my shot as queen and we know what happened. What happened to me was my own fault, so do not blame yourself for what has happened to me. I think either way, you would end up being queen after my failure. Besides, you have done a good job taking my place. The changelings look up to you and the ponies trust you.”

“Thank you, Chrysalis. It feels so good to hear that from you.” Chrysalis held out her hooves and they hugged as Chrysalis lied down on the couch. She gently stroked Nymph’s mane as the queen rested her head against her chest, both of them smiling.

The front door then opened, heavily startling them. “Cherub?” Pinkie called. “Are you-” She gasped loudly when she saw Chrysalis and Nymph together and then she ran over to hug them both tightly. “Oh my gosh! You two are friends again!”

“Pinkie, not so tight!” Chrysalis yelled through clenched teeth.

She released them and bounced in place, almost reaching the ceiling. “But I’m so excited! We need to throw a party to celebrate! Don’t worry! I keep emergency party supplies here with Fluttershy, so let’s get started right now!”

“Pinkie,” spoke Nymph, “aren’t you the least bit surprised to see Chrysalis here?”

“No, I knew about her for months!” Pinkie skipped towards the stairs, but was magically grabbed by her tail and dragged to the changelings.

“Wait, months!? You knew all this time and-”

“Nymph,” Chrysalis interrupted, “don’t yell at her. I forced her into keeping my identity a secret. Besides, she was the pony who helped me see the errors of my ways.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” Chrysalis crouched down and hugged her. “Pinkie is my best friend and I wouldn’t be like this were it not for her, so be sure to thank her.”

Nymph looked at Pinkie in shock and the pony grinned at her. “My goodness. I always thought of her to be strange, but never did I imagine she could do anything like this.”

“That makes two of us.”

“I mean, just by the way she acted I thought she had some sort of mental disorder, but who would have-”

“Okay, that’s enough about that.” Chrysalis released Pinkie. “Thank you for sending Nymph to me. It has certainly lifted the weight off both our shoulders.”

“I knew you were upset about the changelings being allowed in Equestria, so I thought you and Nymph needed to talk it out. So are you happy now about the changelings? Please tell me you are!”

Both changelings exchanged confused looks. “Pinkie, you thought I was upset about that? No, I was worried about something else.”

“Like what?”

Nymph loudly gasped. “Luna! You are Luna’s lover!?”

“That’s right. Luna was also a good friend of mine during my stay here and we fell for each other as time went on.”

Nymph shoved Chrysalis’s face into her chest, hugging her. “Oh goodness, you were upset by what I told you! Don’t worry, Chrysalis! I’ll help you convince her that you really love her!”

It took Chrysalis some effort to pry herself free and when she did, she stumbled backwards. “Thank you, but you better prepare yourself for what’s coming. Pinkie, round up Luna and the others and bring them here.”

“Others? Who exactly?” asked Nymph.

“The Elements, Celestia, Cadance, and Shining Armor. It’s time to stop this charade. I originally planned to reveal myself tomorrow, but this must be done now. I cannot continue lying to them, especially Luna. Bring them here and I will tell them the truth.”

Pinkie patted her back, somehow sensing her distress. “It’ll be okay, Chrysalis. Just tell them the truth and it’ll work out. We’ll back you up and won’t take no for an answer!”

Nymph stood by the door, staring at her sibling with a more authoritative look. “Chrysalis, you should know there’s already been a deal made about what will happen to you. You will be put into Celestia’s and Luna’s custody and you will cooperate with them. If you do not, things will not end pleasantly for you. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. They’re definitely going to be pi…ticked that you engaged in a romantic relationship with Luna without ever telling her who you are.” She paused and then looked at Chrysalis with fear. “Please tell me you two did not have sex.”

“Of course not. Kissing is as far as it got.”

Nymph sighed with relief. “Good. Anyway, I’m afraid I won’t be able to do much for you if they still choose to arrest you, but Pinkie and I will do our best to reason with them. Some form of punishment will occur, so be prepared.”

“I deserve what I get.”

Pinkie looked up at the queen. “But what about Luna? Will she still love Chrysalis?”

Nymph glanced away for a moment before looking at Chrysalis, who seemed just as uneasy. “I honestly cannot say with certainty. No doubt she will be shocked and may want nothing to do with you, but it will only be for a while. She will soon see you for who you are and if she chooses to forgive you, you two can be together.”

Chrysalis nodded. “Let’s hope. Anyway, enough talk. It’s time to for this lie to end.” The changelings and pony exited from the house and walked down to the bottom of the hill. “I will await here while you two bring the others. Bring no pony else or we will risk the news spreading to the public and the ponies may get out of control.”

“We will be swift. Pinkie, climb on.” Pinkie hopped onto Nymph’s back and she took flight.

“Don’t worry,” Pinkie called to Chrysalis as she was carried away, “it’s totally going to be fine!”

Chrysalis smiled as she waved to her, grateful for her words of comfort. When they were gone, she went back inside. Her first priority was ice, grabbing a pack from Fluttershy’s fridge and resting it upon her punched face. She then took herself upstairs, finding comfort on Fluttershy’s bed. Learning about Nymph’s treachery was still hard for her to swallow, but she felt glad she could bring her poor sister some closure. Forgiveness was an odd thing to her. The circumstances basically gave her justification bring down cold vengeance onto her head, but taking this alternate path made her feel at peace. It would also help give a good impression to Luna and maybe she would believe her about her romantic feelings toward her.

With a relieving breath, she looked out the window and to the moon.

The moon had been looking back.

The sky had suddenly darkened and Chrysalis felt the room rattle. With a deafening bang, the bedroom windows were blown open, greeting Chrysalis with a roaring wind that blew her off the bed. Before she could get up, she was pulled by the tail and thrown across the room, crashing into the wall. She was then grabbed her by the tail again and thrown right out of the open window. Chrysalis crashed into the earth, rolling across the grass and colliding with a tree. She struggled to sit up right before a sickening crack came from above her. A hoof punched a spot on the tree just inches above her, snapping the entire trunk in two. She froze in place as her eyes slowly met with the attacker’s.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO CHERUB?!”

Chrysalis gasped for air, trying to speak. The alicorn of the night was down on her, eyes white with fire. Trying to look away, a loud hum from Luna’s horn forced Chrysalis head to turn back, nearly causing her head to twist clean off.

“WHERE…IS…CHERUB?!”

Chrysalis felt her body begin to sink. The grass beneath her became black and viscous. She could only emit a wail of pain and terror before she became submerged, completely engulfed in darkness.

No More Secrets

Chrysalis’s consciousness slowly returned to her and she opened her eyes. She groaned as she rubbed her aching head and tried to stand up. The first thing she noticed was the cold air, causing her to shiver. She didn’t remember it being so cold or even so dark. When she finally stood up, her sight had cleared up and she lit her horn. She saw that she was no longer near Fluttershy’s, but in what appeared to be a cavern. How in the world did she get here? Chrysalis then realized the reason why she was feeling so cold was that her clothing was missing. Who had taken it from her and why? She decided she would worry about that later. She needed to just get out and find Nymph and Pinkie as they were going to bring her friends to her and would freak out if they saw she was missing.

Upon channeling her teleportation spell, the changeling realized something that caused her great alarm. Her magic reserves were very low, too low for her to make an escape. What happened to her magic? She had plenty in her from the Hearts and Hooves fair. Then again, why was she here in the first place? Seeing how she couldn’t go anywhere, she sat against a wall and sighed.

She looked around the underground area. What was this place, anyway? She was currently in a tunnel with some crystals sprouting out of the walls. The last thing she remembered was grabbing ice from Fluttershy’s freezer, but what happened after that? It was all just a blur in her head. That’s when she noticed some writing on the wall in front of her. She got closer and read the three words carved into the stone wall.

Confess or suffer.

The short message was more than enough to produce an unsettling chill within her. Who put that there? What did they want her to confess? Her plan to get revenge? That was long gone, so she wouldn’t have anything to offer. She chose to ignore it and focus on getting out. At the moment, her only options were to go left or to go right. She chose to go left, hoping she had chosen correctly. The walk down the dark tunnel was very unsettling for her. What did her captor have planned for her? Was anyone coming to rescue her? Chrysalis didn’t even know where she was, so it was unlikely anyone else would.

The tunnel eventually led her to a four-way intersection. Chrysalis decided it would be safer to just go forward, making it easier for her to backtrack in case she ran into a dead end. When the intersection was several feet behind her, she heard hoofsteps that sounded like somepony was running. She whirled around, only to catch a glimpse of a shadow running to the right tunnel.

She was not alone.

Unsure of what else to do, she decided to pursue the shadow. “Hello? Who’s there? Come back!” Chrysalis ran after the mysterious pony. Whoever it was, they were fast. She could barely make out the figure in the distance, but then the shadow disappeared in a flash of light and she stopped dead in her tracks. Who was that she just saw? Was she going mad? No, she wasn’t here that long, so what she saw was most likely real. With a new goal in mind, Chrysalis continued her trek down the cavern. “Is somepony here? Please, I need help! I don’t know where I am! Don’t be frightened of me! I just want to go home!” The only response she got was laughter in the distance, one that sent a chill down her spine.

Chrysalis sprinted ahead, hoping to find the pony. From the laughter, she could tell the pony was a mare, but why was she laughing? The idea of this mare being the one who captured her was now in her mind. If she really did send her here, she was going to break a few bones before turning her over to the authorities. It also occurred to her that this mare knew her true identity, so finding her was an absolute priority.

Soon she saw two paths ahead of her. To her surprise, the figure ran out of the right path and down the left. Chrysalis hurried after her, hoping to get a good look at her. Before she knew it, the mare vanished again, only to appear a good distance behind her. Chrysalis slid across the ground as she quickly turned around and ran after her. When they got to the pathways, the mare vanished again. Chrysalis stopped running and growled. “Please stop running! I just want to talk! Just listen to me for a minute!” There was no answer this time, so she decided to catch her breath.

As Chrysalis sat to regain her stamina, something caught her eye. To her left, she could see the figure, standing there while keeping her distance from her. She was simply looking at her, not moving. Chrysalis, relieved she stopped running away, cleared her throat and spoke as she stood. “Hello, there. Please do not be afraid of me. I mean no harm.” Suddenly, a bolt of magic flew from the figure and struck the wall near her, destroying some of it on impact. Chrysalis scrambled from the impact sight and took some steps back. “W-wait a minute! I’m not your enemy!” Another bolt flew at her, striking the floor in front of her. Chrysalis jumped away and saw that the mare was running to her. Chrysalis’s instinct told her to run, so she did. Chrysalis ran down the tunnel as fast as she could as bolts of magic flew after her. “Stop! I just want to go home! What is it you want from me!?” Her pursuer’s next shot struck her on the butt, causing her to yelp. Clearly she wasn’t interested in talking.

The changeling ran for several minutes with her company firing magic against her. No matter how fast she ran, she was right behind her. Nothing she did allowed her to escape. She could feel fatigue weighing her down, forcing her to slow her run. Panic was now all she could feel. If she couldn’t run, that mare was going to do her in. The terrified changeling looked behind her to see how close the shadow was, but nothing was there. Chrysalis slowed down and finally stopped, panting like a dog as she looked around her. The mare just suddenly disappeared, making her worry of what she was planning next. She needed to sit down and rest. If she didn’t, she would suffer from exhaustion and she would be in big trouble. Chrysalis sat against the wall, constantly looking around to ensure she was alone.

Chrysalis looked around the tunnel once more. Now that she thought about it, it somewhat struck her as familiar. It wasn’t changeling made, so where had she seen it? She looked at the crystals on the wall next to her, breaking off a piece to examine it. Why did crystals in a cavern ring a bell?

The changeling smacked herself on the head. This cave was part of the Canterlot Mines, where she had sent Cadance and Twilight during her plot to take over Equestria. It was now clear to her that somepony had sent her here for revenge for her wedding plot. It was a start realizing where she was, but there was still the matter of who was pulling the strings and finding an exit. All she knew was it was a unicorn mare, but who would have the guts to play this game with a royal changeling? Whoever she was up against meant business.

Her first guess was Cadance, considering she was in the same prison she sent her while trying to steal her husband. The changeling shook her head, knowing it couldn’t be her. The Princess of Love was not the kind to enjoy the suffering of others and couldn’t fight as far as she knew. Her next thought was Twilight, but that was shot down. Like Cadance, Twilight had restraint. There was also the fact she was all the way in Canterlot, which was much farther than what Twilight could teleport to. But Celestia could teleport that far. She was a powerful magic user, which would explain why she would risk taking Chrysalis on herself. But that was wrong also. The Princess of the Sun was willing to give Chrysalis a second chance and promised to Nymph to take good care of her. Besides, Celestia had golden colored magic, while her pursuer’s magic was colored-

A cold wave of horror washed over Chrysalis.

The pony that was hunting her was Luna.

Chrysalis shot up and looked around. How could she have not figured it out sooner? She finally remembered what happened before she fell unconscious. Luna found her without her disguise and attacked her. She couldn’t remember what she said to her, but clearly Luna was not taking the truth very well. Chrysalis knew she had to confront the alicorn and bring this all to an end before it got out of control. “Luna! Luna, I know it’s you! Please talk to me!”

“Confess…”

The changeling tensed up and slowly turned around, finding Luna right behind her. Chrysalis fell onto the cold ground and backed away from her. “D-don’t do that, Luna!” What she noticed next made her even more afraid. Luna did not at all look like how she usually did, where she was a happy, fun loving pony. The look she was producing now was cold and hateful and Chrysalis was pretty sure she intended on hurting her.

“Confess,” Luna repeated threateningly.

The changeling sat up, knowing it was time to come clean. It wasn’t the way she planned, but hopefully Luna would understand. “Alright. I’m sorry you had to find out this way. I was Cherub the whole time and I should have told you long ago.” Luna immediately shot a bolt next to her, greatly startling her.

“Do not lie to me!”

Chrysalis took steady breathes with a hoof on her chest. “Lying? I’m telling you the truth!”

Luna’s horn charged up. “No! You’re planning on getting revenge by stealing love to make yourself powerful!”

“I had given up my plans for revenge long ago. I am a new changeling.”

The alicorn stomped the ground, leaving large cracks. “Manure! If you are a new changeling, then why are you still ponynapping ponies!?”

Chrysalis stared at her in confusion. “I haven’t done such a thing. I never needed to.”

Luna suddenly jumped her and pinned her to the ground. The former queen could feel her heart racing as she looked up into Luna’s enraged eyes. “I will hurt you if you don’t talk! Confess to me now!”

“What do you want me to say!? I’m not planning anything!”

“Where is she!?”

“Who!?”

“Where is Cherub!?”

Chrysalis was completely baffled. Didn’t Pinkie and Nymph tell her? Shouldn’t she have put two and two together? Wasn’t that why she showed up at Fluttershy’s home to attack her? Instead, Luna held the belief that Cherub was real and Chrysalis had stolen her identity. She realized it was also possible Luna went looking for her and tracked her down on her own since she had been gone for some time, meaning it was very unlikely Pinkie or Nymph knew where they were. “Luna, I am Cherub.”

The princess spat in her face and the changeling shook her head around. “You can’t fool me! Cherub is not a worthless insect like you!”

“It’s the truth! I know it’s hard to accept, but I was her the whole time! Cherub doesn’t exist!”

Luna got off Chrysalis and took a few steps from her. “You really think clinging to your story will save you? You better reconsider, considering I’m the only one who can let you out.”

Chrysalis quickly wiped her face off as she sat up. “What happened to my magic?”

The princess grinned evilly at her. “We’ve been preparing for your return for a long time, Chrysalis. With Nymph’s help, we have developed countermeasures to ensure you didn’t succeed in your revenge. One issue we thought of was what if you were to acquire a large amount of love, making you powerful just like before, meaning we needed something to take your power away. Through some hard effort, Celestia and I managed to master it. So now, we can drain you!”

Fear became overwhelming within Chrysalis. “Luna, I am begging you, please let me out of here. Celestia or Nymph would never allow you to do this.”

Luna chuckled mockingly at her. “Oh, I think they will, considering you stole the love of my life! And trust me, until you tell me where she is, I will never let you go.”

“Luna, don’t do this,” Chrysalis begged. “Please just let me go.”

“Tell me, when you were here many months ago posing at my niece, did Cadance beg you to let her go?”

Chrysalis faced the ground, loudly sighing. “Yes…”

“And did you let her go?”

“No…”

“So that’s that. I brought you here so you could have a taste of what you put Cadance through during her own wedding! Of course, there will be a few differences. I won’t make any stupid mistakes like you did, you won’t be escaping, and no one is coming for you and do you know why?” The princess leaned forward and looked dead in her eyes. “Because everyone hates you.”

“Talk to Pinkie! Talk to Nymph! They’ll tell you different! I am not evil anymore!”

“I am not falling for any of your tricks. Tell me what I want to hear and I will let you go. It is as simple as that.”

“Luna, I swear on my life, I am the real Cherub! It was me all along! You have to believe me!”

Luna glared at her. “My, aren’t you stubborn. Well luckily for you, I can be stubborn, too.” She turned around and walked down the tunnel. “There are only a few hours left of Hearts and Hooves Day and I intend on spending what’s left of it with Cherub. If I don’t have her back before midnight,” she turned her head, “you will never again see the light of day.” Chrysalis stood up and chased after her, but Luna teleported, leaving her alone in the darkness.

It took Pinkie and Nymph some time to find all of their friends and to separate some of them from their dates. They informed them that Cherub was ready to confess about herself and they were to meet her somewhere private. Unfortunately, no pony knew where Luna went, who would have been more interested than any of them, but they chose to go forward with the plan without her and deal with her later. “Why the heck is Cherub way out here?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“I’m afraid the poor thing had a personal crisis,” the queen answered. “She has been fretting over this moment for months and she lost her nerve. I can’t say I blame her.”

“Could you at least give us a hint of what it is?” asked Shining Armor. “The more I hear about this secret, the more worried I get.”

“Patience, Prince. Just let her tell you herself and try to be as understanding as possible.” Nymph leaned towards Pinkie Pie. “I’m afraid he is going to do something drastic when he sees her and I don’t think I can do anything to stop him if Twilight or Celestia jump in.”

“Is Chrysalis going to be okay?” Pinkie asked timidly as she looked at the stallion, who raised an eyebrow at her.

“I can only pray that she will be. Shining and Cadance are more than likely to not to take the news well. Your friends I am unsure about since they have worked for her and gotten to know her better, but my main concern is Celestia. Chrysalis will be safe if we can get her support, but that may be difficult when she finds out who has actually been dating her sister and she still sees her as a powerful threat. There’s also Luna, but we’ll have to worry about her later. I cannot guarantee she will forgive Chrysalis for going through with their relationship, but let’s focus on getting her forgiven for the invasion first.”

“Oh.” Pinkie looked at the ground in front of her and then back up at the changeling. “Am I going to be okay? My friends are going to be so mad that I didn’t tell them about her for so long.” Some strands of her hair lost their curl. “W-what if they don’t want to be friends with me anymore!?” she whispered loudly.

“Pinkie, I understand you’re afraid, but do not worry. I highly doubt it will get that bad since you all have been through so much together and all possess an unbreakable bond. They’ll be mad, but it will eventually pass. You’re their friend and they will understand why you wanted to keep Chrysalis safe. After all, didn’t Fluttershy help Discord turn a new leaf?”

“Yeah.” Pinkie turned her head around and looked at Fluttershy. The pegasus smiled at her and Pinkie just nervously smiled in return before looking back. “Please don’t hate me,” she said too quietly for anyone to hear.

At last, they returned to where Chrysalis was supposedly waiting for them. “Cherub, we’re back!” Pinkie called out. Strangely, there was no reply or sign of her. Pinkie chuckled nervously and turned towards the group. “M-maybe she’s in the house. Wait right here.” She went up the hill, opened the door, and stepped inside. About a minute later, she bolted out. “She’s gone!”

Panic erupted in the queen as she took flight and flew around. “Cherub!? Cherub, where are you!? CHERUB!”

“Nymph,” Celestia started, “please calm yourself and-”

She was interrupted when Nymph shook her like mad, yelling, “Don’t tell me to calm down! We need to find her right now!” She then proceeded to fly around the area in desperate attempt to find her sister.

Twilight looked at Pinkie, who seemed as equally alarmed. “Pinkie, what in the world is going on!? Where is Cherub!?”

“I…I don’t know! She said she’d be here! Just wait here and let us look for her!” Before she could join Nymph, Celestia used her magic to hold her in place.

“Pinkie, what is Cherub’s secret? I have the feeling this has something to do with her disappearance.”

Pinkie bit her hoof and frantically darted her eyes around. “Uh…”

“Pinkie, just tell us already!” insisted Applejack. “This ain’t the time to be foolin’ around! If Cherub’s in danger, we need to know why!”

“I can’t! I made a Pinkie promise not to tell!”

“Come on, Pinkie!” shouted Dash in frustration. “She’s going to tell us anyway, right? So out with it! Who is she!?”

The earth pony sweated heavily as she kept looking at the expecting eyes of her friends. Nymph noticed what was happening and quickly stopped her search, landing right next to Pinkie. The pink pony looked up at her and Nymph nodded in response. After a few seconds, Pinkie took a deep breath and spoke timidly, “The truth is that Cherub never existed. Ever.”

Verbal confusion was heard from the ponies. “What do you mean she doesn’t exist?” asked Celestia, who looked incredibly nervous. “Nymph, was Cherub…a changeling?”

Everypony looked at her in shock and the queen averted her eyes. Pinkie cleared her throat, catching their attention. “Well…specifically…she was really…the whole time…Chrysalis.”

The group immediately gasped. “CHRYSALIS WAS CHERUB THE ENTIRE TIME!?” yelled Twilight in horror.

Celestia snapped out of her shock and boomed at Nymph, “How could you keep this from me, Nymph!? You said you didn’t know where she was and I trusted you!”

“I didn’t know! I just found out today!” the changeling reasoned as she quickly backed away. “Believe me when I say I was just as surprised, especially by the fact Pinkie was aware about her.”

The ponies immediately all looked back at the pony next to her. “Pinkie!” snapped Twilight, causing the party mare to jump. “You knew about this!? You knew who she was the entire time and didn’t say anything!?”

“Not the entire time, just a few months!”

Suddenly, Pinkie felt herself magically pulled by the ear and was dragged in front of Celestia. “Pinkie, what is the matter with you!? How could you keep this a secret from us!? How could you keep this from Luna!?”

Pinkie used a hoof to rub her sore ear. “I made a Pinkie promise to not tell anypony about her!”

“You should have just broken it!” She bent down to get on Pinkie’s eye level, showing her just how furious she was. Pinkie had only seen Celestia upset a few times in her life, but she could tell from her voice and stare that she was livid. “Pinkie, Chrysalis was alone with my sister, my niece, and your friends on multiple occasions! What if she had done something bad to them!? What if she had endangered Equestria!? Have you even considered this even once before doing something so foolish!?”

“She’s not evil anymore! She’s good now and my friend! We just need to find her and I’ll prove it to you!”

Celestia dragged a hoof down her own face in frustration and Shining Armor approached her. “Celestia, I think it’s obvious that Chrysalis has her under some sort of control. I would suggest removing it immediately before asking any more about Chrysalis.”

“Agreed. Hold still.” Celestia’s horn glowed brightly and a wave of magic flowed through Pinkie, causing her eyes to spin. After several seconds, the magic faded. “Pinkie, how do you feel? Did Chrysalis force you to keep her presence secret?”

Pinkie quickly shook her head. “I’m not under any control! She tried once, but it didn’t work on me for some reason!”

Everypony’s jaw dropped except for Celestia’s. “You mean you willingly decided to keep her a secret!?” shouted Twilight.

“That’s right! And you know what? I’d do it again and do you know why? It’s because she’s sorry and wants to show you all how much she’s changed!”

“I’ve had enough of this nonsense,” Celestia spoke sternly. “Shining Armor, restrain her.”

The next thing Pinkie knew, she was trapped in a magical bubble. She tried to move, rolling around like a hamster in a ball. She banged against the wall. “Let me go!”

The princess ignored her and faced the others. “It is clear Chrysalis is making a run for it. She couldn’t have gone far, so we should be able to capture her. All of you watch Pinkie while I go to Canterlot and acquire the guards. She must not escape.”

“Wait, Celestia,” spoke Nymph. “I don’t think she’s making a run for it. She willingly revealed herself to me.”

Celestia slowly approached the queen. “Is that so? Why? Why did she do that? Better yet, if you knew who she was, why in the world did you agree to leave her alone and give her the chance to flee!?”

Nymph closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I…think we should discuss this in private.”

Celestia eyed her suspiciously. “Private? Why? Are you hiding something?”

Every time the princess she tried to get into her view, Nymph turned her head away. “Please…” she whispered.

“Fine.” Celestia and Nymph walked away from the group and spoke once they were far away. As they talked, Pinkie looked at her friends, who all stared at the two rulers. She then looked at Fluttershy, who noticed her gaze and when she saw her staring, she approached her prison.

The pegasus placed her hoof on the bubble and Pinkie placed hers right in front of it. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy. I didn’t mean to lie to you,” spoke Pinkie sadly.

“I understand. I know you were trying to help her,” she answered softly

Pinkie sniffled quietly as she looked up at her. “Do you hate me?”

Fluttershy knelt down. “Never. I could never hate somepony for trying to help someone in need. Everypony else is so scared, but I trust you, Pinkie, and I love you for doing something so brave.” Pinkie slightly smiled and they both rested their foreheads against the barrier with their eyes closed.

All of a sudden, Celestia’s mane turned into the color of fire and she stomped the ground, causing a powerful quake that startled all of them. “NYMPH!” The ponies watched with fear as Celestia yelled continuously at the terrified changeling. After about two minutes, the princess returned with an ashamed Nymph following her. “Let her go,” she said to the prince as she looked at Pinkie.

“But Celestia-”

“Just do it.” Reluctantly, Shining Armor removed the barrier. Celestia approached the pony, towering over her with a face cold as ice. “Pinkie, I want you to tell me everything that happened between you and Chrysalis. NOW.” Her voice shook the house, leaving every creature in it completely still.

Over the course of several minutes, Pinkie told them everything that happened since Chrysalis’s birthday. She told them about her rampage, her self-realization, her desire for forgiveness, trying to befriend the other Elements, and even about how she fell in love with Luna. She also explained that the fair wasn’t a part of a plot to take over, but rather Chrysalis giving her people something to make up through what she put them through. She made numerous apologies to them for not telling them, but she felt no pony would ever have believed Chrysalis if she revealed herself, especially with what she almost did to Pinkie. When she was finished, the ponies had calmed down, but they were still on edge. “It seems quite a lot has happened during her banishment,” spoke Celestia, now slightly more calm, as she slowly paced in front of her. “It does sound like you have convinced her to turn a new leaf, Pinkie, but I wish to see her myself before making my decision.”

“Come on, Celestia!” shouted Shining Armor. “It’s so obvious Chrysalis is just pretending! Any idiot can see that!”

“Shining, please,” said Cadance. “I think we should we consider the possibility that she’s truly sorry.”

Shining took her hoof. “I’m just thinking about you. I can’t stand the thought of her being free after what she did to you. Besides, if she is sorry, then why did she run away? We should stop wasting time and look for her already!”

“I am fully aware Chrysalis may be trying something, Shining Armor,” said Celestia sternly. “The question is where did she go and why? She must have something planned to have us all lured away from the people, so we need to search for her cautiously.”

Before they could start, they suddenly heard loud squeaking. They looked towards the door of Fluttershy’s home as a rabbit ran to them, waving frantically. “Angel? What’s wrong?” asked Fluttershy, receiving many squeaks in response. “Do you know something about Chrysalis?” He rapidly nodded.

Celestia stood in front of him and knelt down. “Tell us everything you know.” The rabbit suddenly pulled something out, causing everyone to gasp.

“That’s Luna’s crown!” shouted Applejack in shock.

“So she ponynapped Luna!?” Spike asked in complete panic, causing everyone to gasp again.

Celestia’s eyes glowed with burning fury. “That is the last straw! We’re getting the guards and-”

“Wait!” Fluttershy interrupted, “He says that’s not what happened.”

“Then what the heck happened!?” asked Trixie. “Why does he have her crown!?”

Angel put the crown on his head. “I think he’s supposed to be Luna,” said Fluttershy. The rabbit nodded and then jumped onto Nymph’s head, kicking her crown away.

“Hey!” shouted the queen angrily.

She reached down to pick it up, but Celestia took it first. “I think you’re supposed to be Chrysalis in this scenario, so just play along.”

The changeling sighed. “Fine. So what happened?” Angel grabbed of her tail and pulled on it.

“She pulled on Chrysalis’s tail?” guessed Rarity. “Why would she do that?” Angel pointed towards the house and they saw the open window. “I don’t understand.” The rabbit hopped away from the group and pointed at something. When they came, they gasped at the sight of the cracked tree.

“She threw Chrysalis out the window and into the tree!?” asked Nymph, only to become more horrified when Angel nodded at her. “Oh my gosh, what is Luna doing to her!? W-where did they go!?” He shrugged at her, causing the changeling to lunge down and grab him. “You stupid rodent! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY SISTER!?”

“Nymph, calm yourself!” ordered Celestia as she gently took the rabbit from her. “Angel, do you have any idea at all of what happened next?” He pointed at her horn. “My horn? You mean Luna used a spell?”

“A teleportation spell?” asked Twilight, receiving a nod from Angel. “So you’re saying Luna viciously attacked Chrysalis and teleported them somewhere!?” Angel frantically nodded and they all gasped.

“Oh no! We have to find them!” screamed Pinkie. “Chrysalis’s is in danger!”

“But where the hay did she take her? They could be anywhere!” said Applejack.

“I may know,” spoke Celestia. “Most likely Luna has taken her to the dungeons and is interrogating her as we speak. All of you wait here.” Her horn glowed and then she vanished in a bright white light. The group spoke with worry with one another except for Nymph, who had become incredibly pale. Almost a minute later, Celestia returned, looking panicked. “She’s not there!”

“What!?” the group shouted in shock.

“Luna hasn’t returned the palace. I…I have no idea where she has taken Chrysalis!”

“Well we can’t just sit around! We have to look for them!” said Nymph in hysterics.

“We will,” spoke Celestia. “Right now, Chrysalis is in possible danger by my own sister. I am very sure Luna will be merciful with her and willing to listen to us, but we need to be extremely cautious if she is in such a devastated state since it seems she has discovered the truth of Cherub on her own. In order for us to cover more ground, we need to split into groups.” The princess looked at Dash. “Rainbow Dash, fly to Cupid’s Arrow and search for them there and if they aren’t, look anywhere else you can think of in Ponyville. If you find them, report back here and be sure to bring them both if possible.”

“On it!” Dash launched into the air and flew towards the town, creating a gust of wind that blew against the ones she left behind.

“Applejack, Rarity, Trixie. I want the three of you to search anywhere outside Ponyville. If Luna isn’t at the palace, then she may still be nearby. Applejack, do you have your lasso?”

The earth pony removed her hat and grabbed the rope underneath. “Ah always do, but why do ya need it?”

Celestia took it with her magic and with a spell, it glowed in a golden light. “With this enchantment, not only is it unbreakable, but it will prevent anyone caught within it from using magic. If you find them and either proves to be a threat, Trixie’s and Rarity’s magic should be enough to distract her long enough for you to restrain them.”

“Wait a minute!” spoke Rarity in shock. “Are you saying Luna may actually attack one of us!?”

The alicorn quickly shook her head. “Not attack, just force away. Luna sometimes has trouble keeping her emotions under control and I’m afraid something like this can easily push her over the edge. There’s also the possibility that Chrysalis is still plotting her revenge and if she does get a chance, I’m sure she will take control of my sister, so we need to be extra cautious. If you find either of them, I suggest restraining Chrysalis since her powers are to not be underestimated.”

“Ya can count on us! Come on, ya two!” Applejack took the lead and the two unicorns followed in a sprint.

Celestia then looked at the stallion. “Shining Armor, I trust your skills as a knight, so I want you to investigate our old castle in the Everfree Forest and I want you to take Pinkie with you.”

His jaw dropped. “Why do I have to go with her!?” he shouted while pointing a hoof at her.

“Because not only does she know the way there, but I need to be sure you act reasonably towards Chrysalis and she won’t feel as threatened by you if she’s with you. Also, if Luna finds out Pinkie has known about this, she might do something she may regret, so you will need to protect her.”

He looked spitefully at his companion before looking worried toward Celestia. “What about Cadance or Twilight? What will you have them do?”

“Cadance will remain in Fluttershy’s home along with Spike and they will remain hidden. If either Chrysalis or Luna returns here, Spike will send me a letter and I will come back here in an instant. Twilight, you and Fluttershy will check Ponyville along with Rainbow Dash. If one of them tries anything to you, then I want you to teleport out of there and return here, Twilight.”

“Yes, Celestia!” Twilight sprinted away and Fluttershy ran to catch up with her. Cadance and Shining shared a hug before separating with their companions, with Pinkie hesitating as she looked in the direction Fluttershy went before chasing after Shining Armor.

“What about me?” asked Nymph. “Where should I look?”

Celestia sighed and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Nymph, I need you to go back to the fair while disguised as Cherub. I know you can do a good job in pretending to be her.”

“But Celestia, I need to find Chrysalis! She needs me!”

“I know, but the ponies are bound to notice that all of us have gone missing. With the recent news of changelings, they may worry of where we went and start looking. If anypony asks you where we are, just tell them important royal business came up. Besides, it is also possible Luna went back to expose her to the public. If that is the case, I need you to do crowd control. They might try to hurt her or worse.”

“Very well.” Nymph took on Chrysalis’s disguise. “Please bring them back safely.” Celestia nodded before she teleported herself and Nymph went running back toward the fair.

Chrysalis traced her hoof across the ground while resting against the stone wall. She hadn’t bothered to move herself since Luna left. What was the point? If she did find the exit, Luna would probably just grab her and send her back. All she wanted was for her to come back so she could try talking to her again, but she had been gone for a while. What was she even up to? She tried to think of what she could possibly say to Luna to prove who she was, but the stress of the entire situation made it extremely difficult.

As Chrysalis lied there, feeling the weight of everything crush her, a strange sound was picked up by her ears, interrupting her thoughts. She lifted her head and looked down the tunnel. She didn’t recognize the sound and stood up, taking a few steps towards it. She stopped herself when the sound became clearer. It sounded like a dreadful combination of whispering, moaning, and even screaming. Chrysalis slowly backed away and then something appeared in the distance, causing her to gasp. Down the tunnel was a shadowy abomination made up of hoofs, disfigured faces, and glowing eyes coming out of black smoke and it was coming straight for her.

Chrysalis turned around and ran. She looked behind her and saw the monstrosity chasing her at great speed. “Luna! Help me! Please, Luna! There’s a monster in here!” She kept running down the tunnel, noticing that it stretched on endlessly. She didn’t remember one being this long, but she chose not to think about it while her life was in danger.

She looked behind her once again, realizing that it was slowly closing in on her. She looked ahead and saw that there was a door in the distance. She quickened her pace, praying that it would be her escape. She got closer and closer, hearing the monster calling for her as the distance between them became smaller. She lunged for the doorknob and turned it, thankful it was unlocked. She rushed inside and slammed the door, pressing her body against it. She pressed her ear on the door and listened, but she couldn’t hear the monster anymore. She sighed with relief, knowing she was somehow safe from whatever she encountered.

Her mood instantly shifted from relief to confusion when she saw where she ended up. The door had taken her into what looked like a study, which was completely strange to find in an abandoned mine. The walls were covered with shelves filled with books, there were windows that hung high above, the walls, the floor and ceiling were made from polished wood, and there was a lit fireplace with a large chair in front of it. As strange as it all seemed to her, it held a familiar aura to Chrysalis. She took several steps forward, taking in her surroundings. “Wait. Isn’t this the study back home?”

“You are correct, Chrysalis.”

Everything in Chrysalis’s body came to a stop. Her mouth hung open, unable to form a single word. A figure rose up from the chair and took a few steps towards her. Her height matched the changeling’s and with her every step she took, her violet hair swung across her shoulders with grace. Her most notable feature was her face, which simultaneously possessed beauty, wisdom, and elegance, and it was one Chrysalis fully recognized. “M-Mother?” She took a step closer. “Mother, how is this-”

“Do not call me that!” Locera snapped, causing Chrysalis to recoil. “You have lost the right long ago.” She walked around Chrysalis, never taking her eyes off of her. “I am so disappointed in you, Chrysalis. You bring shame to this family.”

Chrysalis gasped and tears came out of her eyes. “I’m sorry, Mother. I just-”

“I said not to call me that!” The late queen stopped in front of her and looked dead into her eyes. “I chose Nymph as my successor because I knew she would work towards a brighter future for the Changeling Kingdom, unlike you! You couldn’t even respect my decision and forced her into giving it you like the greedy tyrant you are!”

Rather than argue, Chrysalis sat down and sobbed. She couldn’t explain how any of this was happening, but hearing her own mother talk about how she let her down was too devastating to her. “I’m sorry.”

Locera walked towards her, causing her to back away. “Sorry!? Is that all you have to say!? Not only have you mistreated your own sister, you kidnapped an innocent princess, tried to steal her husband for your own selfish greed, attacked a peaceful kingdom, and made our people look like monsters! And yet, here you are, claiming to be sorry when you have taken another pony and pretend to be them so you can fulfill your disgusting desire for power. You are a failure of a queen!”

Chrysalis put her hooves over ears and crouched against the door, sobbing uncontrollably. All of a sudden, something banged on the door loudly, causing Chrysalis to jump away, only to be grabbed by Locera. “What are you doing!?”

“You’re a monster, Chrysalis, and monsters have no place in this world. It is time you pay for your crimes.”

Chrysalis struggled like mad as her mother dragged her towards the door, but she was too strong for her. “Please, Mother! Don’t do this to your daughter!”

The late queen grabbed her by the throat and looked right at her. “You are not my daughter! You are a demon who will spend the rest of eternity in the bowels of Tartarus. Good riddance!” She opened the door and Chrysalis let out a scream as the monster enveloped all of the room, causing her vision to go black.

Chrysalis’s eyes shot open and she produced a brief scream. She placed a hoof on her chest and felt her heart pounding as she hyperventilated. It took her several seconds to realize she was back in the mine. What just happened to her? Everything before was so bizarre and horrifying and yet it was all gone. It was almost like a nightmare come to life.

A nightmare. Did she fall asleep? She remembered feeling tired right after Luna left, so she must have dozed off. Luna must have used her powers to enter dreams to bring her worst fears to life. She was afraid of closing her eyes as that nightmare of hers felt so real and she was sure Luna was waiting to strike again.

“Sleep well?”

Chrysalis gasped and scooted away. Luna was sitting next to her and holding a smug look on her face. “I am kind of hoping I’m still dreaming,” the changeling replied.

“I’m afraid not. You really are stuck in here with me.”

Chrysalis slowly got onto her hooves. “That was too mean, Luna. You used my own dead mother against me.”

Luna stood up. Although she was shorter than Chrysalis, the prisoner felt very fearful of her. “I’m pretty sure she would feel the same way if she was here.”

Chrysalis flinched. Was she right? Would Locera hate her if she knew all the wrongs she had committed? Chrysalis forced those thoughts out of her head, focusing on her current problem. “How long have you kept me here?”

“Not that long at all. You fell asleep rather quickly and dreams actually aren’t as long as they appear. It’s actually been less than an hour since you left the fair, so I doubt any pony has noticed us missing yet.”

“It’s felt like an eternity.” Chrysalis thought about Pinkie and Nymph bringing the others to an empty cottage. The good news was they were no doubt looking for her now, but the bad news was the likelihood of them looking here was slim to none.

“It sure has. You have seen what my power with dreams can do and I can assure you it can get much worse. I plan on spending this day with my lover, who isn’t you, so if you want to make it out of here and not worry about anymore nightmares, then tell me where she is now.”

“How can I make you listen? I am Cherub! Me! She never existed!”

Luna gritted her teeth. “I am going to count to three and if you don’t tell me what I to know, you will be very sorry. My next nightmare will have you screaming like a terrified filly.”

“Luna, I swear on my life I am Cherub!”

“One.”

“I know it’s hard to believe, but I do love you! What we had was real!”

“Two!”

Chrysalis threw her hooves up. “Wait, wait! I can prove I am Cherub! Just give a chance to do it!”

Luna broke out into laughter. “Prove it? How do you intend to do that, you imposter?”

“Haven’t you wondered why I was so secretive about who I am? My home? My family? Everything about me before I came to Ponyville?” She motioned a hoof across herself. “This is it. This was the secret I kept from you.”

Luna rolled her eyes dismissively. “So Cherub didn’t like talking about herself. That hardly proves anything.”

“But there’s more. Remember my story about having a bad wedding? I think you know what that’s really about.”

“It still proves nothing!” the pony snapped.

“What about my sister? The one I hated and wanted nothing to do with? That was Nymph. You can’t think this is still a coincidence.”

Chrysalis could see in her eyes that the seeds of doubt were successfully planted. “E-enough of this! You are not the Cherub I love! Nothing you can say will have me believe you!”

The changeling stepped forward and spoke gently, “I remember the first day we met. The real reason I wanted to get away was because I know you were trying to find me. Remember what I dressed up as on Nightmare Night? I was just being myself. You know how Pinkie reported that I scared her and stole her candy? It wasn’t a prank, Luna. That was really me. My career involved producing love, making it much easier to feed myself. Other than Pinkie, do you know what the secret to my success was? Reading the emotions of ponies.”

Luna stepped back, shaking her head. “No! You are not Cherub! You’re trying to trick me! I won’t fall for it!”

“You can look at any government file about me and you will learn that I didn’t exist until that day I came to Ponyville, which is when I created her. Luna, the Cherub you first met at the library, the one you spent Nightmare Night with, the pony you fell in love, it was me the entire time. This is who I am. This is who Cherub is and this is the absolute truth.”

Luna opened her mouth, but no sound came out. The princess very slowly stepped away from her, her mouth quivering and her eyes filled with betrayal. The next thing Chrysalis knew, Luna fell onto her knees and broke into tears. “My…my heart…”

It was hard for Chrysalis to believe that was the same Luna who had horrible nightmares planned for her, but now was not the time to dwell on that. Chrysalis still loved her and Luna needed comfort. She must have felt so awful for treating Chrysalis like that when she really did have feelings for her all along. Chrysalis reached a hoof out to stroke her face. “Luna, please don’t-” Luna swatted her hoof away and Chrysalis recoiled away from her. “L-Luna?”

Luna shot her head up, eyes glowing bright. “My heart…is not…your bucking…PLAYTHING!” Her horn illuminated the dark cave as she was wrapped in its radiance. The changeling slowly backed away from her, absolutely terrified as she could see the alicorn’s body changing form. Her coat was turning black and her teeth became fangs. Knowing that staying was a death wish, Chrysalis booked it.

“Chrysalis, you are DEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDD!”

Spike and Cadance had been mostly silent ever since they stepped into the house. Spike sat by himself on a chair near the window in the living room, occasionally looking outside from behind the curtain to see any sign of Luna or Chrysalis. He sighed to himself as he released the curtain, hoping everything would be okay. He looked around the room, realizing that it lacked a certain pony.

Spike looked towards the stairs. Cadance had gone up a while ago and hadn’t made a sound since. He got up from the chair and stood at the bottom of the steps. “Cadance?” he called. “Cadance, are you okay?” He didn’t receive an answer and he began to fear for her safety. He slowly walked up the stairs as quietly as he could, feeling drops of sweat run down his head. It didn’t help that the whole house was dark to make sure Chrysalis didn’t know anyone was home in case she came back. He got to the top, crept towards the bedroom door, and stopped in front of it. He gulped as he raised his shaking hand towards it. Once it rested on the knob, he took a deep breath and opened the door.

On the bed was Cadance, staring at the ceiling the dark room. “Cadance?” The alicorn said nothing, acting as if she didn’t realize he was there. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Everything is my fault. I screwed up everything,” she said in almost a whisper.

Spike climbed onto the bed. “What are you talking about?”

“I acted like an idiot. I am the reason Luna got romantically involved with Chrysalis. I knew Luna liked her, but why didn’t I get to know her better? How could I have been so stupid to try to create a relationship between Luna and somepony I never met before? This wouldn’t have happened had I just been smart and did some research on her. Maybe then I wouldn’t have helped her become marefriends with Chrysalis of all people!”

“Yeah, I guess you sorta-” Spike was interrupted by a carrot being launched at the back of his head. He turned around and saw Angel staring at him. “I mean you shouldn’t blame yourself. There’s no way you could have known it was her. She totally had us all fooled. She didn’t act the way she did when she pretended to be you. Well, she did before, but she stopped before you met her.”

Cadance rested a hoof on her forehead. “But that doesn’t excuse what I’ve put poor Luna through. She is so upset to learn that somepony she loved so much was a fake. If anything happens to Chrysalis, it will be my fault. I just hope Luna can show mercy, but something like this would drive anypony crazy. Could you imagine learning that your relationship with somepony you love so much was never real?”

Spike nodded, but then he frozen. After a moment, he began breathing loudly and he place his claws on his chest. His entire body trembled violently without stop as he slowly turned to the princess. “C-Cadance?”

“Hmm?”

“What…what if Rarity doesn’t really love me?”

Cadance sat up and looked down at him in surprise. “What?”

“What if it wasn’t real? What if Chrysalis just controlled Rarity to like me?” Spike’s eyes watered up and he sniffled loudly. “C-Chrysalis said s-she thought it was weird for a dragon to b-be in love with a pony. W-what if she just helped me to m-make it to make herself stronger? What if…if…”

Cadance pulled him against her chest and he quietly sobbed. “Spike, don’t think Rarity doesn’t love you. I’ve seen the two of you together and I see the way she acts around you. You have a special place in her heart and she cares about you so much. When I see you two together, I always sense how much she feels about you. If Chrysalis did use her magic, then I’ll do my absolute best to make it a real thing, okay?”

He wiped his eyes and looked up at her, smiling. “Thanks, Cadance. That means a lot.” They sat in the moonlight as the princess stroked his head. “What about Chrysalis?” he asked suddenly. “Did you feel love from her, too?”

“I…yes, I did,” she answered in surprise, causing her to sit up. “Chrysalis…Chrysalis really loves Luna? Was Pinkie actually right about her?”

“Maybe Chrysalis really did change.”

“Maybe.” She rested her chin on her hoof as she stared at the wall in front of her. “I…I don’t like the idea of her being with Luna, but maybe if she really has changed, her being with Luna wouldn’t be such a bad thing if it keeps her under control. Her love for Luna would be enough motivation to not carry out revenge.” She got off the bed and placed Spike onto her back. “We need to go back and keep an eye outside. Let us head downstairs and wait for them together.” She walked down the stairs and they watched the world outside through the window as she stroked the top of Spike’s head, both of them talking about their latest discovery.

Rainbow Dash landed right in front of Cupid’s Arrow and reached for the doorknob only to find it locked. She moved away and tried the windows, finding no luck either. Frustrated, Dash decided to do something extreme. She found a large rock and picked it up. Right before flinging it, her eye caught the roof, where she could see the chimney. “Right,” she said with an embarrassed chuckle before dropping the rock. She got into the air and flew down the chimney, ending up inside the main room.

Dash coughed extensively as she was covered in soot and went into the kitchen. She grabbed a small towel, soaked it, and carried it with her wing as she cleaned herself off. “Hello?” she called as she walked back into the main room. “Princess Luna? Chrysalis?” She received no response. Dash made her way up the stairs and looked into the bedroom. As she expected, it was empty. She went back down and checked the office, finding not a single person inside. She knew she needed to look somewhere else, but she decided to finish cleaning herself before getting back to the search.

She sat in Chrysalis’s chair while rubbing the wet cloth against her dirtied coat. She still felt alarmed by the fact the pony her friends all worked for was the changeling queen who crashed the royal wedding. Clearly the whole Hearts and Hooves thing was part of some sort of plot to become powerful and conquer Equestria, even if Pinkie said otherwise. To make things worse, Luna ponynapped her and now they had to find and rescue her, which was an idea that still felt weird to her.

She thought about when they first met her. She knew something was off about her, but she certainly didn’t expect her to be Chrysalis. It totally made sense why she acted the way she did. She couldn’t believe Pinkie had been left alone with her so many times. She was still convinced Pinkie was under some sort of mind control as she still stood up for her, but Pinkie had often made questionable decisions before. In either case, she was still very mad for Pinkie doing something so insane and promised herself she would teach her a thing or two about loyalty.

She still felt Chrysalis was evil, but there were some other things that bothered her. Over the recent months, she seriously mellowed out and even seemed so friendly. Maybe she had turned her ways? But what if that was part of her mind control? What if she was controlling them right now into thinking she was in trouble while she was out conquering Equestria? What if she made them think she failed the invasion and was actually successful all along? Rainbow Dash could have been in a cocoon for a long time and not even know it as that big bug ruled her country with an iron hoof.

Dash shook her head. She couldn’t think about that stuff now. She needed to get back to looking for her and Luna. She was fairly sure Chrysalis still had something up her sleeve, but she would still obey Celestia’s orders. She tossed the cloth aside and then stood. Before she left, she looked around Chrysalis’s desk, finding her favorite tazer. She found her belt from her uniform and put on, setting the tazer by her hip. Feeling much safer, Dash stepped outside and flew into the sky, debating on where to look next.

Twilight and Fluttershy looked around Ponyville as they slowed down from their sprint, each carrying conflicting feelings about the situation. Neither of them had spoken a word to each other since they had separated from the others. Much to their disappointment, they had yet to find any sign of Luna or Chrysalis. Fluttershy looked at Twilight, who held a stern expression on her face. “Are you okay, Twilight?” she asked nervously.

“No,” Twilight answered harshly.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” she answered again.

They didn’t know where Luna could have possibly taken Chrysalis in Ponyville, so they made Twilight’s home their first guess. On the way, Fluttershy asked any pony passing by if they saw Princess Luna around, but all of them had not. They entered Twilight’s home and the unicorn slammed the door behind her. “Luna? Chrysalis? Anyone home?” As Twilight expected, she didn’t get a response. “Okay, let’s go look somewhere else.”

Fluttershy rubbed her hoof against her leg as she stared at the floor. “Um…maybe not yet?”

Twilight looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Not yet? We have to go save Chrysalis or whatever.”

“I know, but you seem…um…upset and...not really all that concerned about Chrysalis.”

Twilight scoffed and waved a dismissive hoof. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. That villain can survive a few bruises, right?” Fluttershy gulped with wide eyes. “And you think I’m upset? How could I be upset? I mean, one of my best friends lied about that maniac living here for months, who deserves whatever she gets from tricking Luna. You think I’m upset about that?”

“Yes?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and turned around. “Let’s just drop it and go.”

Fluttershy went up to her and turned her around. “Twilight, I really think we need to talk about this. You’re clearly not taking this whole thing very well.”

The unicorn sighed. “I…I don’t know. We shouldn’t waste our time, so let’s just go.”

“Come on. Let’s just sit down for a moment. It’s important for you to have a clear head about all this.” At first, Twilight did nothing. After a moment, she reluctantly sat down with her friend. “Twilight, I’m just as surprised as you by what we heard, but I think Pinkie had a good reason for hiding her from us.”

“A good reason!?” she yelled, causing the pegasus to recoil. “What good reason could there be for not telling us!? We could have at least kept on eye on her like with Discord!”

“I know, but I trust Pinkie’s judgment.”

Twilight pulled Fluttershy up to her and looked dead into her eyes. “Trust her judgment!? She made friends with an enemy! She spent months helping out someone who was raised to trick ponies! She has been using us to make herself stronger!” She released her and waved her hooves around. “How can you trust Pinkie’s judgment!? How can I trust my judgment!? She was right here the whole time under my nose!”

Fluttershy stared at her, confused. “Twilight?”

“She was in Ponyville for months and I couldn’t figure it out! I’ve been so careful before, so why didn’t I just check her!?” Twilight slammed her head against the table with full force, startling Fluttershy. “Why didn’t I just check her just once!? It was my idea to have Pinkie work for her, so I pretty much just gave that monster one of my own friends! Pinkie’s been alone with her so many times and who knows what she’s done to her! She had us all wrapped around her hoof and she could have done something horrible to us! She took advantage of Luna because I was so stupid! She…she…” Twilight rested her head on her hooves and cried loudly. “W…what is wrong with me? How could have I let all of this happen?”

Fluttershy held her hooves out to pull her into a gentle embrace as she cried. “Twilight, it’s not your fault. You couldn’t have possibly known that she was Chrysalis.”

“But last time…”

“Last time she was pretending to be somepony you knew. Twilight, don’t blame yourself for any of this. Besides, maybe you’ve actually helped Chrysalis become good.”

Twilight looked up at her. “How did I do that?”

“You gave her the idea of Pinkie working for her. Remember what Pinkie told us? I think if you never suggested that to her, Chrysalis may not have changed herself because she needed somepony to set her straight.”

Twilight pulled herself away and rested her head on the table. “But how can you be sure she has even changed? She’s a changeling and they were raised to deceive ponies. She was so evil toward us all without a shred of mercy back then.”

“But what about when she protected you? I don’t think she was acting then to do something so dangerous.”

She quickly sat up. “What? When did she do that?”

“Remember when that poor pony got that weird disease and he attacked you on the roof of the hospital? She shielded you from getting hurt by jumping in front of you. I even remember how scared she sounded when she saw you were in danger.”

Twilight’s eyes grew large. “Chrysalis actually protected me. She…protected me?”

Fluttershy firmly nodded. “I think that’s proof that Pinkie is right about her. There is no way Chrysalis would do that if she hated you. Twilight, Chrysalis actually cares about you.”

Twilight stared into the distance before looking at her friend. “Fluttershy, how are you not mad at Pinkie? You seem pretty calm about all this.”

“It’s because I trust her. Pinkie may seem just like a silly pony that not every pony takes seriously, but she’s really smart. She would never have kept Chrysalis a secret from us if she believed she was dangerous. Besides, if I could help reform Discord, then she can help Chrysalis.” She steadily tapped her front hooves together and suddenly broke eye contact. “You’re not still mad at her, are you?”

“I don’t know. I think I get what she was doing, but I’m still freaking out. I at least hope both Luna and Chrysalis are safe.” She stood up and placed a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Thanks for listening, Fluttershy. It feels like a lot has been taken off my chest.”

“That’s what friends are for, Twilight. Speaking of friends, we should get back to looking for them.” She went out the door as Twilight dragged behind, thinking over the idea of Chrysalis being her friend. She then shook her head and ran to catch up.

Applejack loved her friends, she truly did, but there was only so much she could take of Trixie and Rarity freaking out. Ever since they were assigned together, the two mares had yet to stop talking about what they found out. Applejack was very shocked herself, but she thought it was best to think about it after they found Luna and Chrysalis. It wasn’t them being terrified or confused, but rather how they wanted to beat down the bug. “I can’t believe Spikey and I were just a part of her plot! Knowing that bug, she really did try to break me and Fancy Pants up on purpose!”

Trixie gasped loudly. “She broke you up with some guy!? That’s incredibly cruel! She should be made into a statue after we feed all the pigeons laxatives!”

“Indeed!” Rarity growled loudly as she rubbed her hooves together. "Oh, I’ll mess her up when I find her! She’ll know the ultimate kind of bad hair day when I get my hooves on her!”

“Not if I do it first! She made Twilight act like a jerk to me as part of her own amusement! It all makes complete sense to me! How could I have been so stupid to have believed her lies!?” The magician looked at Applejack. “What about you, Applejack? What are you going to do to her? Tie her to a tree and buck her in the chest? Have her listen to your granny’s stories nonstop? Have her help the Cutie Mark Crusaders get their cutie marks?”

The earth pony calmly shrugged at her. “Honestly, Ah don’t think Ah’ll do anythin’ crazy like the both of ya.”

Rarity whirled around and zipped right in front of her. “How can you be so calm, Applejack!? Chrysalis had us all fooled and she’s even been alone with some of us to do who knows what! Did you even hear what I said about me and Fancy Pants? That evil changeling hasn’t learned her lesson! Let’s lock her in the stockade and throw rotten vegetables at her!”

“No, she deserves far worse! Let’s paddle her instead!” suggested Trixie.

“Give her forty lashes!”

“BURN HER AT THE STAKE!”

“Both of ya, shut up!” The unicorns looked at Applejack in shock. “Look, Ah think we should actually find her and hear her out before we decide what to do with her. Ya two are actin’ nuts.”

“But she’s evil!” argued Trixie. “She must be punished in the worst way possible!”

“Well what if she isn’t? Ah know Pinkie is a strange mare who tries way too hard to make friends, but we need to consider what she told us. Ah mean, what has Chrysalis really done since she’s been here?”

“She tricked Twilight into hurting me!” the magician argued.

“Fine, there’s that, but what about in terms of her gettin’ revenge? What has she really done to any of us? None of us have gone missin’, the princesses are still fine, and she actually helped most of us with our love problems.”

The two unicorns looked at each other, both uncertain. “Maybe you have a point,” spoke Rarity as she looked back at Applejack, “but are we really going to be friends with her? Discord was already hard enough, but Chrysalis is much more vile from what I remember. Do we really want her around?”

Applejack walked over and patted her on the back. “Ah don’t feel all that excited neither, but we’ve done it before. Besides, Ah’m pretty sure Princess Celestia, Luna, and Queen Nymph can handle her just fine. And don’t forget, didn’t we promise Nymph to go easy on her?”

Rarity hung her head and sighed. “I suppose it would be best to value that promise. Maybe I’m going a bit overboard.”

“Well I didn’t make that promise, so the moment we find Chrysalis, she better watch out! I shall become Equestria’s hero a second time by getting my own revenge!” Trixie summoned her giant chainsaw and made it roar as she trotted off with her friends exchanging concerned looks.

Pinkie opened the door to the old castle and it loudly creaked as she made enough space for them to walk through. “Yoo-hoo! Chrysalis? Luna? Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Pinkie ran all over the area, looking over every room she could find. Shining Armor just remained silent, which she noticed. “Aren’t you going to say something? We need to find them!”

“Trust me, there are a lot of things I want to say,” he replied unfriendly. He approached the younger mare while maintaining a cold expression. “Pinkie, I still cannot understand what possessed you into keeping Chrysalis a secret this long.”

“I wasn’t possessed!”

“You’re missing the point!” he yelled, getting up in her face. “Don’t you care about your friends? Don’t you care about Cadance? What if she was just tricking you the whole time? What if Chrysalis did something horrible to them?”

“She wouldn’t! She’s my friend!”

He sighed in defeat and walked away from her. “You better hope so, or else Luna is going to be the least of her worries.”

“Oh yeah? Well you’ll see! She’s totally a good guy now! As soon as we find her, you’ll see how much she’s changed!” The prince ignored as he walked deeper into the castle. “Hey.” He turned to her. “She said she was sorry about your wedding. She said you two didn’t deserve anything she did and she wants to make it up in any way she can. I know what she did was wrong, but please go easy on her. She’s really upset about it and I don’t think she could stand you two hating her. She just wants to move on, you know?” He did not respond to her and remained on the spot as Pinkie walked up some stairs.

He sighed to himself and sat against a wall. The only thing he wanted to do was imprison Chrysalis as it was the safest thing to do. He felt upset that she was living in the same town as his sister and could have done something terrible to her without him knowing. Then again, why didn’t she? Twilight and her friends all seemed fine. How could she not have done something after all this time? She seemed to have the perfect opportunity to mind control them or something but she didn’t seem to do so. Maybe there was more to the situation than he thought, but the idea of being Chrysalis’s friend and forgiving her didn’t settle with him well.

However, he was scared of something else. He stupidly opened up his fears of what he believed happened between them to her of all people. Originally her words made him feel better, but now he was not sure of anything anymore. He didn’t want to go through with it, but he had to know the truth. He had to know what she did to him. Pinkie’s words made him doubt it happened, but remembering Chrysalis from his wedding day made him unable to shake that lingering feeling. Whether she was guilty or not, he didn’t think he could ever let go of that fateful day.

Suddenly, a shriek rang out from above him. “Pinkie!?” He leapt from his spot and dashed up the stairs. He found the mare standing against a wall while breathing heavily with a hoof on her chest. He ran up to her. “What happened, Pinkie!? Are you okay!?”

Pinkie shrugged while grinning nervously. “Sorry, I saw a spider.” She returned to her search as the prince slowly dragged a hoof down his own face.

“This is going to be a long night.”

Maintaining a calm expression, Celestia had been checking every room in the palace and asking every pony she had come by whether or not they had seen Luna. She had also been teleporting often to ensure she covered the whole palace in the smallest amount of time possible. However, due to the size of her home and teleporting all the way from Ponyville to get here, it was starting to wear her down. Knowing she was starting to feel signs of magical exhaustion, Celestia teleported herself to her room and laid on the bed. She wanted to get back to searching for them right away, but if she kept straining herself and was forced to confront either if she found them, she would be at a disadvantage.

She picked up a pillow and placed it over her head. How could this have happened? Not once, but twice did Chrysalis fool her. As if the last time wasn’t bad enough, now she had posed as a mare who got romantically involved with her sister, who was doing who knows what with her right now. Celestia wondered why she didn’t check her for being Chrysalis the first time she met her. She felt out of her prime and completely useless for letting the former queen run loose among her subjects for months. She couldn’t imagine how Luna was feeling right now and knew she needed to find her sister and be there for her. She didn’t want to think Luna would lose control of herself and go too far, but something like this would push anypony beyond their limits. After hearing of how she attacked the changeling, she could only pray Chrysalis did not cause severe damage to Luna’s mental state.

Celestia threw the pillow against the wall and laid on her back. Why? Why did this have to happen now? Why did Chrysalis have to show up right as she finished the talks about the changelings? If ponies caught wind of Chrysalis being Cherub, they would immediately assume she had influenced their government with her magic and granted the changelings citizenship, resulting in the ponies driving out the changelings that were coming. It would be almost impossible to undo the political damage and she was sure her and Luna’s roles as Equestria’s leaders would be called into question for being deceived by the same changeling twice, especially since they were friends with her alter ego Cherub. The ponies may be so afraid of Chrysalis if she had been exposed by Luna, one of them may try to assassinate her. She felt great fury toward Chrysalis for what she had done, but she would not allow any harm to come to her no matter what.

Eventually, she got back up. She knew she needed more rest, but there was too much at stake for her to do nothing. She wondered about Pinkie’s testimony and pondered if Chrysalis may have actually been reformed since she had not done anything with all the time she had. Of course, proving this to anyone would be an extremely difficult task given her species’s nature and her history, especially Luna. Thinking about her sister, Celestia vanished from her room, reappearing at another room in the palace as she continued her search.

Luna stormed through the Canterlot mines at an incredible pace. She swore she would not rest until that worthless bug had paid for everything she had done. After all this time, she had not learned her lesson, so she was going to have to beat it into her skull. Chrysalis broke her heart, so she was going break Chrysalis’s everything. She would snap off her horn like a twig to make sure she never hurt anyone again. She thought the form of Nightmare Moon would be enough to completely terrify her foe and to ensure she would never forget her lesson.

How could she have been so stupid? She had been actively searching for the changeling and she was right under her nose the whole time. She posed as her friend and even become her lover. The thought of that witch kissing her, touching her, made her cringe. She kept thinking of an image of Chrysalis laughing, enjoying how stupid Luna was for not realizing who she was. Luna would make sure to beat that smug look off her face this very night.

At this moment, she hated Chrysalis more than anything. She remembered the night of the royal wedding, where she learned that an invasion had happened without her knowledge. Luna still couldn’t forgive herself for that to this day. Her sister and her friends needed her help and she wasn’t there to protect them. It only got worse when those horrible rumors came about. After she learned to trust Nymph, she learned many awful things about the older changeling. Luna was absolutely disgusted by what Chrysalis had done and swore she would face justice. Nymph deserved much better than Chrysalis. Luna was going to be her sister and do a better job than Chrysalis ever had in her miserable life.

And after everything that had happened, Chrysalis had the nerve to attempt revenge by fooling Luna into loving her. This was the last straw. She was going to find that insect and show her the real meaning of suffering. No longer would Luna be absent in her people’s time of need or wait on the sidelines when something needed to be done. She was going to do this herself and become respected as a hero again. There would never again be anymore doubts about her. As for Chrysalis, Luna decided that a fitting punishment would to be to put her in a magical slumber for as long as she saw fit, where she would have nonstop nightmares that reminded her how horrible she really was. All she had to do was catch that stupid changeling.

For once, Chrysalis was glad she made herself hang out with Rainbow Dash. As cocky as the pony was, she really knew how to get her into shape. Months of rough exercising with her and Applejack increased her physical fitness, which was her only tool of survival against Luna. She had been running nonstop for minutes, getting nowhere farther from the mad princess. Wherever she turned, the alicorn would teleport there and attack. All the changeling could do was keep moving. As she ran down the tunnel with Luna on her tail, she turned and yelled, “Luna, stop! This isn’t you!”

“You know nothing about me,” roared the princess in her form as Nightmare Moon, “but I will make sure you will know what true suffering is!”

Chrysalis took a sharp turn around a tunnel. “Let me see Celestia! I want a trial!”

Luna appeared in front of her, causing the former queen to gasp. Before she could run, Luna jumped her and pinned her to the cold, hard ground. “You are guilty, Chrysalis! I will not let you worm your way out of your just punishment! Now that I have you, it is time for my sentencing! Any last words, you miserable wretch?”

“I just…I just…” Chrysalis then whispered something.

“What was that?” The changeling whispered again, so Luna brought her head closer. “Speak up. I cannot hear you.” She then heard a strange gurgling noise coming from Chrysalis. “What’s wrong with you? Are you sick or-” A large mass of slime erupted from Chrysalis’s mouth, coating Luna’s face. She yelled as she tried to pull it off her face with her hooves, only to have them get stuck. The princess yelled in disgust as she rolled around the ground. “You gross freak! That was a dirty move, but it won’t save you from-” A small portion of the slime landed on her tongue. At first, she flinched and tried to spit it out, but then she noticed it had a familiar taste. When she realized where she remembered the taste from, she yelled in rage, “You were selling your own slime as food!? I will make you pay, Chrysalis! Mark my words!”

Chrysalis sprinted away the moment she blinded Luna. She didn’t know how much time she had until the alicorn was up again, so she kept moving as quickly and quietly as possible. Overwhelming fear took hold of her as she kept running, finding no exit in sight. She also remembered how Luna said she was her only way out, but she knew she wouldn’t let her go. Chrysalis needed a plan, but she had nothing.

Eventually, she slowed her running and came to a stop, falling onto the ground. She knew Luna was looking for her, but she couldn’t make herself go because of how exhausted she was. What was the point of going on? Luna was the only one who could get her out and running would accomplish nothing. She was completely helpless, only delaying the inevitable. Luna would catch her and give her a horrible fate, no matter what she did.

Chrysalis pressed her face into her hooves, waiting for her fate to come for her as droplets of tears fell onto the ground. Why couldn’t she have been braver? Why couldn’t she have just told Luna the truth earlier? She should have listened to Pinkie and told her everything after they became an item. What had she done to the poor princess by continuing this lie? Because of her cowardice, she would never see Pinkie or Nymph or anyone she cared about again. Her life was over as she knew it.

She thought about Pinkie, her closest and most valued friend. Sure there were moments she could be somewhat annoying, but she was someone Chrysalis loved with all her heart. She thought back to the day when she was discovered, where Pinkie actually stayed to talk her into another way of finding happiness. She remembered her own stubbornness and pride refused to let her change her mind and she almost did something horrible to Pinkie. She could feel how terrified the poor girl was as she told her about what she was going to do to her and her friends. Despite that, Pinkie managed to stand up to her and made her see the truth of her flawed plan, no matter how hard she tried to deny it. Against all odds, Pinkie miraculously made a friend out of her.

Chrysalis’s eyes shot open and then she immediately slapped herself. Crying like a hatchling was not going to get her anywhere. Pinkie did not run away or sit there to accept her fate, so she shouldn’t either. She was so close to achieving happiness and she would not just let it all slip away. It wasn’t just her own neck on the line, either. If Celestia and Nymph found out that Luna kidnapped and tormented a helpless changeling rather than follow Equestrian law, Chrysalis was sure this would heavily damage their relationship, especially if they found out Luna was running around in the shape of Nightmare Moon.

Not only that, but if Luna went to the ponies and gave them what she believed was the truth, Pinkie’s life would be over. She would be despised by ponies everywhere and labeled with the worst possible names simply for trying to help her. She couldn’t even imagine what the other Elements would do and in the worst case scenario, the Elements of Harmony would be separated, stripping Equestria of one of its most powerful defenses. In order to protect the ones she loved, she had to stop Luna.

Chrysalis realized although she had no magic, she still had her ability to sense emotions. She concentrated and detected powerful rage a good distance from her. However, she caught a small tingle of something and concentrated harder. Underneath that powerful aura of anger was Luna’s inner torment. The alicorn was scared, confused, and filled with sorrow. The thought of her causing Luna this pain made her feel very upset. She needed to stop running and fix this mess once and for all.

Chrysalis paced around. Luna was far too upset to talk and only desired to hurt her. The only way Chrysalis could get another chance to speak with her was to either wait for help to arrive or to somehow force Luna to listen. Since no pony may figure out they were in the mines, she would need to do the latter. Pinkie had done it before when she was helpless against Chrysalis, so she could do it too. The truth was her only weapon against the rampaging princess.

The question now was how she would do it. It didn’t help that Luna took her magic away. She could try taking it back, but there was no way she could remain close to her long enough to take enough to defend herself. She could set up a trap, but what could she do with rocks and crystals? She had slime as well, but Luna might hear her producing it and the same trick may not work twice. All she had was her bare hooves. She realized that she was heavily trained in combat and that might be useful. She had no intention in hurting Luna, but rather using her skills to keep Luna from attacking her as she would try to force Luna into listening.

Once she had everything figured out, she took a deep breath, preparing for the worst. “Luna!” she called. “Luna, we need to talk!” She sensed Luna’s location with her emotions, feeling that she came to a stop. She could feel her come closer and Chrysalis felt her heart pound. Eventually, the princess appeared out of the darkness in her terrifying form. Chrysalis gulped one last time before approaching her.

“Do you now realize that you are hopeless? Do you now understand that you cannot escape your fate? I thank you for making this much easier for me. Perhaps I shall take a bit of mercy on you for surrendering,” spoke Luna before chuckling, “but I doubt I will.”

“I’m not surrendering,” Chrysalis claimed sternly.

“You intend to fight me? Ha! Just try!”

“I’m not going to fight you. I’m going to make you listen to what I have to say, whether you want to hear it or not.”

“Sorry, but I don’t intend to hear any more of your lies.” Luna’s horn glowed brightly. “Sweet dreams, or should I say sweet nightmares?” Luna unleashed her spell, only for Chrysalis to dodge it at the last moment. “What the-”

Chrysalis jumped and tackled her. They rolled around on the ground and Luna eventually pushed her off. As she got onto her hooves, Chrysalis jumped on her again, landing on her back and pinning her down. Luna struggled to stand back up and Chrysalis put her in a chokehold and had a foreleg wrapped around one of Luna’s to ensure she couldn’t stand, but the changeling made sure to not be too rough. “If you had found me out months ago, you would have been right about me about wanting revenge. I lost everything and I wanted to hurt those responsible for my downfall. I had everything planned out, using Pinkie to create love to fuel my magic and you to find a way to take you and Celestia down.”

Luna elbowed her chest and Chrysalis wheezed in pain. Luna tried once more to break free, but Chrysalis maintained her grip. “However, my desire to even the score has been long gone. From my time in Ponyville, I began to deeply enjoy the company of you and Pinkie and I couldn’t stand the thought of hurting either of you, but my desire to be queen was so strong that I tried to make myself hate you both so I could make myself go through my plans. This is why I broke off contact with you for so long.”

Suddenly, Luna teleported and appeared on top of her. “I must give you credit for your story telling, but it will do you no good here.” Her horn slowly became brighter. “This is the end for you.”

Chrysalis was terrified, but she continued her tale. “I was stubborn. I knew I cared about you both, but I could not accept it in any way. I got worse and worse, but then, thankfully, Pinkie found me without my disguise.”

Luna stopped channeling her spell. “What!?”

“That’s right. The first thing I did was try erasing her memory, but somehow, in some way I cannot explain, she was immune to my magic. Pinkie has known about me and helped me for several months. Pinkie is my friend and I cherish her.”

Luna stepped away from her, eyes filled with shock. Suddenly, she punched a hole in the wall, causing the cavern to quake. “I don’t believe this! She knew and said nothing, even after you and I ‘dated!’ I shall go deal with her myself!”

Chrysalis quickly sat up. “No! Don’t punish her for my mistakes! I forced her into promising to keep me a secret, so please spare her! I’m the one you should be mad at! Pinkie was just trying to help me!”

“Help you!? That gives me even more reason to punish her!”

“She forgave me for what I did and tried to make me happy! All she wanted to do was be my friend!”

Luna shoved Chrysalis back down and pointed a hoof in her face. “Your friend!? You are nopony’s friend! Perhaps you have deceived her just like you deceived me!”

“Luna, I did not deceive you! My feelings for you are real!”

“Stop lying to me! You don’t love anyone but yourself! I have had enough of this!” Blue magical chains shot out of the ground, wrapping around Chrysalis’s legs and neck, and pinned her to the ground. “As soon I as I’m finished with you, I will deal with Pinkie personally! I thought she was my friend, but she has gone too far! You shouldn’t worry so much about since you will never see her again!”

Chrysalis struggled as hard as she could, but the chains would not move. She tried using her magic again, but she still did not have enough to cast anything useful. Her plan had failed. To make things even worse, her failure now sent Pinkie into Luna’s line of fire, meaning she could lose all of her friends and even face imprisonment, which would be all her fault. Chrysalis continued trying to free herself, praying she could miraculous break free and stop the alicorn, but she was completely helpless. Realizing she could do nothing, she started crying. “This isn’t fair. This isn’t fair! Why must I suffer!? I changed into a better changeling! I tried to atone for my crimes, so why is this happening to me!?”

Luna lowered her head, gazing into her eyes. “Do you want to know why? It is because you are a monster. You fell from grace by taking a path of destruction and hatred and you are here now because you kept following it. Even after your people had been given something to hope for, here you are trying to take it all away just to satisfy your own needs by using me. You haven’t changed one bit, Chrysalis.”

Chrysalis remained silent as she truly looked at who she was against. After some hesitation, she spoke. “You think I’m a monster, but there’s one standing right before me. Maybe it’s you who hasn’t changed.”

“EXCUSE ME!?” Chrysalis looked to her left and Luna looked as well. In a crystal coming out of the wall, she looked at herself in her form as Nightmare Moon. It took a moment for Luna to realize her mistake and she suddenly back away. “N-no…I am not her anymore! This is wrong! I’m just using this form to scare you!”

“Is that what you believe? Here you are, chasing around a helpless prisoner, threatening her with violence and nightmares as she begs for mercy. Is that something the sweet and kind Princess Luna would do, or is this more of Nightmare Moon’s thing?” Chrysalis sniffled and looked away from her, continuing her speech with sorrow. “How is it fair that you expect everyone to forgive and forget what you did while I suffer your wrath? I’m here trying to make up for my mistakes and here you are making more of your own. This isn’t about justice, it’s about revenge. You blame yourself for being unable to save your subjects from my invasion back then and you despise me for nearly ruining your reputation. You want me to suffer because you suffered. The reason you have sent me here is not to imprison me. You sent me her to hide me from your sister because deep down, you know this is wrong. Maybe you should look into yourself before judging me.”

Luna slowly stepped away from her, frightened. Her image of Nightmare Moon steadily came apart, showing the frail princess underneath. “I…I…”

“I forgive you, Luna.” Luna quietly gasped as Chrysalis sobbed. “It’s my own fault that you’re acting like this. It’s my fault you are feeling this unbearable pain. Luna, I know I don’t exactly carry much credibility, but I need you to listen to me. Our moments together as a couple weren’t part of an act or evil plot. Pinkie set me right long before it happened, so it was the real me you fell in love with. I didn’t exactly create a fake personality as Cherub since most of the time I was just myself. I know you don’t want to believe anything that is happening now is real, but it is. Please, I know you are scared of how your subjects react if they saw me with you, but I can prove that my feelings for you are real. You can fix this by giving me what you sought out for so long: a chance.”

The princess looked at the ground beneath her, saying nothing. Suddenly, the chains around Chrysalis faded. As the changeling rubbed her sore spots, Luna held out her hoof. It took Chrysalis a moment to respond due to how surprised she was, but she took her hoof and Luna pulled her up. “Let us leave this place at once and go somewhere more comfortable to talk,” the alicorn spoke gloomily. She then teleported them and they appeared in Luna’s bedroom. Chrysalis watched as Luna covered her whole room with her blue magic aura. Soon the light faded and she climbed onto the bed, sitting against the bedpost and facing her open window. She looked at Chrysalis and padded a spot next to her with her hoof. The changeling got the hint and sat next her, looking at the night sky.

“I should probably disguise myself, shouldn’t I?”

“No need. The door is locked, the walls will block out any sound, and no pony will be able to see us through the window. We have complete privacy.”

“Oh.” They both watched the stars twinkle around the crescent moon outside. There were also some pegasus guards in the distance, making their usual patrols during the holiday.

“Chrysalis?”

“Yes, Luna?”

“I’m sorry. For everything.” Luna rubbed her eyes as she cried. “I should have never done something so wrong to you. I know better, but I was just so angry about finding out.”

Chrysalis brought a foreleg around her and the alicorn laid her head against her chest. “I’m sorry, too.”

Luna sniffled quietly as Chrysalis stroked her mane. Eventually, Luna stopped and they stared out the window for several minutes in silence before the princess looked at her. “Tell me how this happened. Tell me how you fell in love with me.”

Chrysalis brought both forelegs around her, hugging her. “You were always such a great friend, Luna. You always checked how I was doing, you kept trying to comfort me even I pushed you away, and you were just so fun to be around. The way you smile, the sound of your laughter, your unmatchable beauty, everything about you made me feel so good. I didn’t realize for so long that I was actually in love with you and when I did, it was scary. I wanted to be with you, but I knew something like this would happen. I kept fighting my feelings until Pinkie convinced me that it was well worth the risk.”

The changeling sighed loudly. “It was completely wrong of me to carry on this lie after getting so close to you. I wanted to tell you so long ago, but I was scared. I was scared out of my bloody mind that the moment you saw me for me, our relation would end for good. I knew it was awful to do this to you and I kept wanting to tell you, but every time I kept thinking, ‘No, don’t risk it. Just tell her later and enjoy just one more day with her.’ Please forgive me for my stupidity.”

Luna slowly got up from Chrysalis and got back to her side of the bed, continuing her watch of the outside world. “I am still a bit skeptical about trusting you, but I am willing to let you show your new self and prove your change of heart. I will talk to Celestia and we will work something out. You will have you chance, Chrysalis, so do not waste it.”

“Thank you.” Chrysalis turned her head slightly, seeing Luna’s calm face in the corner of her eye. “Hey, Luna?”

“You want to know about what will happen to us,” she answered.

“Y-yes.”

Luna moved herself down and laid her whole body on the mattress and Chrysalis did the same. “I loved every moment I was with you when I thought you were Cherub. You made me feel special and alive, but this,” Luna clenched her eyes shut, “this isn’t something you do to somepony you love.”

Chrysalis reached for her. “L-Luna…”

“No! Don’t even try to justify it!” Luna turned her body away as she lightly cried. “You cannot even begin to imagine how I’m feeling right now!” Chrysalis slowly retracted her hoof. “How am I supposed to trust you now, Chrysalis? Maybe I would have considered it if you told me sooner, but you kept lying to me for months. I feel like a complete idiot for not figuring it out after all this time. You took advantage of me and I cannot just forget that.”

“I did plan on telling you soon!”

“Not soon enough!”

Chrysalis watched Luna sob to herself and grabbed a pillow from under herself, holding it against herself. “So that’s it? We’re finished?”

“For now.”

“What do you mean?”

Luna slowly turned her body toward her, but she couldn’t make eye contact. “You are right about how wrong it is for to me deny you a chance to prove yourself when I had mine after being restored. Never before did I understand how difficult it was to trust someone who has done so much wrong.” She sighed. “Chrysalis, I enjoyed our time together and somehow, I feel like I believe you just a bit. However, I still feel upset with how you lied to me for so long.”

“So what will happen?”

“We’re putting this relation on hiatus. I need time to forgive you for what you did as well as determine if you are being truthful with me. I want to believe you entirely, Chrysalis, I really do, but you are going to work hard in order to prove to me you have changed your ways.”

Chrysalis took on of Luna’s hooves and held it between hers. “I will do anything for you, Luna.”

“There will be many things I will require you to do, starting with this.” Suddenly, Chrysalis saw a flash of light and then she felt something go on her horn. She felt the tip of her horn with her hoof.

“Luna, what is that?”

“If you value your freedom, I suggest leaving it alone.” The changeling quickly pulled her hoof away. “What I have put on you is a magical restraint ring. Don’t take it personally, but I would rather side with caution. It will keep you from using powerful spells, but you should still be able to perform telekinesis and shape shifting. Before I tell you what else you will need to do, I will require speaking with Celestia and the others.”

Chrysalis immediately sprang up. “Oh shoot! Our friends must be looking for us! I told Pinkie and Nymph to bring you all to Fluttershy’s, but we’ve been gone for too long. They must think I’m running away!”

Luna flew off the bed and landed on her hooves. “They may have even reported you to the guards! We better move, but let’s get you dressed first and have you go around as Cherub in case they’ve kept it quiet. We cannot afford you to be known.”

Chrysalis followed Luna into her closet and the alicorn pulled out her red and pink dress from a hanger and a box with all her accessories. “By the way, why did you strip me naked?”

“I thought you had taken Cherub and I wanted to keep it clean for her while leaving you in the mines. It’s very dirty down there.” With her magic, Luna instantly had her fully dressed and Chrysalis turned into Cherub.

Chrysalis approached a large mirror in the closet, pressing a hoof against it. “It feels weird wearing this form now.”

Luna stood beside her with a hoof on her shoulder. “I too feel conflicting feelings about seeing you like this now that I know what is underneath, but I will adjust.”

Chrysalis slowly nodded before put a hoof on Luna’s. “I just want to say how much it means to me that you are willing to give me a chance to prove my love to you, but what about your subjects? When they find out who I am and that you’re helping me, they’re not going to take it well.” She lightly squeezed the hoof. “I don’t want you to get hurt by me again. I couldn’t bear the thought of making you go through all that pain again.”

Luna sighed loudly. “That is very true. However, if we do end up continuing this relationship, I’m willing to take the advice a friend gave me once.”

Chrysalis looked at her, eyes filled with curiosity. “What?”

Luna smiled at her. “Buck ‘em.”

Chrysalis blushed and rested her head against her shoulder. “Thank you, Luna.”

Luna’s horn lit up and then she teleported both of them to outside of Fluttershy’s home. The princess looked around the area, seeing nobody around. “It appears we missed them. Perhaps they have gone back to the fair to tell the citizens about your presence.”

The changeling gulped. “They’re going to kill me.”

Luna wrapped her tail around Chrysalis’s. “Worry not. I will protect you. There is a chance they have kept your identity a secret for now, so let us just walk back and not draw attention to ourselves.”

The two walked away at a steady pace, both expecting the worst. Suddenly, a flash of light appeared behind them. When they turned around, they saw Celestia standing there. “Luna!”

“Celestia?”

Celestia stared at Chrysalis cautiously and lit up her horn, creating a barrier around the changeling. “Hey!”

“It’s for your as well as our own protection. I will let you out if I feel it is safe, Chrysalis.” Both Luna and Chrysalis froze. “Yes, I know who you are, and so do the others. We’ve actually been looking for you both for a while.”

“Let me explain!” pleaded the prisoner as she pounded both hooves against her prison.

“No need. Pinkie has filled us in about you, but I will deal with you shortly.” She casted a quick spell over her sister to check for mind control. Once she confirmed she was fine, Celestia hugged her tightly. “Luna, are you okay? We know you found out about Cherub the hard way and got upset.”

Luna rested her head against her shoulder as she embraced her. “I’m fine, Celestia.”

Chrysalis watched the tender scene before her attention was caught by the door opening. She saw Cadance and Spike run down the path, jumping onto Luna when they were close enough. “It must have been horrible to learn who Cherub really was. I’m so sorry you had to go through such an experience,” spoke Cadance, sounding very upset.

Luna held her foreleg out to include Cadance and Spike. “It was and I’m still recovering from the shock, but don’t worry. Everything is fine now. Don’t worry about Chrysalis. I have already dealt with her.”

“We should let the other know the search is over.” Chrysalis watched the area fill up with light from Celestia’s magic and when the light faded, there were much more ponies in the area. They looked around in confusion and each of them eventually landed their eyes on her. As she expected, they all became immediately intimidated by her with the exception of Pinkie and Nymph. Cadance ran to her husband and he held her and Spike went to Rarity.

“Celestia, why is my sister imprisoned? Release her at once! I can vouch for her cooperation!” spoke Nymph as she ran next to Chrysalis.

“I only put that there to keep them separated,” she answered when she removed it. “I wasn’t sure what had happened between her and Luna, so I thought it would be safer. With that ring on her horn, she shouldn’t be any trouble.”

“I guess there’s no need for me to wear this, is there?” Chrysalis’s horn glowed and her disguise disappeared. “Sorry you all had to find out like this.”

Despite knowing who she was all along, seeing her stand before them startled the group, but they were more startled when Pinkie pounced Luna, hugging her tightly. “We’re so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so sorry we didn’t tell you, but you need to listen! Chrysalis does love you and I can prove it!”

“Pinkie, I-”

Pinkie interrupted the princess. “She says that you’re her wittle pwecious star and that you shine brighter than any pony! She says she wants to be your love bug and taste your sweet love every day!”

“P-Pinkie!” stammered Chrysalis as the others looked at her in surprise with Dash snickering loudly.

“She doesn’t care that you dance worse than Twilight at the clubs! She says only you can make such awkward dancing look so cute!”

Chrysalis placed both of her hooves over her face as the pegasus laughed. “Okay, she really doesn’t need to know that, especially with all our friends here!”

“And one time, I saw her disguise as you and stare a mirror while saying cute things and she even shook her butt at it-”

“Pinkie, enough!” shouted Chrysalis as Luna looked at her oddly, both ignoring Dash roaring in laughter along with Trixie. “We’re just temporarily broken up.”

The mare gasped for as long as she possibly could. “B-BROKEN UP!?” screamed Pinkie before bawling wildly on the ground.

“What exactly do you mean by ‘temporarily?’” questioned Celestia.

Luna sat by Chrysalis and Pinkie quieted down. “Chrysalis has told me all about her time here and she wishes to make amends with us all. It took me some time, but now I am willing to let her prove herself to us. We are currently not officially together at the moment as this whole discovery has been overwhelming and I need some time to get to know her better before deciding what I want to do. If I feel she is not evil and truly sorry, then we will try to pick up the pieces. Anyway, Chrysalis has something she needs to say to you all.” She nudged the changeling forward. “Go on. It is time.”

Chrysalis stepped forward. She looked back at Luna, who firmly nodded at her, and she looked at the group before taking a deep breath. “Everypony, from the bottom of my heart, I apologize to the fullest for invading your kingdom. There is no excuse for my actions. I could have chosen other ways to satisfy my people’s needs, but I chose not to look for other solutions. I saw only making my own dream come true while leaving the rest of Equestria to suffer. I do not expect any of you to ever forgive me, but I want you to know that I no longer have any evil intentions and will do everything in my power to make things right.” She walked back next to Luna and sat down, staring at the grass beneath her.

What came next agonized her to no end: silence. No pony said something after she finished and she was scared of why, especially since she was receiving so many mixed signals. She lifted her head, seeing how everypony looked. At last, Celestia spoke. “Chrysalis, I accept your apology. It pleases me to see that an enemy of Equestria has been made into a friend, but your actions will not be so easily forgotten.”

“I understand.”

“So where the heck did you two go? Everypony has been freaking out!” spoke Trixie.

Luna immediately flinched, but Chrysalis spoke. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Everything is fine now. I know all of you have been worried sick about us, but it would be best if we forget about it.”

They looked at her strangely as Celestia stared at Luna. “So what happens now?” asked Nymph as she looked at the older alicorn. “What will happen to her?”

“A very good question,” said Celestia as she studied Chrysalis. “This whole incident has caught me completely off guard and with everything I’ve learned, I think I need to rethink my decision on how to handle her.”

“I’ve already decided what to do with her,” spoke Luna calmly.

“You have?” asked Celestia in surprise as everyone else looked at her the same way.

“Yes. I would like the input of you, Nymph, Cadance, and Shining Armor before carrying through with it. It is important we are all agreed on this.” Luna and the other leaders gathered in a circle away from the group, quietly speaking with one another. Chrysalis felt a weight in her chest as she stood there, waiting to learn what Luna was going to do with her. She seemed to not have anything too crazy in mind, but she knew there would be definitely more things she would have to live by. She glanced at the others, who all looked just as anxious. Chrysalis could hear Shining Armor occasionally raise his voice, making her wonder even more of what was coming.

Finally, they separated and returned to them. “Chrysalis,” started Luna, “after much discussion, we have all decided to go with my plan for you. If you do not agree, you will be spending your time in a dungeon and be given rather unpleasant tasks, so I suggest you agree to it and do everything I tell you. And if there is a chance you still hold the desire to get revenge, I strongly suggest burying it for good as it will only make things worse for you.”

The princess’s authoritative tone made Chrysalis even more nervous. “W-what is your plan?”

Luna cleared her throat. “First, as if it wasn’t already obvious, you will not be imprisoned.”

Chrysalis heard the rest of the ponies gasp. “B-but why not!?” asked Twilight in horror. “She’s dangerous and she can just get away if we don’t lock her up!”

“I understand your concern, young Twilight, but please understand. Chrysalis has already been severely punished for her invasion by Nymph and I see no reason to punish her any further. The other reason is based on her own testimony, Chrysalis is trying to atone and move on with her life.” She looked up to the moon hanging above them. “It would be hypocritical of me to deny her this opportunity.” After sighing, she looked back down to the group. “However, this comes with another condition. The ring on Chrysalis’s horn will only allow her to use simple spells as well as let us always know where she is, so she should be no danger to any of you.” The alicorn looked at the mentioned changeling. “Chrysalis, it may be sealed on you, but I know you have the potential of finding a way to remove it. If you dare remove that ring even once, Celestia and I will be there faster than you can blink and there will be consequences.”

“Y-you can’t be serious!” shouted Twilight. “You can’t let her run around, free to do whatever she wants! It’s insane!”

“Twilight, please,” spoke Celestia. “I know you’re afraid, but she deserves a chance just like Discord. You know how he turned out, so shouldn’t she be give the same opportunity?”

Twilight shrunk and looked away. “But…but she’s different.”

“Because she nearly tore you and your brother apart while sending Cadance to the mines, giving you quite a personal history with her.” The princess walked to Twilight and sat next to her, putting a wing around her. “Twilight, I know it is extremely difficult to accept, but Chrysalis wants forgiveness and I cannot ignore that. Would it be right if I were to just lock her up and forget about her?”

“I…I guess not.”

“We will be taking extreme precautions with her, I promise you.” She bent down lower and whispered, “I will never let anything happen to you, Twilight.” She then looked at Chrysalis. “I want you to listen well, Chrysalis. I am being extremely generous toward you given the circumstances, but my generosity will end if you do not do what we ask. If you dare threaten my student, her friends, my family, my kingdom, or the relations between the ponies and changelings, you will not win a second round with me.”

Chrysalis gulped at the sight of the angry alicorn. “I swear I will not try anything. Your student will be completely safe.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Now comes the next thing and…you’re not going to like this, Chrysalis,” Luna said while nervously tapping her front hooves together.

The changeling felt her heart sink. “Luna, what are you planning?”

“I’m afraid…you will have to live as Cherub for a while longer.”

Chrysalis flew right in front of her, alarmed. “What!? I’m sorry, but I do not accept this! You expect me to keep living like this!? I want to live my own life again, so how am I supposed to do that if I can’t reveal myself to the public!?”

“Chrysalis, calm down and let me explain!” Luna gently rested both hooves on Chrysalis’s shoulders. “As you know, Nymph has successfully acquired Equestrian citizenship for her people, so many will be coming here in a short amount of time. However, even with many citizens feeling ready to accept them, there is a difference between saying something and doing something. Conflict will inevitably arise and I’m afraid it is impossible to predict how far it can get. If they find out you are living among them and that we are allowing it, Tartarus will be unleashed and it may be impossible to control.”

Chrysalis’s ears flopped against her head. “So what? I just have live as Cherub for the rest of my life?”

“Of course not.” Luna brushed Chrysalis’s hair aside and stroked her cheek. “Chrysalis, I want you to live a normal life, but it is far too dangerous right now. You will need to wait until the ponies and changelings have calmed and grown used to one another before they will be ready to accept you.”

The former queen sighed deeply. “Great…”

“It won’t be all bad. After all, your form as Cherub will help things speed up. The ponies know your name and it would be much easier to win trust as Cherub instead of Chrysalis. What you need to do as Cherub is keep things under control here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Chrysalis, you were a queen, so you know how to take charge and handle stressful situations. I guarantee disputes between our species will come to pass here and you must do your best to diffuse them before they escalate.”

“I was already planning on helping my subjects adjust to life in Equestria.”

Luna shook her head. “No, you must help both the changelings and the ponies. Both will be tried to their limits and if one side feels too pressured, they will retaliate and if it gets bad enough, it may set off a chain reaction in other cities.”

Chrysalis hung her head. “I suppose it is only fair this is my duty since it was my actions that have brought about the fears ponies have about changelings.” She looked back at Luna with a determined expression. “Alright. I will be sure that both our subjects live in harmony using the best of my abilities.”

“But Chrysalis is just one changeling. How the heck is she supposed to help every pony and changeling in Equestria with their problems?” questioned Spike.

“She will only be working in Ponyville,” answered Luna. “Many changelings know all about Cherub since her event has provided them with so much love to feed them and Cupid’s Arrow will no doubt be a popular spot for changelings to hang around. Chrysalis can easily become acquainted with them and earn their trust as she has done with the ponies here. Speaking of Cupid’s Arrow,” she said as she looked at the ponies, “it would please me if you all could continue working for her.”

“What!?” replied most of the group.

“There’s no way we’re working for that cockroach!” argued Dash, causing Chrysalis to scowl.

“I understand, but please hear me out. Your service to Chrysalis has proven valuable in letting her business thrive. Keep in mind the more successful she is, the more love is made, which will be a great help in feeding any changeling living here. Not only that, but it would be good for all of you to get to know her better. She’s not going anywhere, so you better get used to her.”

The four girls and Spike looked at each other, uncertain. “Do we have to?” asked Rarity.

“No. We wouldn’t dare force you to do something you don’t want to do. It is just something to consider.”

As the others thought, Celestia stepped forward, yawning. “We’ll give you time to think on it. I know you all have a million questions about Chrysalis, but I am so tired right now from running around and I think a good night’s rest will do us all some good to let this all sink in. We will resume this discussion in the morning.”

“What are you going to do about Chrysalis?” asked Twilight. “Are you just going to let her go home?”

“She will be staying in the palace so Luna and I can keep a close eye on her, so don’t worry about her,” Celestia answered. “We’ll meet in Cupid’s Arrow tomorrow morning and discuss this some more.”

“Before we retire,” addressed Nymph, “we should head back to the fair. I’m sure ponies are starting to notice we’re missing, especially since everything should be ending about this time. I suggest going back together and wait for the fair to end before going home.” The group walked back toward the fair and Chrysalis walked with Luna and Nymph at her side. The queen craned her neck around her sibling. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Chrysie. I was so scared Luna would do something terrible to you.”

Luna quickly averted her eyes and Chrysalis could feel her high levels of anxiety. “N-no, of course not. I…know better.”

“I’d like to know what actually happened,” spoke Celestia, who came from behind. “Everyone has been looking everywhere for you both and we have covered everywhere we could think of.”

Luna flinched and put a hoof over her own face. “Sister, I…”

The princess knelt down and placed her hooves on Luna’s shoulders. “Luna, I need you to tell me because I was scared for you both. I didn’t know what to do and I kept imagining the worst. Besides,” said Celestia as she looked at the queen, “there’s something she wants to tell you and I think it’s time we’re all a little more honest with each other.”

Luna glanced at Nymph and then turned to Chrysalis. “We’ll catch up shortly, Chrysalis. I want to do this in private,” spoke the Lunar Princess.

“Very well. Please be gentle with one another.” Chrysalis walked away from the three rulers, shuddering with worry as she knew each was in for a nasty surprise. Before she took another step forward, she saw the other ponies and Spike except Shining and Cadance looking at her. She slowly approached them, nervous. “I hope you all can forgive Pinkie for this whole thing. It is my fault she never told any of you.”

Twilight shot a glare at the earth pony, who shrunk. “We plan on having a little talk on her priorities. I know she meant well, but there is absolutely no excuse for her letting this go on for so long.”

“She was being my friend,” defended Chrysalis.

“She’s our friend!” Twilight snapped, followed by a sigh. “I can’t believe they’re letting you run around on your own. This is completely ridiculous.”

“What about Discord?” asked Applejack.

“That’s different. He’s just an overgrown child while Chrysalis is a vile manipulator.”

“I take you don’t trust me,” Chrysalis said harshly in response to her insult.

The mare rubbed her forehead. “I don’t know what to think. You’re different, but I’m not sure how much of it I can believe is real.” Twilight looked up at her. “Why did you save me, Chrysalis? Why did you protect me from Time Turner?”

“I did it because I was scared for you. Believe or not, I care about you, Twilight.”

“Yeah right!” shouted Dash. “I bet she knew he was harmless and just changed herself to make it look like she got hurt by him! Heck, maybe she messed with our brains to make us think she protected you with that funky magic of hers.”

“Maybe she did more than that,” added Rarity nervously. “What about the relationships you helped create? Are those…real?”

Chrysalis could see in their eyes how afraid most of them were and cleared her throat. “Mind control is far too risky and taxing to keep up for such a long period of time on multiple ponies. Controlling any of you for so long would have been too dangerous, especially since you all are close with Twilight and the princesses, who would have easily noticed. In other words, your relationships are very real.”

The group sighed with relief. “Now that I think about it, why did you even start a dating service? What exactly did you plan on doing for your revenge?” asked Rarity with a raised eyebrow.

Chrysalis slowly turned away from them. “You’re all better off not knowing.”

She sensed the incredible spike in fear from the ponies with the exception of one. “Maybe she planned on making us act mean to each other for her own amusement!” accused Trixie as she got right in her face.

Chrysalis rubbed the back of her own head. “Right. Sorry about that, Trixie. I was ticked with how you were talking about the real me and I wanted you to get hurt. Forgive me for doing that to you.”

“Never! I will never let go of the torment of all the pain you caused Twilight and I! I won’t be around to keep an eye of you, but if I hear about you doing one bad thing to Twilight,” she stuck a hoof in her face, “it will be the last thing you do!”

“Trixie, please be nice to her,” said Pinkie as she stood next to the changeling. “She’s going to be our new best friend like Discord!”

“That’s scary,” muttered Spike.

Chrysalis glared at him, causing him to whimper. “Get used to it, kid. I’m not going anywhere for a long time.”

“That’s even worse!” countered the dragon.

Fluttershy walked to him, comforting him with a hoof around him. “Don’t be afraid, Spike. I think I won’t mind having her around,” she said calmly. “She seems so much different than before and I know Pinkie has made a real friend out of her.”

“It makes me very happy to see you still love Pinkie, Fluttershy,” said Chrysalis warmly. “I kept worrying about you two breaking up when you found out the secret she kept from you all.” She looked at the others. “What about the rest of you? Please tell me you have forgiven her.”

“Ah’m afraid we’re feelin’ a bit upset about her keepin’ a tight lip about ya,” answered Applejack. “We’re great friends, but ya just don’t keep secrets like this.” She sighed. “Still, Ah’m willin’ to forgive her since she seems to have done well in keepin’ ya in line. Ah don’t know why, but Ah sense somethin’ honest about ya, Chrysalis.”

“Not all of us are so quick to forgive,” said Rarity. “I love Pinkie as a friend, but this was incredibly dangerous. We’re going to have to go over the rules of her Pinkie promises and make some drastic changes.”

“Pinkie’s brain needs a drastic change!” argued Dash furiously.

Pinkie looked up at her, hurt. “But Dashie…”

The pegasus stuck her hoof in her face and turned her head away. “Talk to the hoof! I ain’t interested!” She got off the ground. “And you know what? I question our friendship!” Dash flew off in direction of the fair with incredible speed.

Everypony stared into the distance, stunned. “Don’t worry about her,” said Applejack. “She and Pinkie are tight. She’ll need a few days to get over it."

“I pray you are right.” Chrysalis sighed. “Her answer is very clear that she will not return to Cupid’s Arrow. A shame. She really knew how to keep ponies in line.”

“Well here’s more bad news,” spoke Twilight. “Spike and I quit, too.”

“But Twilight-” The mare shoved a hoof over his mouth.

“No buts. The decision is final.” She removed her hoof and Spike slouched in defeat.

Chrysalis sighed once more. “I’m sorry to hear that, but I respect your decision.” She turned toward Pinkie. “Before I forget, I should apologize to you, my dearest friend.”

“Apologize? For what?”

“For not listening.” Chrysalis knelt in front of her. “You were right all along. I should have said something to Luna sooner and you kept trying to help, but I ignored you and look what happened. I almost ruined your life because of it.” She immediately hugged her. “I will always listen to you from now one, I swear. Please forgive me for being so stupid.”

Pinkie hugged her back as her friends stared in surprise. “It’s okay, Chrysie. I think we both learned that some secrets we can’t just hide from our friends, no matter what. I’m happy the princesses are giving you a chance, so soon we can all be best friends.”

“I can’t wait. Maybe life here in Ponyville will be better with more ponies knowing the real me.” Chrysalis and Pinkie separated from their embrace. “So should I expect you back in Cupid’s Arrow when I reopen?”

“You bet! Didn’t you hear? We need even more ponies falling in love to feed all those changelings!”

“I’m so glad I can always count on a friend like you.” Chrysalis stood up. “Anyway, I would love to continue this conversation, but I need to speak with Cadance and Shining Armor to discuss important issues.”

“They’re up ahead, but we’ll be watching you,” spoke Twilight somewhat aggressively as the changeling went onward.

Chrysalis walked much faster than her usual pace and eventually saw the two ponies up ahead, who sometimes glanced at her nervously. When Chrysalis got close enough, she said, “Hey.” The both quickly turned to her. “Princess Cadance, Prince Shining Armor, please accept my apology for everything I have done during your wedding. You two ponies have never done a single thing to deserve my mistreatment of you both and I truly regret what I did.”

The couple glanced at each other, looking unsure, and then looked back at her. “Thank you,” spoke Cadance, “but I think we need a while to truly put it behind us. We still appreciate you trying to fix everything, though.”

Chrysalis nodded. “I just wanted you to know.”

“You better watch yourself, Chrysalis,” spoke the unicorn sharply as she stood defensively in front of his wife. “You will be watched under a microscope from this point on because of all those horrible things you have done. It will take more than-”

“I never raped you, Shining Armor,” Chrysalis spoke, stunning the two ponies. “I was willing to go to extremes to ensure my invasion was successful, but there are some things even I shudder to think about. I would not wish such treatment on even my worst enemies. We only went as far as kissing, nothing more.”

Incredible tension hung above the silence. “I see,” replied the stallion, unable to look at her.

“Sorry to have been so blunt, but I know both have been wondering for a very long time and I thought it would bring you both closure to know the truth.”

Cadance pulled Shining close to her with her foreleg. “I’m very relieved to hear you did not take advantage of him, but you still have done terrible things to us both and I’m sorry, but neither of us can forgive you right now and we would feel better if...you weren’t around us.”

Despite expecting this sort of answer, Chrysalis hung her head, hurt. “I understand. However, I want you both to know if I am willing to do anything you ask from me.”

They nodded and turned away, only for Cadance to turn back. “Actually, there is one thing.”

“Yes?”

She approached the changeling. “Hold still.” Cadance pulled out the tazer and stuck it in Chrysalis’s side. Shining watched in shock as the changeling was filled with an incredible amount of voltage before she fell on the ground with one of her legs occasionally twitching. “Wow, this is nice! Wherever did you get it?”

“Ca-Ca-Canterlot-lot,” Chrysalis answered.

“It was so nice of Rainbow Dash to lend this to me. I’ll be sure to get one before we go home.” Cadance walked away and after giving her one last look, Shining went after the princess.

Chrysalis remained on the ground as the ponies she spoke with earlier walked by, sniggering at her except for Fluttershy, who looked very worried. Soon Celestia came with Luna and Nymph and picked her up. “Are you all right?” she asked as she, Luna, and Nymph tried to contain their laughter.

“Fine,” she answered while brushing herself off. “I’m glad Cadance at least got it out her system before she found something worse like an axe.”

“She will certainly need more time than all of us.” Celestia then sighed and looked behind her. “Nymph and Luna have already confessed of what they had done to you, Chrysalis.” The princess and queen looked away as Chrysalis became worried. “It truly shocks me that two individuals that I care for deeply and who I thought I knew would commit such acts and I pray there will be no more surprises or anymore of this behavior in the future.”

“D-don’t hate us,” spoke Nymph, who was ready to cry. “We’re sorry.”

“I don’t hate you, Nymph. I’m just shocked.” Celestia looked at Chrysalis. “It surprises me that you have reacted so calmly to what Nymph had done, Chrysalis. I didn’t expect you to show that much restraint for something such as this.”

Chrysalis walked up to her sister and stroked her mane, causing the queen to look at her. “I love her, Celestia, and I don’t want to hurt her anymore.” They both then hugged. “We’ve been fighting for so long and I just want it to end.”

Celestia smiled faintly. “That is real mature of you, Chrysalis. Already I have a good feeling about you.” She looked at her own sibling. “And you have already forgiven Luna for tormenting you and threatening your very life?”

Chrysalis moved away from Nymph and to Luna, kissing her forehead. “Why not? I was much worse before living here, causing suffering for my own amusement and desire for superiority. She was just upset and I won’t hold it against her, especially since it was my fault.”

“If that is the case, then I see no reason to dwell on either subject.” Celestia motioned them forward and they walked along with her. “Already I can see how much you have changed. It brings me hope in believing there is hope for you after all. I want you to know that you can always come to me about anything, Chrysalis. I am your friend and I will always take the time to listen.”

“Thanks. Celestia, I never got to say how much it means to me that you gave my subjects a chance for this life, especially after my mistake,” said Chrysalis.

“It was a tough decision to make, but your sister convinced me. We will do our absolute best to ensure the changelings find a happy life here, but there’s only so much we can do.”

“I will do my best as well.”

“I know you will do a fine job, Chrysalis,” spoke Nymph optimistically. “When the changelings see how much you have done to help them get along with the ponies, they will surely see you for who you are and welcome you back to our kingdom.”

Chrysalis looked at Luna. “Speaking of me, what’s going to happen to the real me as I play my role of Cherub? Will I still be out there somewhere in hiding?”

“No, I have something else in mind, which we’ll talk about tomorrow. I suggest you brush up on your acting skills, Chrysalis, because we absolutely need to sell this.”

She gulped. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Luna leaned against her. “Do not be nervous. You do well as a performer, so it will all be fine, trust me. I have everything planned out.”

Chrysalis kissed Luna’s cheek as she returned to her disguise. “I do trust you, Lulu. You’re my friend.” The alicorn put a wing around her as they continued walking under the night sky, each looking up at the stars while enjoying each other’s warmth.

Eventually, the fairgrounds came into sight. Many ponies saw the group arrive and watched as they walked past, waving and saying hi to Chrysalis or any of the royals with her. For once, Chrysalis felt comfortable being Cherub, seeing how she made so many ponies happy. They soon arrived at the stage and Flim and Flam sprang out from nowhere. “There you two are! We need you two to wrap this thing up already!” spoke Flim.

The two brothers got behind Chrysalis and Cadance to push them. “Go and give them a speech already! They’ve been waiting for a while and we want to go home and count our money I mean enjoy this romantic night!”

Chrysalis launched a hind leg back and threw Flim several feet back, causing Flam to recoil. “You will never touch me there if you value your life,” she spoke coldly while walking off.

The changeling and pony made their way onto the stage and got to the podium as the crowd grouped up in front of them. Chrysalis went up to the microphone and said, “Everypony. Your attention, please.” The ponies quickly became silent. “I’m sorry to have to tell you all this, but the Hearts and Hooves fair is now coming to an end. We hope you have all enjoyed your day here.” The crowd responded by cheering, causing her slightly smile.

“Of course, this day did come with unexpected surprises,” addressed Cadance as she looked at Nymph, who waved to the crowd. “I’m sure many of you were just as surprised as I was to hear the news about the changelings, but I am more than happy to allow them the opportunity to live here as well as the Crystal Empire. These changelings will soon become your neighbors and even your friends, so please show them the love you show to other ponies every day.”

“As for the romantic kind of love,” started Chrysalis, “do not be discouraged if today did not go exactly as you wanted it to. There are always many more opportunities for you to find somepony special in your life. My services are available here in Ponyville, but I will be taking some time off for a while. Putting all of this together took a lot of work and I am so happy with how everything turned out. And now, this is goodbye. Thank you for coming, everypony, and Happy Hearts and Hooves Day. Oh, and for those lucky ponies, please use safety.” Many adults ponies laughed as the younger ones looked around in confusion. The two hostesses bowed as the crowd applauded to them. When the ponies finished minutes later, the crowd slowly dispersed from the area.

“I’m actually a bit sad I did not get to experience this fair entirely,” said Celestia as she and the others got onto the stage with the queen being accompanied by her four guards.

“I think what you and Nymph did made missing this worth it,” replied Chrysalis warmly. “Anyway, I guess it’s time for us to head to Canterlot, isn’t it?”

“Indeed,” answered Luna. “We shall head home and return in the morning to discuss more on the issue. I will do my best to ensure you all sleep well since I know many of you will have a certain something on your mind.”

“Thank you, Princess Luna. Promise me you will be…cautious with her,” said Twilight as she glanced at Chrysalis.

“Don’t worry your little head,” said Nymph. “I think tomorrow will be a much brighter day for us all, so get some rest.”

The seven ponies and dragon said goodbye to the ones heading the capital and as Celestia’s horn glowed, Pinkie suddenly zoomed right in front of the changeling queen. “Hey, Nymph! Before you go, you wanna try one of Cherub’s super delicious jelly doughnuts!? They’re amazing!”

Chrysalis and Luna quickly looked at each other and before they could react, Nymph shook her head. “Thank you, but I think that would be much too fattening for me.”

Chrysalis exhaled with relief, but one of Nymph’s guards took it and moved back to his spot near the podium. “I’ll give it a try.” The former queen watched in horror as he bit it. He chewed on it for a few seconds and slowly came to a stop. He looked inside the treat and slowly turned his head. “Um…why is this doughnut filled with changeling slime?” he asked loud enough for his voice being picked up by the microphone.

In a matter of seconds, the entire area fell dead silent and everypony from the crowd looked at the stage. The sudden change of the air left Chrysalis terrified. “S-slime? Are you sure?” asked Celestia, looking like she was about to faint.

“Yeah. Changelings can make slime and this looks and tastes like it.” The guard put a hoof up to his mouth, made audible hacking noise, and then spat out a ball of slime, holding it up for all ponies to see. “Take a look. This doughnut is without a doubt filled with changeling slime!”

Everypony loudly gasped and seconds later, complete Tartarus broke loss. Everypony screamed and ran around, trampling any unlucky pony or stand. Ponies ran to any stand selling the jelly and threw every product they could find onto the ground. Other ponies took the truth a lot harder and simply puked, whether in portable restrooms, trashcans, or onto the grass. Unfortunately, the sight of ponies unleashing their stomach contents caused many ponies to do the same. Within a minute, many spots on the grass were coated with vomit and the stench was completely overwhelming.

Celestia put a hoof over her mouth and took steps back. “You…you didn’t! Please for all that is holy tell me you didn’t do what he said you did!”

The changeling slowly looked at her friends and the guards, all of them looking at her in disbelief, and smiled nervously at them. “Um…I wasn’t lying when I said the secret ingredient is love.” Celestia immediately bolted off the stage, found the nearest bush, and proceeded to hurl. She was joined by Spike, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, and Trixie seconds later as they all found bushes near her with the same reaction as they were also huge fans of her treat.

Nymph watched as the madness spread across the fair and then looked at her sister. “What in the world is wrong with you!? How could you do something like this to them!?”

“Hey, let’s talk about that later! You need to help stop those ponies before they riot and start a mob after me!”

The queen scowled at her and poked a hoof at Chrysalis’s chest. “You owe me for this. Luna, go to Canterlot and round up as many guards as you can! My changelings will not be nearly enough to keep things under control!” Luna nodded and disappeared in a flash of light as Nymph ran to the microphone. “Everypony control yourselves! I know this revelation is shocking and very disturbing, but please calm down! Hey, are you even listening to me!? EVERYPONY CALM DOWN!”

Only the Beginning

“Doctor Whooves’s fate seems to be bleak,” spoke Zecora. “The end of this tale shall be discovered next week. Do not let this cliffhanger leave you feel sour. It is now time for Iron Will’s Power Hour!”

Loud rock music suddenly boomed from the radio. “And now, here is your host, the king of the ring, the bull in the china shop, Iron Will!”

The intro music continued playing for a moment before it faded. “Welcome to Iron Will’s Power Hour: the toughest radio show in all of Equestria! I know all you folks are excited for another weekly lesson to learn another fighting move from the master himself, but we’re changing things up a bit.” A gasp sound effect was played. “Normally we wait until the end of the show before doing the interview, but there’s no way I can wait with everything that’s been happening! With me is one of Equestria’s most famous ponies. A pony who shoots an arrow of love into your heart, or rip it out if you tick her off, please welcome Cherub!”

“Hello, Iron Will. It’s great to be here. Luna’s a huge fan of yours and has even taken me to one of your wrestling matches.”

“And what a match that was! The Macho-Taur thought he had me, but I showed him! So tell us why you’re here.”

“I’m here for two reasons. The first is I want to explain my actions that led to what happened two weeks ago in Ponyvlle and set the record straight. I would have chosen an actual news program, but those vultures slandered Luna and myself during the first few weeks of our relationship and some of their reporters follow me home, so they’ll get nothing from me.”

“Luckily for you, I minored in journalism in collage, so you’re in good hands.”

“What was your major?”

“Fighting!” roared Iron Will, followed by the sound of a crowd cheering.

“That brings me to my second reason. Two of my friends begged me to come on this show since you give tickets to anyone brave enough to come on. Speaking of which, I’d like to give a shout out to my friends Rainbow Dash and the Great and Powerful Trixie. Trixie, I hope you enjoy this parting gift from me and I wish you luck on your tour. Thank you for all of your services and you will be dearly missed.”

“What about you? Don’t you like watching two muscular guys wrestling in the most extreme way possible?”

“Under certain circumstances,” she answered dirtily.

One of the goats played a fire alarm sound effect. “Whoa, way to crank up the heat! Anyway, I heard you’re tough, and this show is for tough people only, so I won’t be surprised if you end up running home and crying to your mommy because of how tough and unforgiving I can be! Would you like some tea?”

“I would be delighted.”

The microphone picked up the sound of him serving her. “So Cherub, are you ready to step into the ring?”

“Bring it on.”

“We have a challenger!” The sounds of a cheering crowd and a bell being rung played for several seconds. “Alright, I have several subjects I’d like to have you tell us about. First up, we want more details on this changeling jelly you have been selling to the public for several months.” The minotaur cleared his throat. “Let me just say that that has got to be the ABOSULTE, MOST DISGUSTING THING I HAVE EVER HEARD OF AND YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED FOR DECEIVING THE PUBLIC LIKE THAT and we’re all curious of how you came across this discovery,” he finished in a calm and friendly manner.

Chrysalis sipped her tea and placed the cup back on the plate. “I am aware of how shocking it was to everypony and I am sorry for keeping it a secret for so long. When I first discovered its effects, I thought it would have help many find love and it didn’t hurt anypony. Well, until they found out what it was. Also, I needed the money to ensure my business survived and I chose to sell it out of desperation. I had a very rough start when I first opened Cupid’s Arrow and nearly became bankrupt. I just wanted something to ensure I was financially stable. Unless you’re famous like me, matchmakers don’t make that much money.”

“I’ve heard ponies doing desperate things for money, but that is really out there. From you have claimed, you acquired the jelly from a former changeling lover. Anything you’d like to tell us about him?”

“I won’t give his name since I wish to respect his privacy. I met him shortly after my wedding failed at a bar. I was a vulnerable, lonely mare, making me an easy target for him to feed. I caught on to him draining me when we kissed in my apartment, but I was okay with it. I even let the guy into my bedroom so we could…you know.”

“It’s getting steamy in here!” The goats played a wolf whistle sound effect. “So what happened during this ‘climatic’ moment?”

Chrysalis loudly chuckled. “I was depressed with losing who I believed was my soul mate and I just wanted to feel like I was worth something. The guy felt sorry for me and once we finished, we snuggled and talked. He was such a sweet changeling for listening to me and I was sad when he left. As an expert on love, let me tell you boys how important it is to listen to what we girls have to say. Listening goes a long way.”

“You heard her. Either give your girl an ear, or get the heck out of here!”

“About a week later, we met again and continued our relationship as strictly business. I gave him love and he gave me company every week.”

“This is certainly a fascinating tale, especially since you openly opposed changelings for quite some time. So where does the jelly come in?”

“It’s rather embarrassing, but I will tell you anyway. As we kept meeting, I wanted to do more interesting things in the bedroom just to forget about my marriage. One of the things we did was do it in a cocoon.”

“Wow! That is some kinky stuff!”

“Indeed. Something about hanging from the ceiling really gets me going. I suggest you all try it. Anyway, during our time, I accidentally ingested some and panicked. He told me about where it came from and how the slime was made while mentioning that it was harmless to help me relax. Somehow, at that moment, I got a crazy idea. I experimented with it by feeding to my friends in secret or even on myself and it produced rather surprising results. The rest is history.”

“Speaking of history, you certainly made some by creating one of the most disastrous holiday events in Equestrian history. There’s been rumors about you facing various lawsuits for causing many ponies physiological harm.”

“There were lawsuits, but my business partners Flim and Flam provided me with two of the best lawyers I have ever seen by having all of them dropped. I’d like to personally thank Flip and Flop for helping me in my time of need and I would recommend them to anybody in need of a lawyer.”

“You certainly dodged a bullet there. I think the strangest thing is that ponies are actually considering selling it.”

“I am surprised as well. Apparently, many scientists took a lot of the slime for research and discovered it was quite nutritious for ponies. Not only that, but a lot of ponies couldn’t give up the stuff since they still found it to be delicious. Many businesses have been going to the Changeling Kingdom to cash in on this, labeling it as changeling honey.”

“Eating changeling jelly? Pass.” A barf sound effect was played. “On top of it, your brand is still the most popular by far for its quality taste and having the most potent effect in bringing consumers the sweet feeling of love. What is your secret?”

“Now, now, Iron Will. If I told you, I could lose my sales.”

“Good point. Alright, you did pretty well for round one, but are you ready to rumble in round two?”

“Of course. I’m only getting started.”

“Great!” The bell played once again. “Our next two topics are going to be about world events that people are eager to hear from you. So during your Hearts and Hooves Event, it was announced that Equestria is allowing the changelings to live among the ponies from Queen Nymph herself. Many ponies seem tense as they await the first arrivals as they apply for Equestrian citizenship, many expecting the worst. What are your thoughts?”

“I must say it is still overwhelming. I still remember the days when ponies protested Queen Nymph visiting Canterlot and actually threw things at her. Even though I was fearful them in the past, I have grown to accept them. Now that they have a potentially unlimited food source, they will have no need to act hostile towards anypony.”

“I hope you’re right. Listen up, you bugs! The ponies are being really cool about letting you in, so if you do anything to threaten these great people who also happen to be my audience, I will knock down your door and…huh? I can’t say that on the radio? Oh. Well, let’s just say you don’t want to be in the ring with Iron Will!”

“I’m sure they’ll listen to your advice.”

“Anything you wish to tell the people about the changelings?”

“Yes, there is something, actually. I just want to be sure the word is out that the changelings will be given identity rings that they are required to wear to ensure there is no shape shifting done with ill-intent. Their transformations will be monitored by your local law enforcement where detailed records of what form they use will be kept. I’d also like to say please, show them some love.”

“What will Equestria’s future hold? Will it be peace at last, or an all-out royal rumble? Only time will tell.” Iron Will cleared his throat. “Alright, Cherub, you have made it to the final round! Now we’re going to talk about something that shook the entire world as we knew it! Something that every news outlet has yet to stop talking about because everyone is freaking out! A story so big that it nearly drowned out what happened with you! Do you know what I am talking about?”

“The arrest of the former queen Chrysalis.”

“Exactly! Even I was blown away by seeing her face on the front of my newspaper as I ran on my treadmill and lifted weights at the same time during breakfast! Of course, the princesses didn’t provide very much details about how this happened, but you’re here to give us answers, right?”

“Of course. I discussed this with Luna and she told me what I can and cannot say.”

“Excellent! Turn up the volume, listeners! We’re getting exclusive stuff right here! First question: How the heck did they capture her? I kept thinking they used something like fly paper.”

“Believe it or not, she turned herself in.”

A gasp sound effect was played. “WHAT!?”

“You heard me. Chrysalis willingly turned herself in to Queen Nymph.”

“Well I didn’t see that one coming. So why did Chrysalis do this?”

“Chrysalis came to Nymph within Equestria shortly after it was announced about the changelings. She appeared right before Queen Nymph and before the queen could do anything, she fell onto her knees and cried, saying that she was sorry. Chrysalis had learned a lot from living along with ponies and discovered the errors of her ways. It seems shortly before Hearts and Hooves, Chrysalis had fallen into massive depression because she thought her capture was inevitable and she just wanted to see her sister again.”

“But she didn’t buy that bull! We all saw Chrysalis in shackles as she was displayed in front of the public standing beside Queen Nymph and the princesses. So the good news is we will never have to worry about her again, so I guess everything will be fine after all!”

“Incorrect, Iron Will. She will be back and possibly be a changeling princess once more.”

A goat played a girly scream as the other fainted. “Tell me you are pulling my leg! That’s a joke we’d pull during our Nightmare Night special!”

“It is no joke and I want everyone listen to me. Yes, Chrysalis has done evil things, including turning the Changeling Kingdom into an aggressive nation, but she deserves another chance. Celestia and Luna teach about friendship and forgiveness and it was those two things that have brought you Princess Luna, who many of you remained afraid of for a long time. I know you are all terrified by the idea of Chrysalis being free, but we are doing our best with her. The former queen is happy that her subjects no longer have to worry about starvation and refuses to do anything to stop that. I have met her myself and I could see how sorry she was in her eyes.”

“You better do a good job with her before unleashing her upon us all. So where is she now? What will this bug do until she is free?”

“Chrysalis is locked down in an undisclosed location as the princesses’ top ponies analyze her to determine if she is trustworthy or not. She will also be given secret missions that will benefit Equestria while heavily monitored in order to work off her debt to Equestria. I know many of you out there are afraid of her, but I beg of you, just take the time to understand her.”

“Well I hope she doesn’t get out within my lifetime. Now why did Chrysalis agree to go along with this?”

“It’s because she has no other path opened to her. She can try all she wants to get vengeance or be the queen again, but it will do her no good. She has ultimately lost. All she can do now is atone for her crimes and live with the shame. I’m afraid it will not be easy for people to trust her once more and many people don’t understand in the way they should.”

“You know what would help her?”

“Enlighten me.”

“If she wrote an autobiography!”

“An autobiography? Go on.”

“I remember the day I heard about the changelings. I was completely blown away by the idea of bug ponies who could look like other ponies and eat emotions and to top it all off, nobody ever heard about them! I would have bravely ventured to the kingdom myself to learn about and maybe even discipline the changelings myself, but Princess Celestia kept the location confidential until recently. I want to know more about this bug who stole away the lovely bride in her mad conquest for power. You know what they say: know your enemy! And yes, Iron Will does like to read! Just because he’s a big, muscular guy doesn’t mean he doesn't like to sit by the fire with a good book!”

“I think you have a splendid idea. I’m sure Chrysalis will get started right away if we give her the idea.”

“I’m sure it will be a big seller, whether because people are eager to learn more about her or want to set up a bonfire! One last question, Cherub. Where was Chrysalis all this time? For almost a year, Chrysalis vanished off the face of the planet and even with the outrageous security shortly after the wedding, she remained uncaught while only making one appearance.”

“Chrysalis had taken up residence in a city with Equestria since she was banished from her kingdom while maintaining a low profile. However, we are not ready to disclose to the public of what identity she chose.”

“Well at least the worst is over. The bug is behind bars, so rejoice! I’m afraid that’s all the time we have for the interview. Congratulations, Cherub! You have survived and are now Queen of the Ring!” Loud cheering played followed by fireworks and a heroic song.

Once it faded, Chrysalis said, “Thank you for having me, Iron Will. It was wonderful being here.”

“And as promised, here are two tickets to my next match. We’re cutting to commercial break, but when we get back, I will teach you sad sacks some important self-defense moves in case you are unfortunate to run into Chrysalis herself, so don’t turn that dial! I SAID DON’T DO IT!”

Chrysalis couldn’t remember how long she had spent staring at nothing, but after taking a deep breath, she calmly walked on the grass. Despite walking this path multiple times, her legs trembled more with every step. Chrysalis paid no attention the many pieces of history that rested around her, focusing on what was most important to her. At the end of her path, she placed the bouquet on the ground and sat.

“Hello, Mother and Father. It’s me, Chrysalis. It has…been a while since we talked and I’m afraid I can only use this form right now. I guess you already know why that is.” She paused for a moment. “You must be so disappointed in me. I…made so many mistakes as a leader and I hate myself for it. I lost sight of what my role was and used it to better myself, not the people. I even refused to listen to your warnings of attacking the outside world, Mother. We changelings are not savage beasts and yet that was the first impression I gave to the world we feared for so long in pursuit for power and glory.” She closed her eyes as she struggled to speak. “Our whole existence could have been wiped out had Celestia and Luna not been so kind hearted. I wish I could take it all back, but I have to live with this burden for the rest of my life.”

She looked toward the palace behind her. “At least it’s not entirely bad for us changelings. Have you heard about what’s happening? The changelings are going to live in Equestria along with the ponies in peace. Isn’t that just amazing? Many of them are actually going to start heading there today. After living like this for countless years, a new generation has been born and it’s all thanks to Nymph. Sweet little Nymph has proven herself to be a marvelous queen.” She slowly looked back to the graves, grim. “But even with all this good news, we have still let you both down. You taught us for so long to not repeat the history of our ancestors, of our grandmother and her sisters, but we did it anyway. We both got greedy and tossed aside everything you taught us, risking the stability of the entire kingdom. We both could have easily worked together to ensure the changelings thrived, but we wanted to be the one who would receive all the praise and glory, no matter the cost.”

She took a deep breath before sighing. “I want you to know our fighting is over. I have accepted what has happened and I just want it left in the past. We’re sisters again, but sometimes I worry. Sometimes when she looks at me, only for a moment, I see fear in her eyes. I think I may have deeply scarred her and sometimes…I want her to leave me alone because I get sick of her presence. I think it will be a long time until are things are truly normal between us and I fear of everything that will happen along the way.”

Chrysalis wiped her eyes and straightened her posture. “I’m sorry for making this incredibly depressing, especially since we haven’t seen each other in so long, but I have some good news. During my banishment, I made some wonderful friends with the ponies. I have hated them almost all my life and yet here I am. I am only here now instead of in a dungeon because of my close friend, Pinkie Pie. She discovered who I was and despite me threatening her home and herself, she had shown me how wrong I was and offered to help me. Next time I will bring her so you can meet her yourself.” She produced a small smile. “I should mention that she can be a weird pony sometimes. Think of her like the most entertaining as well as the most bizarre jester imaginable with a heart of gold. She always knows how to make you smile and is a friend you can always count on.”

“Now for another surprise. Do you remember that old fable of Nightmare Moon? The one you read to us as little hatchlings? Believe it or not, she actually is real and her name is Princess Luna.” Chrysalis suddenly giggled, blushing. “I have met her myself and we sort of…fell in love. I know you both weren’t always thrilled with the idea of me being gay, but she makes me very happy and I wish you both could meet her and her sister Celestia. I’ll be sure to bring her next time since I wanted to be alone with you both. I should also mention that our relationship is…in a bit of rough spot because I didn’t tell her soon enough who I was, but we are trying to make this work. Wish me luck, okay?”

Chrysalis got onto her hooves. “I wish I could stay and tell you both so much more, but I must be going now. Your subjects are going to soon make their way to Equestria for a whole new life and I will be accompanying them. It has been wonderful seeing you again. I’m afraid it may be a long time until I visit, but I want you both to know your daughter is safe. Rest well, Mother and Father.” She slowly stood and walked away.

She did her best to hide her sorrow when she returned to the gate, where her sister waited. “Are you okay?” asked Nymph as she brought her into a comforting embrace.

“I’m all right. I just got a little emotional. We should go back before anyone notices.”

Nymph nodded and they began their walk to the palace. “I’m guessing your other visit will have to wait until next time.”

Chrysalis stared at the stone ground beneath her hooves. “I can’t face them. I think I may actually snap if I were to go there. Their deaths are my fault and I cannot even begin to justify how I…became their murderer.”

“I understand. We’ll just try again the next time you come if you do and we’ll get through it together.” Chrysalis was so caught up in her thoughts of guilt that she didn’t see the changeling waiting for them in the distance. “Oh hello, Hornet! What are you doing here? How has the cleaning been going?” He said nothing, only staring intensely at the unicorn. “Haven’t you met her already? This is Cherub, matchmaker extraordinaire! I’ve been just showing her around the palace as part of a personal tour before she goes home.”

He gritted his teeth. “Nymph, why the buck is Chrysalis here?”

Nymph’s charming smile faded and Chrysalis broke away from her train of thought, alarmed. “C-Chrysalis? I am not…”

Hornet slowly walked up to her, eyes locked with hers. “Oh? Then why were you at the graves of Queen Locera and King Scarab and giving them flowers? No pony knows them, so they would have no reason to visit them. On top of that, no changeling would need to disguise as a pony in the Changeling Kingdom. You are Chrysalis.”

Nymph pulled him over to her and bent down. “What do you want?” she asked in a hostile whisper.

“I just want to know what you are thinking. Bringing her here!?” he almost shouted as he motioned a hoof to Chrysalis. “If anyone catches wind of this…”

“They won’t,” assured the queen. “I am making very sure that does not happen.”

“And what if they do? This could radically damage the progress you have made, your highness! The Council could rightfully remove you from power for breaking a law you created!”

Nymph scoffed at him. “They won’t do that to me. I have far too much influence over my people now and they would never dare to remove the only royal changeling standing. Besides, Chrysalis is no danger to us.”

“They don’t know that! She needs to leave now!” He shot a glare at her. “Besides, we shouldn’t taint our kingdom with her presence.”

Chrysalis exposed her fangs and stepped forward, but Nymph held her back with a hoof. “I suggest you stop while you’re ahead, Hornet. And as your queen, I order to not mention this to anyone. I trust Chrysalis and I assure you she will behave. Things are different now and I will gladly put your fears to rest later.”

“And what about that little story you released about her turning herself in and being imprisoned? I gotta say that was a clever trick you just played on us. When the citizens of both kingdoms learn that you have lied to them and the evil Chrysalis has been walking among them because you allowed her to, I can’t imagine what they will do.”

“Hornet, I know what I am doing. I am no fool. I do not plan on revealing her until the time is right and when I do, I promise you that everything will be under control. Celestia, Luna, and I have considered this plan for a long time. You just have to trust us.”

“Fine.” He looked at the former queen and flapped his wings to get on her eye level. “If you are playing Nymph for a fool, I will be sure you will be laid right next to your parents very soon and trust me, your funeral won’t be open casket.” Hornet then made his leave by flying to one of the open windows of the palace.

“Who does he think he is?” snarled Chrysalis. “I may not be a queen anymore, but he has absolutely no right to talk to me like that.”

Nymph motioned a hoof and they continued walking. “He’s just looking out for me. He is right about what will happen if we’re caught before we do things our way, so he has every reason to be worried.”

“I guess, but I wouldn’t mind putting him in his place.” Chrysalis looked at her. “It’s probably best if I don’t come back until we have things settled. Who knows who else may catch on and one changeling is bad enough.”

Nymph sighed. “I suppose it is. Will you be okay?”

“I should be. Coming back here has been very helpful with dealing with I’m going through.” She playfully nudged her sibling. “Even I didn’t come, I still have you and that’s all I need.”

As the courtyard got closer, Nymph suddenly said, “Wait.” Chrysalis turned to her and saw that she was avoiding eye contact. “There’s one more thing I want to do before we go back.”

“What is it, Nymph?” Chrysalis asked as she walked up to her.

Green appeared on Nymph’s cheeks and she looked around. “Can we do that one thing Cadance does?” she timidly whispered.

“Thing? What thing?”

“The cute thing,” she answered, unable to hold back her smile.

Chrysalis immediately turned away. “No.”

“Come on. Just for me?”

“Absolutely not,” she answered sternly.

“Please?”

The older changeling sat on the ground and crossed her forelegs. “Drop it. It’s dumb and we’re not doing it. Get over it.”

“Pretty please, Chrysie?” Nymph asked in her sweetest voice.

Chrysalis could feel the piercing stare of her sister’s pleading eyes from behind her. She looked at every window at the palace before turning to her. “Okay, Nymph. I will do this just for you, but only this one time.” She stood in front of sister and they faced each other.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves together and do a little shake!” When they finished, Nymph laughed uncontrollably and Chrysalis blushed with a hoof over her face.

“Oh, that was fun! We should do it again real soon!”

Chrysalis walked away at an incredible pace. “Let’s never speak of this again.”

The queen caught up with her and pulled her back by her tail to put her in a headlock. “Oh come on, Chrysie. It wasn’t that bad. It was pretty cute.”

Chrysalis attempted to break free, but her sister’s grip was too strong. “It was childish, embarrassing, and if anyone ever finds out, I will just crawl into a hole to escape the shame.”

Nymph rubbed her hoof through Chrysalis’s mane as she struggled in protest. “Oh, lighten up. You’re too serious sometimes.”

“I am a full grown adult and I intent to act like one. Why you’re still allowed to behave like this as a queen is beyond me.”

Chrysalis was at last released and she attempted to fix her hair. “Phooey. I thought Pinkie would have more influence on you.”

Once everything was in place, the false pony looked at her. “Hey, it’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just I really would rather do it in private. I have a reputation, you know.”

“Oh, you’re no fun.” After some more walking, Chrysalis and Nymph eventually stood in the courtyard in front of the palace. Many changelings were still in the middle of cleaning the whole area by sweeping the confetti, tossing out any leftover scraps, and even wiping the words “Bumble Rules!” off the large wall that surrounded the palace.

“This place feels so lifeless compared to last night,” spoke Chrysalis as she watched the workers.

“I’ll say. My first Pinkie party and it made every other party in my whole life feel so dull.” Nymph rubbed her head as she looked around. “Did we really have stage out here for bands to play? My head gets foggy when I try to remember what happened.”

Chrysalis bit her lip. “I remember Pinkie diving into a gigantic cake and covering us all with frosting, but not much else. I got a bit drunk.”

“I doubt we will see another celebration as grand as this again, but it was certainly special. She’s quite an amazing mare to have pulled something like this off on her own.”

“Pinkie mostly certainly is. You should have her plan your next birthday.” They left the cleaning site and stepped inside, where the guards on duty saluted their leader. The entrance of the palace heavily contrasted the outside of the palace with the white floors and walls and had two curved stairways to the second floor and each was covered with purple carpet.

The sisters ascended the right stairway and faced each other on the top. “I will go fetch my guards and head to the surface. Go grab your things and have Luna take you up. We must not keep them all waiting.”

“See you there.” Nymph pecked her on the cheek before the two changelings separated into different hallways. The guest rooms were in the east wing of the palace and it took some time just to walk there since they were on the farthest side. Chrysalis eventually reached the end of the halls with two doors on each of the walls and a glass stained window at the end that depicted an image the current queen. The halls felt just as empty as usual, which made them a great place for her and Nymph to hide or have fun in when they were children.

She opened the second door on the left, revealing a room with a polished wood floor, a massive bed with green sheets and pillows, a large red rug, a wardrobe on the left, a dresser on the right, and the bathroom. She stepped inside as her roommate placed her luggage aside. “Welcome back,” Luna greeted warmly. “How was it?” Chrysalis flopped on the bed, pressing her face against the cool side of the pillow. “Did something happen?”

“I couldn’t pay my respects to the soldiers. I just couldn’t face them.”

Luna sat on the edge of bed, brushing her hoof across Chrysalis’s mane. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Chrysalis turned herself and faced her. “It would be better if we did so tonight. Now is not the appropriate time for such a depressing discussion.”

Luna lied down next to Chrysalis and held her. “There will always be next time, Chrysalis, so don’t feel so down. Remember what you told me before: We have made terrible mistakes, but the only the thing we can try do now is make up for them, so do not dwell on what already has been done.”

“I’ll try. Thank you, Luna.” Luna sat up and rustled Chrysalis’s mane, making them both smile. After a moment, Chrysalis sat up. She noticed that the closet was already empty and that her bag was sitting against the wall. “Did you pack my stuff for me?”

“It wasn’t any trouble. I just thought you could use a hoof.”

“You’re sweet.” She got off the bed and picked up the green duffle bag with her magic. “I’m guess I’m ready now.”

“Let’s see if Pinkie is ready as well.” They exited the room and Luna knocked on the door to the room across from theirs. “Pinkie Pie? It is time for us to depart. Are you ready?”

“Uh…just a minute!”

Rather than wait, Luna opened the door. “We are going to be late if you don’t…what is the meaning of this!?”

Somehow, Pinkie’s small room looked just as messy as the entire courtyard outside. The floor was littered with confetti and cake, many balloons stuck to ceiling with some on the floor, and Pinkie’s party cannon (which nobody noticed she had until a drunk changeling got hold of it and opened fire) sat in the corner. “Pinkie!” snapped Chrysalis. “This…this room is a disaster! We’re going to be very late by the time we even get halfway through it all!”

“I know! I know! I just need a bit!” She shoved them back into the hall. “Wait right here!” Pinkie then slammed the door.

Chrysalis and Luna looked at each other. “You thinking what I’m thinking?” asked the pony.

“Charge in and use magic to clean everything in a timely manner?”

“Exactly.” Luna created a magical glowing number three that counted down. When it hit zero, they charged in. “Stand back, Pinkie! We’re going to need…oh.”

Pinkie closed up her saddle bag and threw it on. “I’m ready now!”

Luna walked in and carefully examined the spotless room. She opened the large garbage bag and saw it was filled to the brink with all the litter from earlier. “Maybe we should have you help outside.”

“I don’t think they will be too thrilled to see the pony who helped make the mess in the first place,” Chrysalis jested while patting Pinkie on the back.

Luna couldn’t help but let out a laugh as she made the garbage disappear. “I suppose that is true. Now that we’re all ready, stand close to me. I will take us up top.”

They gathered around her but right as her horn began to glow, Chrysalis placed a hoof on it. “Hold on.”

“What is it, Chrysalis? Did you forget something?”

Chrysalis inhaled deeply. “Could we just walk outside?”

Pinkie and Luna exchanged confused looks. “Walk outside? I could just teleport us outside if you need something.”

“Please. I just want to walk outside the palace. Then we can teleport.”

Luna studied Chrysalis’s saddened expression and then nodded. “Very well. Lead on.”

They walked out of the room and down the hall with Chrysalis carefully examining the walls, carpet, and any painting or window they went by. Outside the hall they returned to the entrance and they descend the stairs as Chrysalis constantly looked around. The guards opened the doors for her and she nodded her head in appreciation. Right at the door, Chrysalis stopped and turned her head back before continuing seconds later. They walked out to the middle of the courtyard and the changeling turned back. She scanned her eyes across the magnificence of the obsidian palace and suddenly felt a hoof on her back. “This will be your home again soon, Chrysalis. I promise you that.” Chrysalis turned her head to Luna, smiling weakly. They then vanished in a bright flash of light, appearing at the mouth of the cave that led inside to Bugartha, where Nymph and many of her guards stood waiting, and immediately felt the cool morning air brush against them.

They had immediately taken noticed of their arrival and the queen approached them. “Ah, splendid. Everyone’s here. Did you all enjoy your stay?”

“How could I not have!?” asked Pinkie as she jumped around. “That was like the craziest party ever! I feel bad my friends miss out, so I should throw one for them and make it even bigger!”

“Count me out. I think my body can no longer take your parties after last night,” stated Chrysalis as she rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m pretty sure your cake contained enough sugar to hospitalize some changelings and your music was loud enough to wake the dead. You went too far last night and I dread to think of what else you have even planned for the next one.”

The earth pony zipped to her and rubbed the top of her head. “Silly Cherub, it’s impossible to go too far for such a super important party!” Pinkie pulled out a scroll from her bag and unrolled it, sending several feet of paper dragging across the dirt. “Besides, I couldn’t do half the things I wanted to do, so you would really miss out if you didn’t come!”

“Maybe the reason I didn’t let you do half of those things is because they were major safety violations,” spoke Nymph sternly. “Launching fireworks inside of a cavern is not safe in any way, skydiving is rather difficult when you’re inside, and I don’t think many would do well swimming in a pool full of cake batter. Things got out of hoof enough as it was last night.”

“She’ll be sure to remember that,” stated Luna as she helped roll up the list. “At any rate, Nymph, your people’s wait is over. Go and get them ready for their journey.” The queen nodded and walked ahead with her guards following. Outside the cave, a massive crowd of thousands of changelings stood at the outskirts of one of the kingdom’s outside towns with a large banner that read “We’ll miss you!” in bright blue words hanging from one of the wooden buildings. Many changelings carried heavy bags on their backs as well as on some carts that were design for air transportation. There were also numerous carriages provided by Nymph in order to carry the young and the elderly as they would not be able to make the long journey on their own.

When Nymph came into their view, the changelings roared with cheering. She waved to them with a smile as she made her way to Luna’s blue stationed carriage that had a crescent moon on each door with everyone else following. Luna also received praise as they walked by and some changelings even tossed flowers at her, some of which she took. She, Chrysalis, and Pinkie stood nearby as Nymph went to address the people.

Nymph held up her hoof, gradually bringing to the crowd to silence. She lifted off the ground, hovering high above her subjects, and spoke using the voice taught to her by the princesses. “My fellow changelings, today is the day we have sought for so long. For the first time, you shall enter Equestria not under any disguise, but rather as your true self! You will not go to Equestria to hunt or steal, but to live. No longer shall you live with fear or hunger, but with harmony.

“I know many of you feel frightened to leave the kingdom to live somewhere so far away and different, especially since we had to fight so hard to gain the trust of the people, but I assure you will be fine. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will be your leaders as you live within Equestria or Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor if you choose to live in the Crystal Empire, so please respect and obey their laws. They have worked with me for a long time to make this possible, so show them the utmost gratitude as they will do everything in their power to make certain that you happy with their kingdom.

“Even though I will remain here, know that I will continue to ensure you all live happy lives among the ponies by working with the Equestrian leaders. I wish all of you the best of luck as you live out your new lives and remember that the Changeling Kingdom always has its doors open to you. And now, please take this opportunity to say your goodbyes to your loved ones, for it may be a long time before you see them again.” At that moment, many changelings turned to each other, exchanging tearful hugs and goodbyes.

“I’m going to miss you so much!”

“You better write to me every day!”

“Have fun in Equestria and don’t you dare do something that will screw this up for the rest of us!”

“It’s so hard to say goodbye, sis. Even if you’re gone, I’ll still root for you while you’re in Canterlot. You’ll totally get that guard job!”

“Hey, isn’t that the crazy pony who made other ponies eat the slime?”

It was several minutes before the noise began to settle down. “Do not feel sorrow if you are leaving your loved ones or if they are leaving you,” spoke Nymph, bringing the rest of the noise to silence. “Feel joy that this is a new beginning for all changelings. This separation is only temporary and when the construction of the railroad is completed, traveling to or from Equestria will be a convenience, so this will not be your final goodbye. Now that you have said your farewells, only one thing remains for us to do.” Nymph’s guards flew beside her and many changelings began to take flight. “It is time for us to depart. We fly to Equestria!” Nymph turned and took off with her guards beside her, triggering a large buildup of the sound of buzzing as a massive wave of black followed her. Luna and the others stepped into the carriage and when the door was closed, the guards began their run.

As Luna’s carriage picked up speed and lifted up, they looked out the windows, entranced by the many changelings flying outside and Chrysalis gripped her seat tightly. Luna eventually heard Chrysalis’s loud, steady breathing and rested a hoof on hers. After a moment, Chrysalis relaxed and rested her head on Luna’s shoulder as they looked outside. “I wish I could join them out there,” Chrysalis said suddenly.

“You are here by their side and that’s all that counts,” spoke Luna as she rubbed a hoof on Chrysalis’s side. “Even if they still resent you, it was very noble of you to come.”

“I suppose, even if I only visited for my own benefit.”

Pinkie looked at Chrysalis. “So any idea how long you’re going to be living as Cherub? I can’t imagine what’s like to live as somepony else for so long, unless you’re one of those cool undercover cops like in the movies!”

Once she was certain the curtains were blocking the windows and the doors were locked, Chrysalis removed her disguise. “There’s no way to be sure, I’m afraid. It’s all about how we can remove their fear of me without me actually making an appearance. It could even be years before it is safe enough for me to reveal myself.” The pink mare slowly nodded and faced the floor. “Don’t be sad. It will be difficult, but I think I will be fine with the help of my dear friends.” A small smile grew on Pinkie’s face and Chrysalis sat up to look at Luna. “So what shall I do first when we return to Ponyville?”

“Greet the newcomers and make sure they know your name. It shouldn’t be too hard for you since you provide ample amounts of love as well as have a close connection to me.”

“Is befriending only some of the changeling population really going to help her?” asked Pinkie. “There’s like so many of them! We should just show everyone that she’s changed just like with Discord!”

The princess shook her head. “I wish it was that simple, but Chrysalis is very vulnerable compared to Discord. We must make absolutely sure the time is right before doing anything as it could easily put her life in danger. I am afraid that is all we can do at this time. It isn’t just about having people forgive her, but them not fearing her. If these changelings have a positive personal experience with her like several ponies do already, it will help immensely in the long run.”

“But that could be forever!” Pinkie leaned forward and gave her changeling friend a crushing hug. “I bet poor Chrysie already misses her home!”

Luna made a great effort to withhold her laughter as Chrysalis tried prying off the pony. “I’m sorry, but there isn’t much we can do about it. We must focus on helping the changelings fully settle before we attempt anything with Chrysalis.”

“Isn’t there anything we can do?” asked Pinkie with some desperation in her voice.

“You could try letting go of me as a start.” Pinkie at last released her and Chrysalis brushed herself off. “You’re already doing enough and I couldn’t ask for more. We can worry about it later. Right now, we should focus on giving these changelings the warm welcome they deserve.”

“You got it! So what do you want to do after that?” questioned Pinkie. “A private party!?”

Chrysalis placed her hooves behind her head and kicked up her legs onto the seat across from her. “I would like to have a nice quiet dinner at home with all of you later in the week, but you may want to think on what you want to eat. I’ve been having a sudden craving for sushi lately and I intend to satisfy that desire.”

"I like sushi!” Pinkie stated as she licked her lips.

“The thing is, Pinkie, that I like mine with raw fish. Fortunately, some of Luna’s chefs know how to make some rolls for whenever a political figure from the Gryphon Kingdom comes by. I just want to have a nice night where we can take it easy and have fun. Tomorrow, I will be staying in Canterlot to spend time with Nymph before she returns to Bugartha, so you won’t see much of me for a while.”

Pinkie nodded and then took a peek outside the window. After a moment, she looked at Chrysalis again with a colossal grin. “And after that, do you know what that means!?”

“No.”

She sprung onto her hooves and grabbed Chrysalis’s head, pressing it against her own. “We get to work again, only with changelings to help! I’m so excited! Are you excited!?”

“Pinkie, what have I said about personal space?” The mare moved back to her spot, still smiling at her. “As for your question, I am indeed excited. I guarantee it will be most interesting to deal with our changeling clients, especially if they decide to give ponies a try.”

“Without all the secrecy, I hope.” Chrysalis visibly flinched and before she could say something, Luna pulled out a bouquet of flowers from behind herself. “Please forgive me for my comment. I know you’re truly sorry. Your people threw me a gift and I thought you would like them. You’re kind of a unique flower yourself, Chrysalis.”

Chrysalis took bouquet of flowers that came in a variety of colors, taking in their scent. “So is she a flower because she smells nice?” asked Pinkie happily.

“I was hoping she meant that I was pretty and she wanted to pollinate me.”

Luna covered her face with her hoof, laughing to herself. “Must you make a dirty remark about everything?”

“I can’t help it. Why don’t you help me wash away the filth? I’m a very dirty girl and I require a special method to get clean.” Chrysalis’s and Luna’s faces were less than an inch apart, each of them giving the other a dirty smile as Pinkie giggled madly. Luna gently pushed her back and Chrysalis looked at the flowers. “Joking aside, thank you for the flowers, Luna. They are beautiful.”

Pinkie glanced at the flowers, then at her bag, then at Luna and Chrysalis, then her bag again, and then finally her friends, smiling. “You know what goes great with flowers?”

“Do tell,” Chrysalis replied.

“Chocolate, of course!”

Both of the older mares stared at her hungrily. “Chocolate?” they asked at once.

“Yeah! Nymph gave me a whole bunch of chocolate and some really shiny things for being such a good friend of Chrysalis! They’re like those chocolate coins, but they’re huge bars! You two want one? Chocolate goes great with everything!”

“Just chocolate bars for that?” Chrysalis muttered to herself. “That doesn’t sound quite like her.”

“We would be most honored if you could share your treats with us,” Luna answered. Pinkie reached into her bag and pulled out what looked like three large gold bars and gave one to each of her friends, who immediately noticed something off. “What is this? Young Pinkie, this is real gold!”

The earth pony shrugged as she stared hungrily at the metal. “I never heard of that brand! I guess it’s only from the Changeling Kingdom. I bet it’s super tasty since Nymph gave me plenty!”

As Pinkie looked over the bar to find where to pull off the wrapper, Luna opened her friend’s bag, gasping in amazement. “This is all gold bars and jewelry! This has to be worth a fortune!”

Chrysalis reached down and pulled out a golden chain necklace with an emerald butterfly on it, dangling it in front of her own eyes. “These are from the royal family’s vault. It is the only explanation of where Nymph acquired such wealth.”

“She gave Pinkie all that!? I must say she has quite the way of expressing her gratitude!”

“It’s not a big deal. This is just a drop in the bucket to what we own. I should have known she would have rewarded her like this. She just couldn’t stop thanking Pinkie back then and nearly crushed her spine with hugs several times, so it’s no surprise she would be so generous in her reward.” She gently lowered the necklace back into the bag. “I planned on rewarding her with something similar, but it seems my sister has beaten me to the punch. Promise me you will always treasure these gifts, Pinkie. Some of this jewelry has been in my family for generations and you have certainly done enough to deserve WHAT IN TARTARUS ARE YOU DOING!?”

Luna looked back up from the bag, gasping loudly. “Pinkie, give me that!”

Pinkie pulled away as she continued biting the bar. “It’s mine! Get your own!”

“That’s not chocolate! That’s actually metal! You’ll hurt yourself trying to eat it!” warned the princess.

“Go away! The golden deliciousness is all mine!”

Luna lunged toward her, but Pinkie hopped out of the way, landing on top of Chrysalis’s head. “Pinkie, enough fooling around! Give us the gold before I make you!” threatened the changeling.

“This is my only food! I will die from starvation if I don’t eat it because Equestria is really, really far away!” Chrysalis reached up for her, but Pinkie dashed behind Luna.

“Pinkie, stop this foolishness! Give it to us at once! It is for you own good!” The earth pony quickly jumped back to her seat to avoid Luna. Even with two-on-one in a small, enclosed space, catching Pinkie proved to be an extremely difficult task and they spent some time running around the carriage as they tried to save their friend from a sudden visit to the dentist.

When they crossed the Equestrian border, groups of changelings eventually broke off from the main swarm, heading to the various cities they chose to live at when they applied for their citizenship. They eventually arrived at Canterlot with less than half of the changelings remaining and many ponies in the city held a large welcoming party led by Celestia in the courtyard of the palace and the citizens were more than happy to greet Equestria’s newest citizens. Soon after their arrival, the changelings were ready to depart again, some already heading in a different direction while the group that remained with their queen made their way to Ponyville. Celestia chose to remain in Canterlot to help keep the people at ease and waved farewell when they took to the skies. Tired of the cramped carriage, Luna decided to fly along with them.

The flight to Ponyville was a short one and they landed at the outskirts of town, where a welcoming party was created for them with a majority of the town waiting for them. Once the carriage with Chrysalis and Pinkie landed, the door was opened and Pinkie immediately leapt out, landing on Fluttershy in a loving embrace. Everyone laughed and Twilight looked at her assistant. “Alright, Pinkie tackling Fluttershy. You can mark it off the list, Spike.”

He stroke a mark on the paper with his quill. “Got it.”

“Hi, Fluttershy! I missed you so much! Did you miss me!?”

“As much as I…miss…air,” she replied with tremendous struggle.

Pinkie released her from her death grip of a hug. “Sorry. I just got so excited when I saw you! It’s been forever since we saw each other and I was going bananas thinking about you!”

“You left yesterday morning,” reminded Spike as he tucked the scroll away.

Pinkie zoomed right in front of him and leaned over the dragon. “Do you have any idea how long that is in love time!? That’s like a million billion years!”

“We’re glad to see yall, too,” said Applejack with a smirk. “How was home for ya, Cherub? Was it worth the trip?”

Chrysalis stepped out of the carriage and stretched. “It was nice, especially with everyone in high spirits. I already miss it, but I think I’ll feel better about living here now that I have left it on my own terms.” She looked over to the side and saw Nymph and Luna approach the large crowd of ponies with the changelings following. “How is everypony doing here?”

“Fine, but a lot of them are still totally freaked,” answered Rainbow Dash as she and the rest watched. “The mayor said we’re getting like a few hundred changelings moving in, so a lot of ponies have been feeling antsy since yesterday. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m pretty sure a lot ponies still don’t trust them.”

“It will pass with time. After all, they’ve tolerated living with Discord, so I’m sure a bunch of changelings shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” added Rarity. “Speaking of which, where is he? This seems like something he would rudely involve himself in.”

“I don’t know. He said he’d be here and say hello,” said Fluttershy as she looked around. “I told him to be nice and he said he would be sure to give them a proper greeting.”

“If he crosses the line just once, I’ll make him into a nice rug, which I will gladly set on fire,” threatened the changeling, generating a shocked reaction from Fluttershy.

“We’ll try to keep an eye on him,” said Twilight with a bit of worry. “Anyway, you two had a long flight, so come and grab a bite. A lot of ponies helped prepare some great food.”

“Sounds great! I’ve been starving for almost the whole trip,” exclaimed Pinkie as she rubbed her stomach.

“You don’t say,” Chrysalis replied with a smirk, eyeing the heavy bag the mare was carrying.

They headed toward the crowd and witnessed Luna and Nymph speaking with the mayor. “Don’t tell me all these changelings came to live in Ponyville! I’m sorry, your highnesses, but we don’t have nearly enough housing for this many!”

“Relax, Mayor,” spoke Luna. “Only some of them will be staying here. The rest are merely catching their breath before they continue their journey.”

“Oh, well that’s a relief. As the mayor of Ponyville, I welcome you all to our town! Come on and enjoy some refreshments made by our very own citizens!” The mayor walked over to the crowd of ponies, standing by many picnic tables with some entirely covered with various foods and balloons tied to the sides. “Okay, everypony. Here are our new neighbors. Come on and say hello!”

Several ponies and changelings slowly approached each other, nervously greeting one another. They were some talking to each other already, but the rest merely avoided eye contact or struggled to come up with something to talk about. “Do not feel so timid,” said Luna. “You will be seeing each other much more often, so you should get comfortable with one another.”

Realizing they were getting nowhere, Applejack knelt by her sister. “Why don’t ya and yar friends be polite and say hello?”

Nodding, Apple Bloom stepped forward with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo beside her. “Howdy!” she called as they waved to them. “We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders and really happy to meet ya’ll!”

“Are you living here too, Ms. Queen?” asked Sweetie Belle as she looked up at the royal changeling in awe.

Nymph shook her head. “No, I will be remaining in my kingdom. I am only here to escort my subjects.”

“Well, welcome anyway! It’s really cool to have changelings live here,” said Scootaloo.

“Oh! Oh! Could one of you turn into me?” asked Sweetie Belle. One changeling immediately took her form and the Crusaders gasped. “That’s so cool! Having changelings for friends will be the best!”

“We even made a welcomin’ banner to make you all feel at home here! Ya’ll really like it, Ms. Queenie!” spoke Apple Bloom, beaming with joy.

“How wonderful. I would love to see it.”

The Crusaders rushed to the rolled up banner that hung between two trees and each placed a hoof on the rope. “Uh, Sweetie Belle?” asked Rarity with a hint of worry in her voice. “You didn’t mention that you and your friends were working on a banner to me.”

“Me neither,” spoke Applejack with a suspicious look.

“That’s cause we wanted to do it all by ourselves so it’d be specialer!” said Apple Bloom. “We had trouble with the spellin’, but it totally looks amazing!” They pulled it down and the banner unrolled. “Ta-da!” The three fillies wore huge smiles until many gasps were heard, causing them to look up. It was evident to everyone that they made a lot of effort in making it as seen by the paint that crossed out incorrect letters in the word “changelings” and the fresh wet paint from their corrections as well as various doodles ended up covering some of the letters when they rolled it up, leaving the only visible message “Welcome ha g !”

“HAG!?” roared Nymph, causing everyone to recoil. “YOU THINK I’M A HAG!?”

“Apple Bloom!” shouted Applejack. “What in tarnation is this!?”

“Oh no! Our banner got ruined!” Apple Bloom immediately glared at Scootaloo, “Ah told ya paintin’ a rainbow around the word changelin’s was a dumb idea!”

“Rainbows are awesome because Rainbow Dash is awesome!” Scootaloo countered. “It was fine until somepony decided to draw that thing riding it at the last minute!”

“Humans are pretty and I wanted the changelings to feel pretty! It was totally necessary!” argued Sweetie Belle.

The three fillies glared at each before they looked back at Queen Nymph, who remained fixed on the banner as she grinded her teeth. Apple Bloom took a cup of punch from a table and they ran in front of her. “Uh…welcome to Ponyville!” She held it up to the changeling and they grinned innocently.

Everyone waited in anxious silence as they watched the queen, who slowly turned her gaze to the ponies in front of her. Suddenly, they heard loud snickering that evolved into full blown laughter coming from Chrysalis. “This amuses you!?” asked Nymph, incredibly hostile.

“Of course it does. Such a hilarious message from an honest mistake, not to mention your reaction was absolutely priceless.” She walked up next to her and patted the queen on her back. “There’s no need to be riled up over it. They’re only children and it’s not like they intended it. Just forget about it and relax.”

Out of the corner of Nymph’s eye, she could see everybody staring at her, causing her to sigh. “I suppose you’re right.” She looked up at the banner, smiling mischievously. “Besides, I may actually keep it and give it to my sister. It would help her feel at home where she currently resides, wouldn’t you agree?”

A lot of ponies and changelings laughed in response and Chrysalis felt incredibly embarrassed. “Hey, now,” she muttered.

“I was merely jesting. She would definitely take offense.” Nymph glanced at her sister, who quickly stuck her tongue out. “Anyway, I deeply appreciate the effort all of you have put to welcome my people into your home. Let us feast and celebrate this day!”

Nymph and her subjects walked over to the tables and grabbed a seat while collecting plates full of food. Chrysalis walked over to Luna as the rest of their friends went to eat, two of which were giving an earful to the Crusaders. Once everyone was out of earshot, Luna spoke. “So far, so good.”

“Aside from that little incident, I have to agree.” The sight of the two species eating together caused her to smile. “I have lived a very long life and not once did I think this could be possible.”

“We’ve come a long way.”

“We have.” Chrysalis took Luna’s hoof, looking at her. “Let’s hope it lasts.”

Luna lifted the changeling’s hoof and kissed it, making them both blush. “I’m more concerned about what your future will hold.”

“I’m not that worried at all.”

“Really?”

“Really.” She waved a hoof in front of them. “I mean if something like this can happen, anything’s possible. Besides, my Lulu will protect me.”

The princess brought her wing around her and Chrysalis pressed her body against her. At the tables, many changelings and ponies were already mingling, some sharing laughs, two hoof wresting, and even some children playing tag. “It’s going to be very interesting from now on.”

“I’ll say. At least I’ll look normal compared to these new guys.”

Luna smirked. “That may be so, Discord, but they…” She immediately looked to her left and saw Discord’s smiling face right up at her own, causing her to gasp and back away. “Discord, don’t do that!”

He let out a laugh as he got onto his feet. “Don’t do what? Come and greet my new neighbors? As the town god, I feel it is my responsibility to personally get to know every sucker…I mean every person who moves here, especially since you and Celestia have worked so hard to bring them here. Speaking of which, I should go and personally meet them!”

“No, wait!”

Discord teleported right near the crowd and leaned over them with his height doubled. “Hello, new neighbors!”

Many changelings immediately screamed with many hiding under the tables and the rest too afraid to move. “By the queen’s crown, what is that bloody thing!?” cried a changeling mare.

“Fear not, fore I am merely Discord, a simple LORD OF CHAOS!” he finished with a glorious voice that echoed across the area as he flexed his muscles.

“You’re what?” asked another changeling.

Discord snapped his claw and a megaphone appeared in his paw. “I said I am Discord, the LORD OF CHOAS!” he repeated with a voice that blew against the people with incredible force with some falling over and food flying across the area. “I’m your new neighbor! Aren’t you all excited!?”

Luna flew over to his side, snatching the megaphone and hurling it into the distance. “Please excuse our troublesome friend here,” she said angrily. “Discord is a draconequus and is quite powerful with his magic, but I assure you that we have him under control.”

“Mostly,” Discord said with a smile.

“Mostly,” Luna repeated with a frown. “I promise you that he will cause you all no harm, but be warned he will most likely cause you great annoyance. It’s what he does.”

“Hey, you can’t blame me for who I am!” he shouted, clearly offended. “Wasn’t this whole changeling thing about accepting people for who they are?”

“Except they don’t do it on purpose to annoy people.” She glared at Discord and he blew a raspberry in return. “Anyway, try not to mind him so much. He does everything merely for attention. If he does cause you trouble, please report it to young Twilight Sparkle here. She will gladly send a message to Celestia or myself so that we may discipline him. Speaking of which,” said Luna as she grabbed Discord’s ear with her magic, causing him to grunt. “Excuse us.” She walked away with Discord following as the people resumed eating. “Discord, did you really have to scare them!? Most of them are already nervous!”

He stood straight up and rubbed his ear with his paw with his body returned to normal size. “You’re overreacting!” he claimed joyfully. “They’re all totally fine! Besides, how were you planning on introducing me anyway? With a song and dance?”

Luna suddenly found herself equipped with a top hat and a cane, which she disposed of magically. “Forget it. Just don’t do anything like that again. You’re on thin ice.”

The two mares were about to leave but Discord stretched himself to get in front of them. “Why are you getting all mad at me? I’ve been a good boy for a long time.” A halo popped over his head. “Besides, remember when your friend here caused that incident about two months ago?” He happily pulled on Chrysalis’s cheek. “You didn’t punish her for that, even if that moment was fantastic! Screaming and vomit everywhere! I have never seen a single pony pull of something like that before! Here, I forgot to give you this!” He snapped his fingers and a trophy spawned, which he shoved into Chrysalis’s forelegs. Both mares looked at the trophy and saw that it read “World’s Best Bringer of Chaos (Besides Discord)!” Chrysalis scowled and tossed it into the nearest garbage can.

“I don’t want your stupid trophy!”

The draconequus’s bottom half suddenly rubber banded to him and placed his hands on his hips. “Hey, I worked really hard on making that, so some appreciation would be nice! Besides, you totally deserve it! People are still talking about that incident like it was yesterday and some are feeling just as ill. It was almost as good as that time you crashed the royal wedding and people still freak out over hearing your name!” He suddenly placed his hands on his chest, tearing up. “If you were a student of mine, you’d…you’d be a star pupil!”

“I don’t care what people say! I just want you to…to…” Chrysalis’s face shifted into a fearful expression and she looked at Luna, who mirrored her reaction. “H-how!?”

“It’s quite simple.” He bent down and looked directly at her with glowing eyes. “I have special eyes. Your illusion is no match for me. Mere child’s play compared to what I can do.”

“Wait!” shouted Luna. “You mean you knew the entire time who she was!?”

He chuckled and averted his eyes. “Perhaps.”

She grabbed him by his beard and pulled his head down. “Discord, we put you on duty to keep an eye out for her!”

“And I did do that! I found her, didn’t I? I mostly kept careful watch of her and I would have done something if she acted. You just told me to look out for her and protect Twilight and her precious friends, nothing more.” Luna stared furiously at him. “Hey, don’t give me that look. After all, if I did follow your instructions the way you wanted me to, where would your pretty love bug be right now?”

The princess opened her mouth, but she slowly closed it. “I…I would not rather not guess.”

“Exactly! I am glad to see you two are still cute little love birds!” He brought his hands together and made the shape of a heart with his fingers.

“Not at the moment,” corrected Luna. “We’ve been taking a break.”

“Such a shame. You two come up with the silliest names for each other when you get really passionate with each other.” A bunch of pink hearts flew out of the shape made with his fingers and floated toward the sky.

Chrysalis, horrified, backed away with a hoof over her open mouth. “No! Please tell me you didn’t!”

Discord chuckled deviously. “Well Equestria’s safety was on the line, so I had to keep a careful eye on Luna every time you two were together to ensure you didn’t mind control her or something and yes, I saw you two do the kissy thing in the bathtub! I had to take an ice bath afterward because it was hot!”

“DISCORD!” Ponies and changelings looked toward the princess, who grabbed Discord and dragged him even further away. “What is the matter with you!? Do you have any idea how embarrassing this is for me!?”

“More embarrassing than not knowing who your lovey-dovey special somepony was for months?” Both mares’ eyes glowed with fury and he backed away with his hands up. “Hey, don’t be mad at me! I was doing my best to ensure everything ended in the best possible way! I got bored for a while when Chrysalis got all mopey since it was so boring and the next time I saw her, she and Pinkie were pals! I still don’t know how that happened, but there’s no way you can blame me for anything.”

“I vote we imprison him in stone,” said Luna.

“I vote we kill him,” suggested Chrysalis in a much more threatening tone.

“Yeesh, no need to be so serious, Chrysie! Threaten me all you want, but I know you’re just a big ol’ softie under that tough chitin!” He closed his eyes and reopened them with his eyes resembling Chrysalis’s. “Oh Luna,” Discord said in a voice that matched the changeling’s, “be honest. Does my form frighten you? Am I…hideous?” Chrysalis exposed her fangs as she snarled loudly. “Oh, lighten up! I thought you were adorable!” He bent down and rubbed his finger under Chrysalis’s chin. “Who’s a cute changeling? You are! You-” Discord’s yelling caught the attention of everyone as he tried desperately to remove his finger from Chrysalis’s bear trap of a mouth. With some effort as well as assistance from Luna, he broke free and recoiled his hand, rubbing his sore talon. “Someone’s getting the newspaper for this!”

Chrysalis and Discord bumped heads until Luna pushed them apart. “Enough, you two! I don’t want any fighting, especially today. Please just apologize to her and stop antagonizing us.”

“Apologize? She bit me!”

Luna gave an annoyed sigh. “Just do it. I’m getting a headache.”

Discord slouched, loudly groaning. “Fine. I’m sorry for telling the truth.” Luna planted a hoof over her face. “Hey, you should be thanking me for not ratting her out. And since I have done such a wonderful job in helping her reform and you two fall in love by doing absolutely nothing, you know what that means!”

It was a moment before Chrysalis gulped. “No…”

“Yes! You both owe me big time!”

Chrysalis stared with her mouth hung open and Luna lowered her head. “I…suppose this is unfortunately true.”

The changeling shook her head. “No way! I owe this big, annoying oaf nothing!”

“Come on, Chrysie. Don’t be such a sour puss! I kept your free as a bird and look how far you gotten! You’re a reformed baddie just like me, so that makes us best friends!”

“I’d rather die!”

“Hey, I’m not that bad. Now smile for the camera!” Chrysalis suddenly found her mouth pulled into the form of a smile as Discord pulled out a camera, snapping a picture of the both of them. A photo popped out of the device and he held it up to them, showing a picture of Discord standing next to a smiling Chrysalis without her disguise. Even with her mouth being manipulated, the changeling’s rage was seen clearly through her eyes. “We make such a cute pairing! I’d love show everyone else how adorable we are!”

Chrysalis shoved the chaotic being away. “Discord, I swear if you even hint to anyone who I am…”

He stroked his beard with his paw deviously. “Hmm, that’s quite tempting. After all, that was such a show when those poor ponies found out your dirty little secret ingredient to those treats. I couldn’t have even dreamed of doing a better job myself!”

“I am warning you. Do not even try it!” threatened Luna. “You will be returned to your prison and dropped into the ocean if you even think about attempting that!”

“Why not? After all, I’m a good guy now, so I’d love to be helpful in having everyone love you as much as they love me.” As he grinned tauntingly to Luna and Chrysalis, he heard somepony clear their throat behind him, causing him to turn around. “Hey there, Pinkie! I was just talking to your changeling friend here and I gotta say she’s so much fun!” Pinkie suddenly lunged up and pulled him down by his beard.

“Listen, Buster! Chrysie is my friend and nobody messes with her! If you mess with her, you mess with me! You mess with me and I’ll…I’ll…” She looked dead into Discord’s eyes with her meanest look. “I’ll tell Fluttershy on you!”

Discord gulped. “Well played.” He stood straight up. “I would love to stick around, but two unnamed sticks in the mud seem to have banned fun.” He looked at Luna as Chrysalis shook a hoof at him. “I would do something to fight this oppression, but if I did, I will never hear the end of it from you and your goody goody two shoes sister. Well then. I suppose I shall take my leave.” With a snap of his fingers, a large door appeared. Discord open the door, stepped through it, and slammed it shut, causing both of them to disappear.

Chrysalis placed a hoof on her forehead. “Thanks for that, Pinkie. He was starting to get on my nerve.”

“Starting? You actually bit him,” teased the alicorn.

“I have much more planned for him.” She rubbed the invisible object that was locked over her horn. “How about you take this thing off me and I see if I can drain him of his stupid magic? I’ll blow him up, put him back together, and then do it again.”

Luna placed a hoof on Chrysalis’s shoulder. “Nice try, Chrysalis.”

“Whatever. He’s gone now and I’m happy.”

“What were you all talking about?” asked Pinkie. “I haven’t seen Luna yell at him that much since the time Celestia tried giving that speech with her Canterlot voice after he made her lungs full of helium!”

The changeling waved a hoof. “I’ll tell you later. I just want some food and to forget I saw him.”

After taking some plates and adding on some food such as sandwiches, tofu dogs, salad, and various pastries, Chrysalis, Pinkie, and Luna sat at the table along with their friends and some of the changeling guards. “What was that about? Did you actually bite him?” asked Rarity with surprise.

“He deserved it,” Chrysalis muttered before beginning on her sandwich.

“Discord deserves a lot of things, but certainly not violence,” remarked Twilight.

“Trust me, he deserves far worse than that.” She took another bite and looked up at the unicorn, who stared at her with concern. “He’s been checking on me secretly.”

She and the rest of their friends became alarmed. “He has?”

“For months. He’s even seen me without my make-up on. Understand?” Twilight stared blankly before slowly nodding and resumed eating.

“That is…troubling,” said Rarity. “Anyway, Nymph, I fully apologize for what my sister and her friends did. They were only trying to be nice.”

Nymph swallowed a bite of her salad. “It’s fine. No harm done.”

“I thought you were going to pop a blood vessel,” taunted Chrysalis before eating a powdered doughnut.

“Oh, hush. I suppose I did overreact just a little.”

“Everyone got really freaked,” addressed Spike. “No offense, but you kind of get mad a lot.”

“Not really. Moments of explosive rage were more of Chrysalis’s thing,” answered Hornet as he and Chrysalis stared each other down. “She has trouble controlling herself.”

The queen immediately raised a hoof. “Please, let’s not talk about her right now. I do not wish to put anyone in a bad mood.”

A female changeling guard looked up at her ruler. “Your highness, forgive me for asking, but how does Chrysalis feel about this? As in us coming to Equestria?”

“She’s actually quite happy about it and I’m sure she wishes to be here now.”

“Pfft.” Chrysalis sunk in her seat and kicked Hornet under the table and he did the same.

“My sister has seen the error of her ways and will not risk ruining this opportunity bestowed upon us. Our famine is a thing of the past and the world is ours to enjoy. I wish she could be with us now, but she must prove her loyalty to us and will you two stop kicking each other!?”

“He started it!” “She started it!” shouted both changelings at once as they pointed a hoof at their opponent.

Rubbing her temples, Nymph hung her head and gave a sigh. “Honestly, must you two act like hatchlings on this day of all days? If we were back in the palace, I would have already thrown you both out.”

“You’d think she’d know better after the first time.” Hornet suddenly felt his head pushed forward and it met with his plate of food at incredible force.

Nymph slammed her hooves on the table and stood. “Enough! You two apologize to each other this instant!”

“Sorry…” Chrysalis and Hornet both said at once.

Nymph glared at them and each shrunk while avoiding eye contact. “Honestly, who let the children at the royal table?” she questioned when she at last sat down.

“Children? More like violent teenagers. A child would do silly things like throw food or-” Luna suddenly looked at the ground behind her, discovering a little changeling filly playing with the princess’s tail. The girl pulled on it while rubbing it on her face, giggling without end. The sight was enough to make everyone’s heart melt and forget the fighting.

“Millie, no!” Two changelings, who they assumed were the parents, rushed over and the mother picked Millie up, who tried reaching back for the princess’s hair. “What did I say? I told you not to bother the princess!”

“B-but her hair is so pretty and I wanna see it!” cried the child as she struggled. “Please, Mom!”

The father nervously walked up to Luna. “Princess, I am terribly, terribly sorry for her bothering you. Please forgive us for our daughter’s rude behavior.”

“It’s all right,” Luna replied in a friendly manner. “I do not mind the company or her compliments.”

“We’ll just head back now and leave you alone.” They quickly bowed their heads and walked away.

“Not so fast,” said Chrysalis, causing both of them to turn around. “Why don’t you join us?”

“Oh, we couldn’t,” replied the mother. “We are not worthy to dine along with the princess or the queen.”

“Don’t be nervous,” Chrysalis encouraged. “Despite what you may believe, your queen is a very social ruler and enjoys the company of her people. I should also mention Equestria’s princesses teach about friendship, so meeting new people is something they like to do.”

The parents looked at each other and then at their daughter, who was giving her best puppy dog eyes. After some hesitation, they sat at the table. “May I see your daughter?” asked Luna.

“Of course,” spoke the mother as she held out Millie.

Luna took the child and placed her on her knee. “Hello, Millie. It is very nice to meet you.”

The changeling was already in the middle of playing with her hair. “Why is your hair so pretty?”

“It’s because I’m an alicorn with a lot of magic within me.”

“Acorn?”

Everyone briefly snickered. “Alicorn. Think of me like your queen over there for ponies.”

Millie looked at Nymph and then back at Luna. “What’s the difference between a queen and princess?”

“Queens are better,” answered Nymph smugly.

Luna rolled her eyes. “At least in your kingdom. They are merely titles that are given to those in power. For Equestria, the title of princess is of the highest authority.”

“Oh.” Millie looked at Luna’s flank. “What does your booty mark mean?”

Everyone cracked up and Luna made incredible effort to not look embarrassed. “It’s cutie mark and what you see is the moon.”

“What’s the moon?”

All of Chrysalis’s friends stopped laughing and looked at each other in confusion. “You don’t know what the moon is?” asked Fluttershy in disbelief.

“This is her first time outside,” said the father. “We lived in one of the deeper colonies back home, so we didn’t go out much.” He looked up, smiling. “It’s going to be weird to get used to seeing the sky every day, but I think we’ll get used to it.”

“So how do you like Equestria so far?” asked Twilight.

“It’s already the best. You can only stand looking at the same rock walls every day for so long. I loved home, but we couldn’t pass up something like this. Everyone else I know went to Equestria, so it seemed like a good idea.”

“So is the kingdom going to be deserted at this rate?” questioned Rainbow Dash, throwing back a swig of soda afterward. “It seems like every changeling is coming here with all the love and everything.”

“Certainly not,” answered Nymph. “You see, the majority of changelings who are so eager to come live here originally live farther underground, making it more of a chore just to go outside. People of the lower colonies have always feared disasters like earthquakes, floods, or cave-ins, so moving here was a dream come true with those fears put to rest. From what I see so far, it seems most of the lower cities will be ghost towns within several years.”

“So what will happen to the kingdom?” asked Twilight.

“Despite the flux Equestria is receiving, people will stay. With some many changelings planning to move, houses in cities connected to the surface are becoming available and we’re now building more towns outside within our territory, so people are starting to move there. Many changelings are quite satisfied with where they are now since food should no longer be an issue. Besides, the kingdom still contains valuable gems and metals for trade and it is the only place in the world where some of our fungi grow. Overall, our population will dwindle for now and then bounce back since we have essentially endless food, so the kingdom will remain strong.”

“We’ll always be your loyal subjects, your highness,” spoke the father. “Isn’t that right, Millie?” The girl happily nodded.

Pinkie suddenly sprung onto the table, startling everyone. “Oh, I forgot to ask! What are your names!?”

“I’m Rollie and this is my wife Centie,” he answered as he leaned away from her.

“That’s great!” Pinkie dashed right in front of the nearest changeling next to them. “What’s your name!?”

“Hornet. Didn’t your friends-” The pony was already bouncing in front of another changeling. “What the heck is with her?”

“Don’t mind her. She’s just eager to meet new people,” answered Rarity, amused by the scene.

They watched Pinkie zoom from changeling to changeling, startling most of them as she introduced herself and asked for their name. It was difficult to have their eyes follow as she was determined to meet so many in so little time, gradually gaining speed. “Shouldn’t somepony tell her that only some of these changelings are going to live here?” asked Twilight, concerned.

“Only if you can keep up with her,” said Spike as his eyes moved all over the place.

“But there’s like a thousand changelings here! I know Pinkie can be a bit nutty, but there’s no way she see every single changeling here in such a short time. It’s suicide!” claimed Dash.

“Ah agree. We better stop her before she keels over.” Applejack and Dash stood up and looked around. “Now where in the heck-” A pink blur flew across the table, greatly startling everyone.

“Whoa! Was that her!?” asked Spike after he jumped into Twilight’s forelegs.

“I-I think so,” answered Fluttershy, poking her head out from under the table. Everyone at the table stood up and looked around, occasionally seeing a pink blur zip by or some changelings and ponies suddenly jumping.

“How does she ever move this fast!?” asked Dash as she frantically tried to locate her.

“I think the question is how she ever does anything she does,” said Chrysalis while also looking around. After about several minutes of trying to find her, they heard loud panting as Pinkie dragged herself to the table.

“Pinkie?” asked Luna. “Are you okay? You look like you need water.”

The mare slowly climbed into her seat with her tongue hanging out. “I…I did it.” She suddenly collapsed on the table.

Nymph slowly reached her hoof to the mare’s face and poked it. She tapped on her cheek several times and did not get a response. “Is she going to be okay?”

“I don’t know! I’ve never seen Pinkie move like that before!” spoke Twilight as she walked around the table to check on her friend.

“Everyone relax. I have an idea.” Chrysalis stood up and walked to one of the tables with food on it, returning with a tray full of cupcakes and two cans of soda. She lifted Pinkie’s head up and opened her mouth, magically shoving cupcakes down her maw.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” asked Spike. “I’m not a doctor or anything, but that doesn’t look right.”

“Well I wouldn’t be doing it if I thought otherwise, now would I?” Once Pinkie had consumed the last cupcake, Chrysalis opened the two cans and dumped the soda down her throat. When they were empty, she closed the mare’s mouth and lifted up above her head with her magic and shook her at extreme speed for several seconds before setting her down. “That should do it.”

“Pinkie?” asked Fluttershy as she continuously nudged her. “Are you okay?”

Pinkie remained unresponsive for several seconds until her body began quaking, making everyone slowly move away. Suddenly, she sprung up and landed in her seat, smiling. “I’m better than okay! I feel super-duper-scooper! I know everyone’s name, so I can look them up later and see when their birthday is so I can hold them the best birthday ever!”

“That’s nice, Pinkie, but the thing is only some changelings are going to live here. The rest of them are heading to the Crystal Empire,” said Rarity.

Pinkie’s large smile lost some its width. “Oh.” They watched as her excited expression slowly faded, only for it to reappear. “Well at least I know their names in case they ever visit and they’ll be all like, ‘Hey, you’re Pinkie Pie!’ and I’ll be like, “Hey, I know you, too!’”

Everyone broke into laughter. “Don’t you ever change, Pinkie,” Chrysalis said as she gently hugged her.

Pinkie starting laughing as well. “Hey, that’s actually funny you said that because you-” Chrysalis immediately slapped a hoof over her mouth.

“Who wants pie!?”

After about an hour, the welcoming party gradually drew to a close and many ponies already began leaving and saying farewell to their newest neighbors. Nymph gathered all the changelings that were heading to the Crystal Empire or any other city on the way and stood by her friends as her subjects prepared for the last leg of their journey. “Thank you all for everything. It was a very lovely welcome.”

“I was hoping you could stay,” said Chrysalis.

Nymph rested a hoof on her sibling’s shoulder. “I would, but I must ensure that they arrive safely. I’ll contact you with the crystal ball as soon as I get there, but I may forget since I may be so enthralled with how the city looks. Cadance has even invited me to stay and have dinner in her glorious palace. Isn’t that wonderful?”

“Just remember Shining Armor isn’t on the menu.”

The queen harrumphed. “I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.”

Everyone immediately rolled their eyes at her. “I’m sure you don’t.” After seeing Nymph pout, Chrysalis gave her a hug. “See you soon.”

“Take care of yourself, Chrysie. Try not to do anything crazy like you did with Discord.”

“No promises.”

She smirked. “That’s what I thought.” She pulled away from Chrysalis and hovered about a foot off the ground, waving to them as she flew away. “Bye, everyone! See you tomorrow!”

As they waved, Chrysalis suddenly ran to up to her. “Wait, I just remembered!” Nymph landed and turned to her. “I have something I need you to deliver to Shining Armor and Cadance. Rarity, do you have it?” Rarity huffed and walked over, bringing out a small changeling doll when she was close enough.

“What’s this?” asked Nymph as she held it in her hooves.

Chrysalis rubbed the back of her head, looking slightly embarrassed. “Just a gift. I remember Shining telling me that they were thinking about having a child and I thought it would be something they would like. Please make sure they don’t throw it out or anything.”

Fluttershy looked at the gift. “Aw, he looks so cute. You did such a good job, Rarity.” The unicorn loudly muttered to herself in response. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like it?”

“I do, actually. In fact, I think it’s one of my best works. It’s just that making it was the worst part.”

“Why’s that?” asked Spike.

“If you thought Chrysalis was bad in taking charge in her wedding dress design, you would be surprised by how horrid she was in having me make this thing, screaming in my ear how every little detail needed to be perfect for almost two hours.”

Chrysalis shrugged at her. “It’s a very important gift. I needed to be the best quality possible.”

“It’s just a doll,” spoke Applejack.

“It’s not!” Chrysalis shouted in response, startling everyone. “I-I-I mean it’s more than that. It’s an apology gift and the quality I wanted to be in shows how truly remorseful I am. What would it say about me if I just let it be made in not the best quality and just shipped it off to them?”

“I suppose that is a good point,” said Luna, “but is that good reason to be shouting at one of your friends constantly?”

“Absolutely.” Rarity gritted her teeth at her. “Okay, fine. I’m sorry I crossed the line. You can use me as a model for your dresses if that will help make up for my behavior.”

“I don’t see how,” Rarity replied.

Chrysalis motioned a hoof across herself. “I’m a changeling. I can be any size you want me to be.”

Suddenly, Rarity’s face was beaming. “Oh. My. Goodness! How did I not think of this sooner!? A changeling model would be perfect! Any size! Any shape! A living model for any design! But wait. Who should I hire? Do I make enough money to hire someone? And I work at Cupid’s Arrow, so will they be part time? Twilight, could you help me sort this out later?”

“Sure, Rarity.”

“Splendid! I’ll just use Chrysalis until I find someone perfect.” She laughed to herself in an evil manner. “Maybe I should try out all those horrid corsets I keep in the attic.”

“What was that?” asked Chrysalis suspiciously.

“Nothing! Just excited, that’s all.”

“Have fun,” Dash said quietly, snickering.

“I’m sure you two will have a good time,” spoke Nymph. “And don’t worry, Chrysalis. I’ll make an absolute priority to deliver this…hmm?” She held the doll closer to her eyes, looking over every angle. Everyone watched in anticipation while Chrysalis bit the tip of her hoof as Nymph continued her examination. A moment later, she grinned widely and gasped. “Of course! How did I not see it sooner!?”

“N-Nymph,” Chrysalis said as she darted her eyes around. “I-It’s just a doll.”

The queen levitated the doll in front of her sister. “Just a doll!? How could you say that about Prince Handsome, your first love!?”

Chrysalis closed her eyes and slapped a hoof over her face. “First love? You never told me about him,” said Luna in amazement. “I didn’t even know your kingdom even had princes.”

“It’s just a doll,” Chrysalis repeated sternly.

“A doll you took everywhere as a little girl and would pretend to marry almost all the time,” reminded Nymph as she moved the prince around.

All of Chrysalis’s friends immediately giggled. “A doll? That’s so lame,” spoke Dash, smiling. “You’re not really a tough girl like I thought.”

“I was a little girl! Almost every girl has one when they’re young! I don’t see how it’s any different for me!”

Everyone continued giggling and before Chrysalis could say more, the doll suddenly flew in front of her face. “Chrysalis, my love!” Nymph spoke in a more masculine voice. “You have grown into a fine changeling! Let us get married just like you always dreamed!”

Chrysalis could feel her face flare up as her friends rolled around on the ground in stitches. “N-no way! What was I thinking back then to love a doll!? And why did I ever name you Prince Handsome!?”

“Because I am the most handsome changeling in all the land! Look at my handsome face, my flawless wings,” she flipped him around, “and my well-toned tush!” She flipped him back. “Why don’t you give me a kiss just like back then?” Nymph brought the doll closer, imitating kissing sounds, and Chrysalis backed away.

Luna brought a hoof around Chrysalis and pulled her in for a hug. “I must say hearing all these things about you makes it so hard to believe you were such a big bad girl.”

“Who is this!?” said Nymph, bringing the doll in front of Luna. “You cannot have my Chrysie! I will fight you to the death in order to prove my love for her!” The queen made Prince Handsome raise his front hooves in a threatening manner.

Sick of the mockery, Chrysalis grabbed the doll and pointed a hoof at Nymph. “You keep this up and I’ll tell everyone about that book you wrote.”

Nymph immediately recoiled. “You wouldn’t!”

“Try me. I will read it word to word to everyone I know.”

“What book?” asked Twilight with heightened curiosity.

“There’s no book! Mind your own business! You read too much, Twilight! She’s making it up!” Nymph quickly looked behind herself. “I-I think I hear my subjects calling for me, so I must depart immediately! Goodbye!” She turned and power walked away as they waved goodbye, but Chrysalis caught up and pulled her by the tail to get her attention. “You wouldn’t really tell them about that, would you?”

The older sibling smiled in a taunting fashion. “I don’t know. I heard you already told them quite a bit about me, so I think it’s only fair I tell them things about you. Besides, maybe someone else besides Rarity might actually like reading about a changeling of royal status cursed with an uncontrollable lust that could only be sated by a changeling with, and I quote, ‘a big, meaty-’”

Nymph threw her hoof over Chrysalis’s mouth, shushing her loudly. “Chrysie, please don’t! I have done many things I am ashamed about and I really don’t want to them to know anything, especially the book!”

“Because of the content or how it sold?”

“Both!”

Smiling, Chrysalis hugged her and Nymph hugged back. “Alright. You stop telling them things and I won’t say a word.”

“Deal!”

“Good.” Chrysalis held out Prince Handsome. “Don’t forget to deliver it.”

Nymph took him and placed him under her cloak. “I won’t. I know this gift is important to you. And I promise I won’t tell them who he is.”

“Thank you.”

The queen looked at her subjects, sighing. “I really must be going now. I am sure they are becoming restless.”

“Very well. Have a safe journey and please call me later tonight.”

“I promise. Goodbye, Chrysie, and good luck with Luna.”

“Goodbye, Nymph.” The queen took her leave. “And leave the prince alone!” Nymph turned to her, gave her a wink, and resumed her walk as Chrysalis laughed. Once she was near the crowd of changelings, she spoke to them and they all stood up and buzzed off the ground, taking flight with their leader in front. They eventually disappeared into the distance as everyone who remained waved goodbye.

Once they were all out of sight, Chrysalis returned to the group. “Well everything turned out to be better than expected.”

“So now what?” asked Pinkie.

“We may as well just go home for the day,” answered Luna. “Let the changelings settle in and get comfortable. I’m sure many of them are exhausted from their journey.” She turned to Chrysalis. “What about you? What do you plan on doing?”

The changeling let out a yawn. “I may as well take a nap. I think fatigue from the traveling is starting to kick in.”

“Very well. No rush in getting to know them. I’ll come back later to check on things and we can talk about what to do next. And Twilight, be sure to keep us up to date on your progress.” The unicorn nodded. “I’m going to go home and see how Celestia is holding up, so I’ll-”

“Hey, Luna?” Chrysalis interrupted, sounding timid.

“Oh. Yes?”

“Uh…” She looked at other ponies. “Could you give us a moment?” Her friends moved a good distance away while watching the both of them. “So Luna,” Chrysalis began as she placed a hoof on the back her own head, “I’ve been thinking for a while and…I…”

“What, Chrysalis?”

The changeling closed her eyes and gulped. “I…I would like to go on a date with you.”

Luna stared at the grass beneath them. “Chrysalis…”

“I know, I know. I shouldn’t be asking you this, but…I just miss what we had. Sure, we may gave each other a kiss now and then or flirt a little, but I miss us. What we used to be.” She moved closer and rested her hooves on both of Luna’s shoulders to get her attention. “I need to be honest with you. Every day I get this horrible thought that you will come to me and tell me that the both of us isn’t going to work out.” She stroked Luna’s check. “I promise you there will be no more surprises this time. You already trust me, so it only makes sense if we do this. I love you, Luna.”

“I…I’m not sure. I need more time.”

“Please. Just one night out. We’ll have dinner someplace nice and we can go to Cupid’s Arrow to have desert and talk.” The princess remained silent. “I’ll even throw in a nice bubble bath and a hoof massage,” she added seductively. Luna still said nothing, so Chrysalis sighed. “If you want to, I’ll let you play with Prince Handsome.”

The alicorn quickly looked up. “But I thought you gave him to Nymph.”

“Yeah…I had Rarity make a second one and I told her it was for someone else. It’s not for me to play with, it’s just nice to have a piece of home nearby. And if you say no, I will flaunt my love for him in front of you every day to make you jealous. You saw how smooth he is with words, so you better think fast before I’m taken.”

Chrysalis almost didn’t see the crack of a smile the princess produced. Luna stood and slowly paced back and forth in front of her. Chrysalis could feel the knot in her stomach become tighter with each passing second. At last, Luna looked at her and the changeling held her breath. “I’ll consider it.”

Chrysalis’s heart jumped. This was the one time Luna said anything other than “no” and she could feel joy blossoming within. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Prince Handsome really sold it, didn’t he?”

Luna chuckled. “Maybe he did. I’ll try to give you my answer as soon as possible, but remember that I haven’t said yes.”

Chrysalis took Luna’s hoof and planted a kiss on it. “Thank you, Luna.”

“Just promise me one thing, Chrysalis.”

“Anything.”

Luna repeatedly poked the changeling’s chest with her hoof. “No. More. Secrets,” she ordered in a harsh voice.

Making gestures with her hoof, Chrysalis recited, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Good.” Suddenly, Luna slowly moved her head forward, giving Chrysalis a soft kiss on the lips. “I’ll see you soon, Chrysalis. Try not to cause any trouble while I’m gone.”

“I’m sure I’ll see you in my dreams, Lulu.” Luna blushed and took a step back, vanishing in a flash of light as Chrysalis blew her a kiss.

Satisfied, she walked to her friends with her head held high. “What were ya two talkin’ about?” asked Applejack.

“I asked her out on a date.”

They all leaned toward her. “And…what did she say?” questioned Fluttershy, completely nervous.

“She said she’ll consider it.”

They all gasped. “Yay! Everything’s back to normal!” Pinkie cheered after giving her a hug.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. She didn’t say yes.”

“But she didn’t say no!”

“That sounds like great news, Chrysalis,” said Twilight. “I hope it works out for you both.”

“That means a lot, Twilight. Anyway, so I’ll see you all a Cupid’s Arrow next week?”

“Yep!” they all said at once.

“Fantastic. I’ll be heading home now, so I’ll see you all later.”

“Bye, everybody!” Pinkie threw on a strange outfit and bounced away, smiling.

“I’m not even going ask what she’s up to,” said Rainbow Dash as they stared at Pinkie in confusion. “Anyway, I need to sleep on how I’m going to make friends with the changelings, so later!” She blasted off in a rainbow streak and was out of sight within seconds.

“I better go home and check to see if Discord’s around,” said Fluttershy as she looked off in the distance. “I really hope he’s not causing anyone trouble.”

“Too late,” said Chrysalis in annoyed tone. “You tell him to back off before things get messy.”

“Oh, please don’t be mad at him. He’s still learning and I’ll be extra sure he understands why he can’t tell anyone about you.”

“I appreciate that, Fluttershy. And don’t be afraid to put your hoof down, especially on his foot.” The pegasus nodded and then flew away.

“I have so much work to do with my free time,” spoke Rarity as she paced around. “I need to study changeling fashion and have new dresses on display as soon as possible! You’ll help me with the designs, won’t you, Chrysalis?”

Chrysalis rubbed her chin. “It’s been a while since I’ve kept up with changeling trends, but I’ll try to remember everything I can.”

“Excellent!” Rarity then rubbed her hooves together with her back turned to them. “Let’s see you bark orders at me with some wires crushing your chest.”

“Did you say something?” asked Spike.

The unicorn quickly whirled around. “Just thinking out loud about design ideas, Spikey,” she answered with a smile.

“I think I sense something going on with you,” spoke Chrysalis with a raised eyebrow.

“Not at all! I’m afraid I must leave right away, so I bid you all a good day.” Rarity trotted away as Spike waved to her.

“Something’s fishy with her,” spoke the changeling as she kept a watchful eye on the seamstress.

“She does look mighty suspicious,” spoke Applejack. “Ya weren’t that hard on her, were ya?”

Chrysalis gave an embarrassed laugh. “Okay, I admit I may have been just a little too hard on her.”

“No, this is completely wrong! A changeling’s horn does not bend that far! Do it again and make it perfect this time!”

“You call that stitching!? If I wanted a sloppy job done for me by someone with no skill, I would have hired your sister! At least I’d get exactly what I wanted!”

“Rarity, this is no time to have a meltdown! Don’t forget that once you’re done with this one, you have to make a second one exactly like it, so get back to work!”

“Well just be careful. Rarity absolutely does not like bein’ pushed around.” She nudged the dragon next to her. “Ya might want to sweet talk a bit before Chrysalis comes over.”

Spike saluted her. “Can do!”

Applejack looked back at the changeling. “And ya might want to work on that attitude if ya want a chance with Luna.”

“I suppose you have a point. Perhaps I could use a bit of anger management, especially with a certain draconequus around,” she hissed.

The earth pony chuckled. “Ya do that. Aight, I gotta head back on the farm and make sure Granny remembers about the changelin’s before they give her a heart attack. Later, ya’ll!”

As Applejack left, Chrysalis turned to Twilight. “Let me guess what you’re doing: you’re going to study.” Twilight immediately blushed. “Oh, Twilight. What are we ever going to do with you?”

“Actually, this is kind of important,” she spoke while ignoring the way Spike and Chrysalis were looking at her. “Princess Celestia has given me a book from Starswirl himself and wants me to finish a spell he was working on. I’m so close to completing it and there’s so many possibilities of what it could be!”

“Don’t get too excited, it could be a spell for the perfect beard or something, so don’t expect it to be completely life changing,” teased Chrysalis.

“Twilight the Bearded Mare has a nice ring to it. Maybe we could have people pay bits to see her,” joked Spike, receiving an angry look in return.

“Alright, enough fooling around. We got a lot of work to do, Spike.” She placed the dragon on her back. “Bye, Chrysalis. Good luck on that date!”

“Bye!” called Spike as the mare walked away.

“Goodbye, you two,” Chrysalis called as she waved. When they were gone, she sighed and began her trip home, knowing it was a long one as she carried her luggage. She wished she could teleport home and save herself the effort, but even if Luna taught her how to go that far, the magic-sealing ring on her horn would have prevented her from doing so. Thinking about Luna, she prayed that she would accept her offer and they could pick up where they left off. While she waited, Chrysalis thought about how she could use the form of Luna and have fun with a mirror.

As she approached the town, Chrysalis noticed the changelings standing nearby and took a look at what they were doing. In front of them she could see some bright lights flashing and when she got closer, she discovered it was Pinkie wearing many lights and a megaphone that was held by supports around her neck. “Pinkie?”

The mare grinned and hopped over to her, pulling her away from the changelings. “Hey, Cherub! Are you going to join the tour?”

“Tour?”

“Yep! Before we went to Bugartha, I thought about all the changelings coming here and then I thought that what if they didn’t know where to go? They’d be so lost in Ponyville that they couldn’t find their own house and then they’d have to sleep outside and-” Chrysalis raised a hoof and Pinkie’s face immediately froze in place.

“Right, I get it. It’s a very noble thing you’re doing. I’m sure they all appreciate what you’re doing.” Pinkie grinned and then the changeling smiled in return before Chrysalis made her departure. Suddenly, Chrysalis turned around and returned to her friend. “You know,” she said as she pulled the pony aside, “this could be really useful to me.”

“Really? How?”

“Well I could possibly lead the tour and it would help get these changelings to recognize me. After all, who could forget a face like this?”

“Hey, that’s a great idea! That way they’ll easily remember you so you can make friends with them later!” Pinkie suddenly frowned. “But…if you’re leading the tour…I guess I’ll just…do nothing.”

Chrysalis placed a hoof under the mare’s chin to lift head up. “Don’t be so down. How about I take this megaphone and talk about the town and occasionally myself while you lead us? I haven’t exactly seen all of Ponyville while living here, so you could help us not get lost. You can still be the leader, Pinkie.”

Pinkie smiled and rapidly nodded her head. “Yeah! Let’s do it! Go team Tour Guides!”

“Excellent. By the way, could we make our first stop a coffee shop? I’m going to need a cup if I’m going to do this. I’ll just tell them it was built by Celestia or something.” They returned to the front of the crowd, who were mostly conversing among themselves. “Attention!” Chrysalis spoke through the megaphone, causing all of them to look at her. “The tour of Ponyville is about to begin. I am Cherub and this is Pinkie Pie and we shall be your guides today.”

“Hey, aren’t you famous for something?” a changeling stallion asked.

Chrysalis chuckled and ran a hoof through her mane. “You recognize me? I am so flattered. I’m famous for several reasons, such as my extraordinary talent and my close relationship with Princess Luna, so no doubt you may have heard of me before.”

“Now I remember! You’re that pony who sold all that changeling slime as food and caused everypony to freak out on Hearts and Hooves Day!” All of the changelings roared with laughter while some started taking pictures of her.

“IF ONE MORE BLOODY PERSON BRINGS UP THAT DAY OR ANYTHING ABOUT THE SLIME I SOLD, I WILL SHOVE THIS THING SO FAR UP THEIR FLANK THAT THEIR EVERY FART WILL BE HEARD IN AN ONE MILE RADIUS SO THEY CAN FEEL THE SHAME I FELT!” Every changeling and several nearby ponies stared in shock as well as silence while she cleared her throat. “So let’s begin our tour!” she continued in her friendliest voice. Chrysalis sat on Pinkie’s back and faced the group as the pony walked with the changelings slowly following. “So the good news is that Ponyville is excellent town to live in, so you should all be happy you have chosen to live here. It’s greener than most cities, everypony is so friendly, you even got a nice view of Canterlot, and life is simple and peaceful. Well, maybe I’m stretching the truth on that last part. We occasionally have some…incidents.”

“Incidents?” asked a mare.

Chrysalis waved a hoof around. “From time to time, something happens here. We had parasprite swarms, a unicorn take over the town, magical diseases, a few other disasters here and there, and even a dragon attack!”

They all gasped. “A dragon!?”

“Yes, but do not worry. These incidents are usually uncommon and no one gets hurt. I guarantee you’ll adjust just fine. Speaking of danger, you see that forest in the distance?” She pointed to her right and their heads turned in the direction. “That is the Everfree Forest and I am going to warn you now that it is incredibly dangerous.”

Pinkie quickly turned around. “Yeah! It’s got all sorts of scary creature like manticores, cockatrices, timber wolves, and other scary stuff with huge claws and teeth that want to eat you and-” Chrysalis placed a hoof over the mare’s mouth, looking angrily at her friend as the changelings panicked with some fainting and many children crying to their parents, begging to go home.

“Everyone remain calm! Yes, there are dangerous creatures in there, but they only remain in the forest, so if you value your safety, stay out. As long as you stay in town, you are perfectly safe.” The changelings sighed with relief. “By the way, I should take the time to introduce my talkative friend here.” Chrysalis hopped off and lifted Pinkie into the air with her magic. “You’ve all seen her already, correct?” All of the changelings nodded. “This is Pinkie Pie and she is the best friend you can ever ask for. No matter what, this pony has the power to brighten your day and make you smile. Believe me when I say getting to know her is a great way to enjoy your life here. Why don’t you tell them about yourself?”

Pinkie snatched the megaphone. “Hi, there! I’m Pinkie and I’m so happy to be meeting all you!” she shouted, waving her legs all over the place. “I wish I could have thrown you the super-mega welcoming party I was planning, but the mayor said some of the stuff I wanted to do was illegal! Did I mention I like throwing parties!? Parties are like the best, best, best, best thing in the whole wide world! I know all your names so later I can look up when your birthday is and throw you a party with cake, balloons, confetti, and punch!”

“Hey, it’s my birthday today!” a changeling colt called from the back.

“It is!? HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EPARYGEUS!” The megaphone screeched with her voice and everyone covered their ears. “I promise I’ll throw you an awesome party after the tour!”

Chrysalis snatched the megaphone, staring disapprovingly at Pinkie as she rubbed her ears to rid herself of the ringing. “Isn’t she something? You can find her at Sugarcube Corner whether if you want treats or to plan a party.” She climbed back on her mount and the tour resumed. “While we’re doing introductions, I think this would be a good time to tell you all about myself. How many of you noticed there was quite a bit of love lingering around upon arriving?” They raised their hooves. “That’s there because of all my hard work. You see, I am matchmaker and a very successful one at that. I help many ponies find their true love and the result is all this food you sense floating around. Feel free to feed all you want. This town is your home now and nopony is using this love anyway. I work at Cupid’s Arrow, where you can come if you want a date or just need to feed. Either way, please drop by. I’d love to get to know each and every one of you. Now let me tell you about and how to avoid property damage or physical injury from a group of children known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

THE END

Author's Note

It's over. Two years since I started writing this thing and it's over. I must admit it feels very odd to actually finish this thing. After many months of writers block and even rewrites, The Queen of Hearts is complete. Thank you all for reading and I hope you have enjoyed the story from beginning to end.

I heavily apologize for the incredibly long wait for the last chapter. There had to be a lot of rewriting done which ended up doubling the chapter in length and I think that was a good thing. To make up for the hiatus, I'll have a bonus chapter ready shortly after and possibly a second one if I can think of how to write it, a blog post with a lot of rough draft ideas about the Queen of Hearts as well as how I came up with this damn thing, and maybe a peek at my next fic. Thank you all for being very patient with me and I hope the wait was worth it.

One last thing: Luna says yes.

Bonus: A Lesson of the Ages

Author's Note

It's time for another bonus chapter! I had this one sitting around for a while, but I wanted to focus on the main story before submitting it. The first one was about Discord banishing Angel to the moon (kind of) in one of the best ways possible, but who will star in this one? Only one way to find out!

In other news, I got a blog post up about The Queen of Hearts rough draft ideas, so be sure to go check that out after reading this chapter if you're interested.

And now, on with the show!

Bonus: A Lesson of the Ages

A Lesson of the Ages

The midsummer sun shined brightly down up the water and colorful flowers within the royal changeling garden, where a special changeling with a name known across the entire kingdom resided with those closest to her. She was always happy to be in the garden, where she could lay in the sun and look at the flowers as much as she wanted without a care in the world. However, today she was not allowed to do either and was forced to wear an extremely uncomfortable green dress as well as remain glued to a spot under a tree. To make her situation worse, she felt hungry. Unable to take it, she began to move. “Nymph, stop it.” The changeling ignored her and kept moving. “Nymph, stop!” Nymph continued to struggle against her, pressing her hooves on her captor’s face. “Mom! Nymph won’t hold still!”

Queen Locera, the violet haired ruler of the changelings, sighed deeply and looked from her canvas. “You just have to be gentle with her, Chrysalis.”

“I am, but she’s not listening to me!” As Chrysalis tried to get a good grip on her baby sister, Nymph started pressing her hooves into her hair. “Ow! Nymph! Stop, that hurts!”

Locera set her painting tools aside and approached them. “Oh dear, looked what she did to your hair. Let her go and let me fix it.” Chrysalis released her sibling, who was very happy to escape. As she rubbed her face against the soft grass, she felt her stomach growl, reminding her of her problem. She stood up and approached her mother, pawing a hoof at her leg. “Nymph, Mommy is busy right now.” Nymph got on her hind legs and used both hooves, slightly whimpering. “Just give me a minute.” The infant sat down, loudly sniffling as the queen looked over Chrysalis’s mane.

“Nymph.” She turned around and saw her father, a changeling with some muscle, light scars on his chest, and royal attire similar to the queen’s, holding a leather pouch with a cork on the end and a wooden spoon. “You hungry?” Recognizing the pouch, Nymph excitedly ran over to him and started reaching for it. “Alright, calm down,” Scarab said with a laugh. He poured some nectar into the spoon and held it in front of her mouth. “Drink up, sweetie. There’s some love mixed in it, so get every drop.” Nymph reached forward and greedily licked up as much nectar as she could and repeated this with every spoon of nectar given to her. Once the small pouch was clean, Scarab picked her up and patted her back until she belched. “There. All better.”

He set her down and his daughter rubbed against his leg lovingly, only to stop when something caught her eye. In front of her was a blue butterfly, gracefully floating through the air, and she watched it in amazement as it landed right on her nose. She babbled happily and reached for it, causing it to fly away. She got onto her hooves and followed it, never taking her eyes off for a moment. She picked up her speed and then leapt into the air, attempting to catch it with her mouth. When she missed and landed, she turned around and tried again.

Scarab’s laughter caught the attention of his wife and older daughter. “What are you two doing?” Locera asked playfully.

“Take a look at little Nymph.”

The queen walked over and saw Nymph continuing her effort in catching the butterfly, causing her to chuckle. “Oh my. Our sweet little baby is already trying to be a huntress. How precious.”

As adorable as Nymph’s display was, there was one changeling not as enthralled by it. “Mom, what about the picture?” Her question fell on deaf ears. “Mom, the picture!”

“I know, just wait a moment,” Locera replied without looking.

Chrysalis puffed up her cheeks. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another butterfly flying there. “Look, I can do it, too!” She ran up to it and jumped for it, watching Nymph so she could imitate her perfectly. After about a minute of effort, she looked at her parents, who were still watching her sister. “Mom! Dad! What about me!?” She then tripped on a rock and went flying, face-planting in a puddle of mud.

They at last heard her calling for them, but they were met with a surprising sight. “Chrysalis, why are you playing in the mud!? Princesses don’t do that!” scolded her mother.

She sat up with a large frown on her face. “I’m not playing, I fell!” The queen picked her up with her magic, set her aside, and knelt down in front of her. Chrysalis whimpered as she looked at herself. “My pretty dress is ruined!”

Locera gently stroked a hoof against her cheek. “There, there, Chrysalis. I’ll have the servants clean it up and we’ll finish this tomorrow.” After removing the blue dress from her daughter, she kissed her cheek and stood up. “Let’s all go back to the palace and have some lunch. I’m sure it will make us all feel better.” She magically acquired her painting tools and headed down the tunnel.

Chrysalis looked at her sister, who walked up to her with a pair of butterfly wings sticking out of her mouth. “This is your fault! Why do you have to be all cute!? Now I have to take a bath because of you!” Nymph swallowed her meal and went up to her, rubbing her face against hers. “Hey, stop it!”

“Calm down, Chrysalis,” Scarab said while holding in the urge to laugh. “She’s just trying to tell you that she loves you.”

“I don’t like it!” Nymph leaned in again and she backed away. “Go away!” She continued to walk backwards as the infant attempted to show her more affection. “I said go away!”

“Chrysalis! Watch o-” The princess backed up too much and fell into the water. Scarab rushed over and grabbed his child as fast as he could. He pulled her out and set her on the grass, using his cloak to wrap her up and dry her off. “Chrysalis, are you okay?” The princess’s bottom lip trembled. “It’s alright, honey. You’re perfe-”

“MOOOOOMMMMMY!”

After recieving a full belly and tons of comforting from her parents, Chrysalis sat on a stool in her bedroom, staring angrily at the city below while wrapped in a blanket. Her bedroom was quite large for someone her size, but it would be a perfect fit once she grew. It had a bookshelf with only a few books, her large bed with pink sheets and pillows, a wooden chest that contained all her toys, a large green rug over the wooden floor, and a picture of her parents hanging on the wall. Whenever Chrysalis was bored in her room, she liked to sit by the window and look at the city of Bugartha, seeing the changelings fly around down below. She had never been beyond the palace walls in her entire life and she truly wanted to see what it was like out there someday.

She heard the door open behind her and saw the king and queen enter. “How are you feeling?” Locera asked softly.

“Good,” she replied calmly.

They each sat at her side and Chrysalis turned away from her mother when she saw the sling hanging from her neck. “We’re so glad you’re okay, but you need to be more careful.”

“It was Nymph’s fault!” shouted the princess, waving her hooves around.

“We’re not blaming you, we just got scared.” Locera nuzzled her. “We love you so much, Chrysalis, and we worry about you every day.”

“No, you love Nymph! You think she’s so adorable!” Chrysalis turned back to the city.

Her parents exchanged looks of great concern. “We love you both. We just got a little distracted and we’re sorry.” Locera reached into the sling and pulled out the baby changeling in a cloth diaper. “I know you’re upset at her, but she’s family and she loves you, so we want you to love her back.” She used a hoof to tickle Nymph’s belly, causing her to loudly giggle. “Why don’t you play with her for today? It’ll make you feel better about what happened.”

“But I wanna play with the other changelings!” Chrysalis protested.

“It will be just for one day,” said Scarab. “Don’t you want to spend quality time with Nymph?”

Chrysalis crossed her forelegs. “No!”

“Come on. She’s your sister.”

“Well I wish I didn’t have one!”

Locera’s face immediately became stone cold. “Chrysalis, please don’t say that,” pleaded Scarab as he glanced nervously at the matriarch.

“I don’t like her! All she does is cry and drool and barf and cry and everyone likes her! She’s so annoying and I don’t want her! I wish she would go away!”

“CHRYSALIS!” The three changelings looked at Locera in shock. “You will love your sister! You may not feel that way now, but I will make sure you cherish her someday no matter what. I never had a sister and my childhood was quite lonely, especially when I grew up.” She paused for a moment and her husband placed a hoof on her shoulder. After taking a deep breath, she continued. “I had Nymph so you could experience a privilege I was never given. One day, you will appreciate how much she means to you and you will regret wishing you never had her.” She stood, towering over the little changeling. “Now, I want you to play with her and try your best to get over what happened. This playdate will be perfect, Chrysalis. Am I making myself clear?”

The older daughter gulped. “Yes, Mom.”

“Good.” She set Nymph on the carpet and kissed her on the head. “Your father and I need to go rule the kingdom. A servant will be here shortly and she’ll make sure you both are getting along. I hope you will consider my words carefully and enjoy your time with Nymph.”

“Yes, Mom.”

“We’ll see you at supper.” She went for the door and waved a hoof. “Come along, dear. Court is starting.”

“Yes, dear.” He knelt by Chrysalis. “Do you promise to be good?” She nodded in response. “That’s my girl.” Scarab followed Locera outside and closed the door. “A little harsh, don’t you think?”

Locera sighed dejectedly as they walked together. “Perhaps, but Chrysalis’s attitude causes me to worry about her. She’s so young and has proven to be such a hassle.”

“She’ll grow out of it, but I’m more worried about you. You need to be gentle with Chrysalis. She’s a sensitive little child and she may resent Nymph if we try forcing her to love her. I know she doesn’t like her now, but I don’t want you to think that Chrysalis will grow up to be like Widow.”

The queen immediately looked at him with fire in her eyes. “We never speak that name here. Not now, not ever.”

“O-of course. Forgive me.” At the corner of the hall, Locera gave the room behind them one more worried glance before heading to the throne room with her king.

Back in the bedroom, Chrysalis looked at Nymph, who stared at the door expectantly. She couldn’t believe she was still stuck with her, even after she knocked her into the water. What was so special about her? She was just a stupid baby and yet every changeling loved her to death. Chrysalis remembered being first excited about getting a sister and even watched her come out from her egg, but she was nothing like she expected. Her parents told her it would take a while for her to grow and understand things, but she was not a patient changeling. Being the good princess she was, she decided to obey her mother’s command.

“So what do you want to play?” The infant looked at her, saying nothing. “Don’t you know any games?” Nymph cocked her head and Chrysalis sighed. “Okay, let’s play hide and seek. I’ll count to ten while you hide and then I’ll find you, okay? I’ll start.” Chrysalis put her hooves over her eyes and slowly counted to ten. “Ready or not, here I…come.” All Nymph had done was lie on the floor, watching her. “You’re supposed to hide, Nymph!” She hopped off the stool and walked up to her little sister. “Do you even know what hiding is?” Nymph babbled while reaching for Chrysalis’s hair, who pulled away. “You’re a dumb sister. I wish I had one who was smart.”

Chrysalis walked to her wooden toy chest and opened it up. “Okay, we’re going to play something else.” One by one she pulled out her dolls, which resembled changelings and various wild animals, and set them on the floor. Nymph became curious and walked over to play with one that resembled a star fish. Ignoring her, Chrysalis kept putting the dolls into place and when she finished, she took the one Nymph had. Nymph tried to reach for it, but Chrysalis forced her to sit. “Sit.” Nymph sat up and tried again. “I said sit!” Chrysalis yelled while forcing her to sit. This time, the baby listened.

With all the other dolls in the place, Chrysalis pulled out the most important one, which was one of Princess Celestia. She didn’t know who she was exactly, but some changelings told her she was the ruler of animals called ponies and they were afraid of her. Chrysalis couldn’t understand how a princess could rule a kingdom if she wasn’t a queen, but she knew she kept changelings from getting love, so she hated her. Changelings often brought her back gifts whenever when they went to the pony kingdom and the doll was one of them. She wasn’t too fond of it, but she would never pass up getting a new toy.

Chrysalis set the Celestia doll so that it sat in front of her audience while facing her. With everything ready, Chrysalis stood in front of her dolls and sister while looking down at Celestia. “Princess Celestia, you are under arrest for not giving the changelings love and we will be taking over Candylot to get all the love and candy!”

“No, please have mercy, Queen Chrysalis!” Chrysalis said in a voice that sounded nothing like Celestia. “I will do anything!”

“Too bad! I don’t like you and you’re stupid looking! As the queen, I decree you shall be eggsycuted!” Chrysalis went to her toy chest and pulled out her most favorite toy of all: a wooden sword. Chrysalis was fascinated with all the weapons the guards had and her father gave her a wooden sword to play with. Locera, however, was extremely worried about what sort of her influence it would have on her, especially since she liked to bash changelings she didn’t like in the shins. “Princess Nymph, you are going to cut off her head in the name of the Changeling Kingdom!” She retrieved the doll and held it to Nymph while putting the sword in front of her. “Go on and eggsycute her!”

Nymph took the doll and examined it. Several seconds later, she giggled and hugged it. “What are you doing!? Off with her head!” The baby didn’t listen and played with Celestia by flapping her wings. Chrysalis smacked her own face with her hoof and slowly dragged it down. “You’re the stupidest changeling ever! You can’t play with the enemy! It’s against the law!” Not to her surprise, Nymph didn’t hear a word she said. “Fine, I’ll do it.” She grabbed the doll, but Nymph clung onto it. “Let go!” She pulled harder, but Nymph refused to let go and loudly whimpered. “I said let go, stupid!”

Chrysalis stuck a hoof on Nymph’s chest and tried to push her away. However, Chrysalis did not realize how foolish it was to agitate a baby changeling. Fed up with her sister harassing her, Nymph lunged at the hoof pushing against her and bit it. Chrysalis yelled and pulled away, but Nymph clung on. Chrysalis soon pried her off and jumped around while waving her hoof frantically. She looked at her hoof, which wasn’t bleeding to her relief, and rubbed it while staring hatefully at Nymph, who just sat there playing with Celestia. Chrysalis was not going to let her baby sister get the better of her.

She slowly approached Nymph, who eventually noticed her coming. Feeling intimidated by her furious expression, Nymph picked up the doll with her mouth and walked away. Seeing that Chrysalis was catching up, Nymph increased her pace. Eventually, the both of them started running. “Give me the doll!” She chased Nymph all over the room, both running in circles. Fearful of being caught, Nymph slipped under the bed and right before Chrysalis went down after her, Nymph loudly hissed at her, bearing her fangs. Rather than follow, Chrysalis jumped on the bed. She didn’t want to get bit again, so she decided to take a new approach to snatch the doll. She sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at the floor. “Come out, Nymph. I got…uh…nectar! You like nectar, don’t you?”

Nymph poked her head from under the bed with the doll in her mouth and was surprised when Chrysalis lunged down and grabbed it. “Ha! Stupid Nymph! Celestia is mine now!” The infant immediately became extremely distressed and jumped against the bed, crying out. However, she was much too small to climb up, but that didn’t stop her from jumping. Seeing how sad Nymph was, Chrysalis blew a raspberry. “You can’t come up here. Smart changelings only,” she taunted. The baby eventually stopped trying and sat there, crying to herself.

Chrysalis stood over the edge of her bed, triumphant. She couldn’t wait for her mother to come back and take her away. Then she could…

Chrysalis, I’m back! Wait, why is your sister crying? What did you do!? I told you to be nice to Nymph, but it looks like you need a spanking!

The little changeling gasped and put her hooves over her rear. If she didn’t do something to calm her down, she would be in big trouble. She quickly grabbed the doll and held it to Nymph. “Look! You can have Celestia!” The infant didn’t listen and continued crying, so Chrysalis jumped down. “Here! Just take her and stop crying! Please!” Nymph realized the doll was in front of her and quickly snatched it, holding against her as she wept. She wasn’t bawling anymore, but tears were still visible on her face.

Chrysalis grabbed the end of her bed sheet and tried to wipe her sister’s face. However, the hatchling did not like being touched by her sister, pulling her face away and making sounds of protest. “Please just hold still!” Chrysalis tried again, but this time Nymph fought back by biting her once again. Chrysalis yelped and jumped away, holding back the urge to cry. Nymph stood up and walked to a corner of the room, playing with the doll in peace.

Once the pain faded, Chrysalis glared at her sibling. She wanted to yell some more, but she couldn’t possibly risk having her cry again. “Stupid baby.” At least Nymph wasn’t crying anymore and distracted with the toy, so she could now play whatever she wanted without worrying about her.

Chrysalis went to her other dolls and played with one that was a dragon, pretending it was terrorizing her people and she would save the day by slaying it with the help of her best friend in the whole wide world, Prince Handsome, a changeling she planned on marrying when she grew up. However, during the epic adventure of her and the prince, Chrysalis failed to notice that Nymph occasionally came over and returned to her corner. After the beast was struck down by her mighty weapon, Chrysalis cheered. “Yay! Now that the kingdom is safe, I will marry the lovely Prince Handsome and live happily ever after!”

She picked up the prince and held him up to her face. “Marrying you will be the best thing ever, my pretty Queen Chrysalis,” she spoke in a different voice.

“I love you, Prince Handsome!” She brought their faces together for a kiss. “Let’s get married right now and be king and queen forever!”

She had all her dolls lined up so they could watch the magnificent wedding that was about to take place. As she worked, she thought about getting flowers to make her wedding truly special for next time. What kind of bride didn't have flowers? She would be sure to get the prettiest flowers in the world when she got married in real life and every changeling would be so jealous. The thought of her real wedding had Chrysalis hum happily as she put everything into place. However, when she finished setting everything up, she noticed her groom was gone. “Prince Handsome? Where are you? You’re late for the wedding!” She looked at the crowd, but he wasn’t there. She then noticed that quite a few of her toys were missing.

There could only be one explanation.

She looked at Nymph and gasped loudly. The hatchling was surrounded by several of her toys and, to her horror, holding Prince Handsome with his head in her mouth. “PRINCE HANDSOME!” She rushed over, but hesitated when Nymph looked at her. “Nymph, let him go! He’s mine!” The changeling just stared at her as she continued to chew on his head. Fed up, Chrysalis ran up to her and pulled the doll away. “Mine!”

Nymph did not like having her things taken and stood up, growling. “No! You can’t have my toys! You got drool all over the prince!” The infant approached her with her teeth visible. This time, Chrysalis did not back down as trying to eat her lover was too much for her to stand. “Go away or else!” Nymph made an attempt to grab the doll, but her sister intercepted by shoving her back. The hatchling fell backwards onto the floor and after some whimpering, she exploded into loud crying.

Chrysalis panicked and ran to her side. Before she could do anything, the door opened and a guard with armor on her shins walked in. Chrysalis gulped as the other changeling looked at the display. “Princess Chrysalis, why is your sister crying?” she asked in an unfriendly voice.

The princess shook on the spot. “Um…we were playing…and…she started crying! I don’t know anything about it!”

Chrysalis waited tensely as the guard stared at her. “The poor thing must be hungry again. I’ll have one of the servants take care of her. Will you be okay by yourself?”

She rapidly nodded. “Yep! T-take good care of her and stuff!”

The guard walked over to the crying infant and scooped her up. “Come on, Princess. Don’t cry now. Everything will be okay.” Chrysalis smiled deviously as the guard flew away with her sister and released a breath of relief when she couldn’t hear the crying anymore. Once she closed the door, she resumed her wedding by placing the rest of the dolls in place. Before she could start, she noticed she put Celestia there and since she wasn’t invited, Chrysalis punted her away. Now that everything was ready, she could finally kiss her prince and marry him.

After she washed him and he dried off, of course.

To Chrysalis’s relief, she wasn’t made to play with Nymph for the rest of the day as the servants let Nymph nap in her own room after calming her down. During dinner, she saw her parents again as well as her sister. Locera asked her about their time together and Chrysalis just told her they played with her dolls until she started crying. To her dismay, that caused her parents and other changelings to approach Nymph and talk cute to her. Chrysalis wondered if they would act the same way to her if she started crying suddenly.

Night fell and Chrysalis rubbed her tired eyes as she approached her bed. She looked forward to tomorrow since she wouldn’t be stuck with Nymph again and could boss around the other kids. If she was forced to spend time with her again, maybe she could make up that she had a tummy ache and needed a nap so she wouldn’t be bothered. After acquiring Prince Handsome and getting comfortable on the bed, Chrysalis awaited her mother to tuck her in and kiss her goodnight. A few minutes later, she heard the door open. “Chrysalis? Are you awake?”

Chrysalis sat up, happy to hear her mother’s gentle voice. “Yes, Mom.” When the queen entered, Chrysalis’s smile faded when she saw her with the sling.

After closing the door, Locera knelt by her bed. “I just wanted to say goodnight before going to bed, so goodnight, my little princess. I will see you in the morning.”

Chrysalis reached over and hugged her neck lovingly. “Goodnight, Mom.”

Locera kissed her on the cheek and then took Nymph out from the bundle. “I also want you to say goodnight to your little sister since you love her so much.”

“Goodnight, Nymph,” said Chrysalis, pretending to be happy.

To Chrysalis’s dismay, the queen held the hatchling out. “Now give her a little goodnight kiss.”

The older daughter wanted to gag, but then her mother would know something was up. Chrysalis slowly reached her head forward, but quickly recoiled when Nymph loudly whimpered and Locera pulled her baby back. After Nymph calmed down, she held out the baby towards Chrysalis again, noticing her daughter looked ready to cry and even struggled in her hooves as she got closer to her sister. Locera returned Nymph to her sling. “What did you do to her?”

“N-nothing,” Chrysalis answered nervously.

“Chrysalis, don’t lie! Your sister wouldn’t act like this if you did what I said!”

“I’m not lying!” she argued as she raised the sheet in front of her.

Locera lunged and pulled her by the ear, dragging her closer. “Chrysalis, tell me the truth right now or I will discipline you!”

Tears erupted out of Chrysalis’s eyes as she tried to break free. “I tried playing with her, but she doesn’t do anything I want her to do! She just messes everything up and steals my toys! Nymph’s just a crybaby who bites me and doesn’t understand anything I say! She kept biting me and eating my toys so I pushed her! I-I don’t wanna play with her anymore!”

Locera released her and the little changeling backed away as her mother loudly sighed, putting a hoof over her face. “Chrysalis, I am extremely disappointed in you. I specifically told you to play with your sister and you couldn’t even do that.” Chrysalis sniffled without looking at her and Locera brought Nymph to her chest, gently rubbing the top of her head. “Why is it so hard for you to get along with her? She’s just an innocent little baby.”

“It’s because you love Nymph more than me!” she cried.

The queen looked at her in surprise. “Chrysalis, do you really believe that?”

“I do! You always talk about how cute she and think everything she does is adorable. The other changelings like playing with her more than me. Why is she so special? What about me? You always keep her in your room so you and Daddy can play with her when you tell me you’re too busy to play with me! Why do you like her more than me!? Why!?” Chrysalis sniffled loudly as she put her hooves over her face.

Locera climbed onto the bed, putting a foreleg around Chrysalis while setting Nymph on the opposite side. Chrysalis pressed her face against her chest as Locera held her. “Chrysalis, my precious angel, do not ever think I love you less than her. I love you as equally as Nymph, no matter what.”

“But…but why do you always keep her with you? You keep saying you’re too busy for me.”

“Chrysalis, Nymph is very young and requires much attention. She’s not able to take care of herself like you can. When we keep her in our room, she usually takes a nap and we keep an eye on her while we work. Do you know why I chose to have you play with Nymph?” Chrysalis shook her head. “There are two reasons. The first reason is I want you to get along with her since you seem to resent her. You know your father and I are very busy most of the time and we don’t get to see you that much.” The princess slowly nodded. “I’m afraid it may always be like this with everything going on in the kingdom, so Nymph is here to keep you company for those times.”

“But I wanna play with the other kids!”

“I know you do, but trust me when I say…” Locera bit her lip. “Nymph will be around longer. Not only that, but I guarantee she will be your closest friend someday, one who will look up to you and stand by your side no matter what.”

Chrysalis looked up at her. “Really?”

“Yes. The other reason I left her with you was I was trying to teach you responsibility.”

“What’s that?”

“It means being able to do what is required of you because it is your duty. This is something you must do a lot when you are a queen. You do these things not because you want to, but because you have to and it is important to be responsible.”

“That sounds hard,” Chrysalis complained.

Locera chuckled. “Sometimes it is, but making my kingdom happy makes it all worth it. It won’t always be fun and games when you rule the kingdom, Chrysalis, so I must make sure you are ready when the time comes. Trust me when I say playing with an infant is very easy compared to what is to come in the future, so you need to try harder next time to do what I ask you to do.”

Chrysalis lowered her head. “Are you mad at me?”

The queen took a deep breath and exhaled. “No, I’m just surprised at you. I worry every day about you two not getting along, especially now since you hit her.” Locera pressed Chrysalis against her chest and looked into the distance. “My…mother didn’t get along with her sisters and it was…frightening. I don’t want something like that to happen to you two, so please just try to get along with Nymph. That’s all I want.”

Chrysalis nodded while sniffling. “I’m sorry, Mommy. I’ll be a better sister next time.”

Locera lifted her daughter up to rub her nose against hers. “It’s okay, Chrysalis. I’m just glad you understand now.”

“Is Nymph going to hate me?”

“Only if you don’t try to make up for what happened.” Locera turned and picked up Nymph, setting her between her and Chrysalis. The infant snuggled against her mother as she gently stroked her with her hoof. “Why don’t you give her a hug and tell her how sorry you are?”

Sighing, Chrysalis scooted closer to Nymph, who hadn’t noticed since she was facing her mother. After a moment of hesitation, Chrysalis hugged her from behind. The hatchling was not fond at all of being touched by her sister and struggled. “I’m sorry, Nymph. I didn’t mean it.” She released her and Nymph quickly backed away from her. Chrysalis got closer and Nymph put her hooves over her eyes. What she didn’t expect was a kiss on the forehead. Nymph peeked with one eye and saw Chrysalis looking at her, smiling. She removed her hooves and got closer, so Chrysalis slowly hugged her again. This time, Nymph did not struggle and giggled a bit. “I love you.”

Wiping the tears off her own eyes, Locera hugged both her children. “Well done, Chrysalis. You are learning to be responsible.” She took back Nymph and stood up. “You will be seeing her again tomorrow, so get some sleep.”

“Okay.” As Locera approached the door, Chrysalis suddenly asked, “Mom?”

“Yes, dear?”

The little princess fidgeted with her hooves. “Can she stay with me tonight?”

Locera was stunned. “You really wish to have her with you?”

She nodded. “I want to learn respons…responsy…uh…”

“Responsibility,” she answered warmly. Locera returned to the bed and lowered Nymph onto it. She then tucked both her daughters and kissed each of them. “Goodnight, girls. Sweet dreams.” She then stepped out and closed the door, leaving them in the dark.

Nymph suddenly whimpered as she looked towards the door, so Chrysalis hugged her. “It’s okay. I’m here.” Much to her surprise, that calmed her down and Nymph even nuzzled against her. “I guess you’re not that bad of a sister. I can’t wait until you grow up so we can play hide and seek, slay the dragon, have a wedding, and other stuff.” Chrysalis yawned and slowly closed her eyes. “I’m sorry for being mean. I’m going to be responspickle just like Mom wants me to be. I promise to never be mean to you again, Nymph. We’re going to be the best sisters ever.” Chrysalis soon fell into slumber and Nymph followed shortly after.

A New Scheme

“Ms. Pincher! There are some customers waiting for you!”

“On it, Mr. Dovey!” Penny Pincher grumbled to herself as she made her way to the table. Penny Pincher was a copper colored unicorn in her twenties with an orange mane and a cutie mark of two bits. At least, that was how she appeared to everypony else. In reality, she was not even a pony. She was actually the queen of changelings, or she was until almost three months ago. After she returned home from a humiliating defeat at Canterlot, she was immediately stripped of her title and then sentenced into exile. She had hidden herself among the citizens of Manehattan, hearing that it was a romantic town for honeymooners, and had taken employment in a small restaurant called Lovey Dovey’s Love Café. It paid less than other venues and all the customers didn’t carry enough love to sustain her hunger. It felt like a dead end for her.

She expected herself to tolerate the new lifestyle, but she couldn’t even bring herself to. She was royalty and longed to return home, but the atmosphere of the changeling kingdom had become incredibly hostile, wanting her head. If she were to set even one hoof into the kingdom, they would imprison her and send her straight to Celestia in hopes that she would forgive them for their former queen’s actions. The only reasons she still worked here were it gave something to do while she figured out what she was going to do for the future and because it was great for testing her own patience and personality so she wouldn’t make any more mistakes like the ones at the wedding. However, her own patience and attempts of feigned kindness were running thin at her workplace.

Penny Pincher, or Chrysalis, approached a table where a couple was waiting for her. She forced herself to smile and took out a pencil and notepad. “Welcome to Lovey Dovey’s Love Café, the most romantic place in Equestria!” Every time she said that, she died more inside. It was an awful and redundant name yet it still somehow attracted enough ponies to stay in business. “What can I get for you two lovers?”

The stallion at the table spoke in a quiet voice, sounding slightly embarrassed. “I will take the heart herbal tea and my wife will have the make-out mocha.” These names made Chrysalis want to gag.

“Of course, sir. I will be right back.” She went over to the counter and prepared their drinks, trying to act cheery in hopes that no pony would suspect that she was a changeling. Since the attack on the royal wedding, all of Equestria had become incredibly paranoid about her species. Occasionally, she had seen a pony accused of being one and sent away for trial. They of course never caught an actual changeling, but the fear was still persistent. Even Lovey Dovey, the owner of the café, often checked on customers for suspicious behavior. Any tic or sign of nervousness could spell misfortune. Fortunately for Chrysalis, she had been in the acting business for many years and could withstand the pressure.

While she was working on the customers’ drinks, a voice bloomed behind her. “Hey, Penny! Busy day, huh?”

Chrysalis recognized the voice and turned around. It was Sunshine, one of the other waitresses there. She was an earth pony with a bright yellow coat and a brown mane. Ever since she obtained employment here, Sunshine had been trying to befriend her. Chrysalis pretended to be friends with her, but refused to hang out with her outside of work. She hated Sunshine, but in fairness, she hated everypony. They were nothing more than food to her. She always conjured a rational excuse whenever asked to meet up after work so she wouldn't be stuck with her. A few times already Sunshine had become suspicious of her and as a last resort, Chrysalis used her magic when they were alone to wipe her memory of any suspicion. “Hey, Sunny. Yeah, I’m just working on an order right now.”

“Well I just wanted you to know that Mr. Dovey is expecting you to pick up the pace. He feels that you’re not working your hardest.”

Chrysalis turned back to the drinks, gritting her teeth. “Is that so? Well tell him I will consider his advice.” Her boss was always on her case, trying to make everything as perfect as possible, and that often involved him telling her how to do things right. She received one of these lectures almost every day and she hated them more every time.

“Great! So Penny, I was thinking after work, we could-”

“Sorry, can’t talk now,” Chrysalis said hastily as she quickly put the drinks on a tray. “I’m really busy with customers right now, so we have to talk another time. Okay?” She then made her way across the restaurant, trying to distance herself from Mr. Dovey’s personal flank kisser. As she approached the couple, she overheared their conversation.

“Honey, I really think you should talk to our daughter. I don’t like that boy she’s been hanging out with,” said the wife.

The stallion sighed. “I know how you feel, but I don’t see what I can do. She never listens to me anymore.”

“But I’m starting to think she really likes him. And if she were to marry that hick from Appleloosa, what would the neighbors think?” his wife complained while Chrysalis rolled her eyes. Rich ponies cared way too much about how everypony saw them.

The husband looked distraught. “I agree. But how should we get rid of him? Do you think he would accept a bribe to leave her?”

Chrysalis stepped in and placed their drinks down, startling the both of them. “Personally, if I was in your position, I would use a little ‘parental enforcement’ and tell him I’d break his legs if he came near her again. And if my daughter didn’t like it, I’d show her the door.”

The wife was absolutely appalled by her suggestion, but then noticed her husband smiling. “O-or maybe we could just find somepony else for her! You know, someone who is actually respectable in this town.”

“Yes, but she seems to be really into that cowboy. It’s a shame we can’t just make her fall in love with somepony else.”

Chrysalis stood there, his words echoing in her mind. “Make her fall in love,” she said quietly enough that the couple didn’t hear her. “Make ponies fall in love...” She felt the cogs in her head begin to quiver. Before they could really begin to turn, she heard the shrill voice of her boss disrupt her.

“Penny, darling! Please stop bothering the customers and get back to work!” Lovey Dovey, the fat, pink pegasus who owned this restaurant, was staring at her angrily. She ignored him and tried to think some more. Changelings always had to use methods of direct feeding to survive, which was much more difficult now with the heightened security. Maybe if there was much more love somewhere…

“Ms. Pincher! Are you listening to me!?”

One thing Chrysalis really loathed was being interrupted, but she had made up her mind. “Shove it, you fat flank!” Everypony in the restaurant looked at her in complete shock. “I’m sick of taking orders from you, I’m sick of Sunshine, and I’m sick of this stupid café! I quit!”

“What!? But you can’t just quit!”

Chrysalis ignored him as she made her way to door as she had much bigger plans in mind. She tore off her uniform and threw it behind her. Once she reached the door, she opened it and just stood there. She thought of how she could make her goodbye much more memorable, so she turned back and shouted, “Oh, and to get that extra kick of flavor, we mix dragon snot into the drinks!”

She immediately went out the door as everypony spat out their drinks. The café became an immediate cacophony of screams, breaking glass, and falling tables. As she walked away, she turned her head around and witnessed a stampede of ponies fleeing out the door with one even jumping through a glass window. Mr. Dovey then came out of the café and followed them, shouting at them to come back. It was likely he would call the authorities on her, but that soon wouldn’t matter. It was time to get out of dodge.

Celestial Suites was one of the largest, most expensive hotels in the city and it was where the former changeling queen had taken residence ever since her exile. While she hated how it had the name of the all-powerful alicorn ruler who she had clashed with at the wedding, it was considered fit enough for royalty and she was most definitely royalty. She wasn't at all worried about somepony here recognizing her from the café as ponies never took the time to remember faces and she did well to keep a low profile. She strolled through the lobby while humming to herself, thinking over her idea as she walked.

She reached her room and started to pack immediately, eager to begin her plot. She didn’t need to pack much as all she had besides the essentials were several dresses which she had “purchased” from several stores. Often at night she would wear one, take the form of a random mare, and make her way to several bars in the city to hit on many ponies. With her talented charm, every one of her hunts ended in success with a passed out stallion or mare and herself full of renewed energy. It was very easy for her to feed off a pony’s love, and sometimes their wallets, despite the increased awareness.

Once she had packed her dresses away, she brought out several large bags she hid in her closet that were filled with a large amount of bits she had obtained from some very love-struck ponies. She only used the cash to pay for her stay since mind control made paying for other things unneeded, but another reason she took money along with other things was that during her time living as a pony, she discovered a sudden thrill that came with stealing. She stashed them all together into a bigger suitcase, thinking it would be a good idea to have some actual cash on her. With everything put away, she took her luggage and made her way out the door.

She returned to the lobby, approached the front desk, and rung the bell. One of the workers that she grew to know and loathe, Belle Hop, appeared. “Hello, Ms. Pincher! How can I help you today?”

“Hello, Belle,” she responded with feigned friendliness. “I am here to check out of this hotel and return home.”

“I’m happy to hear that! You must be very homesick after being on vacation for so long.”

“You have no idea,” Chrysalis responded bitterly, wishing she could return home from her “vacation".

“Allow me to pull up your bill before you go.” She went over to one of the desks in the back and pulled out a file and a calculator. After several moments, Belle returned with a small piece of paper and handed it to her.

Chrysalis merely glanced over it. She could easily pay it off with the money she had, but she hated Belle as well as everypony in this town. They didn’t deserve a single bit from her. She looked around the lobby, making sure that no pony was looking in their direction, and then turned her attention back onto Belle, grinning maliciously. “Of course. Allow me to pay you fully.” Her horn glowed green and then it shot a bolt of magic at her. Belle’s eyes turned green and spun around for a moment. After she regained her focus, she looked back at Chrysalis.

“Thank you for staying at Celestial Suites. We hope to see you again!” she said while waving goodbye to her.

“I most certainly hope I don’t,” she muttered under her breath as she walked out. While she admitted it was sort of a nice place to stay, especially since she spoiled herself with massages and wine, it didn’t even come close to feeling of being back home. She walked the streets of Manehatten, filled with excitement at the thought of possibly reclaiming her throne. She looked around her and saw the rich folk that she despised of Manehatten. She was so glad to be finally away from their snobby elitism. The thought that any of these wretched ponies thought themselves to be above her was sickening.

However, there was something she needed to do first before her departure. She crept her way into an alley and when the coast was clear, her horn glowed. She no longer needed this body and needed a new guise. Her whole body was engulfed in green magic and after a few seconds, it faded. She was now a tall, slender, rose red unicorn with a bright pink mane in her early thirties and on her flank were two hearts that were pierced by an arrow. It was the perfect disguise for what she had planned. She also didn’t want to take the chance of running into any law enforcement before she departed.

Chrysalis left the alley and continued on her way. She had at last reached the train station and took a map from the ticket counter, looking at all possible cities that she could go. During her stay, she had learned much about Equestria’s cities from visitors who had come to the cafe. She just needed to go somewhere that had a large enough population of ponies who weren’t stuck up like the ones here, where the ponies were simple. After several minutes of scanning the map, she saw the perfect place. She placed the map in her bag and went up to the counter, where a stallion was busy reading a book. He just glanced at her.

“Where to, ma’am?”

Chrysalis grinned. “One ticket to Ponyville, please.”

She went to the back of a nearly empty car, trying to be alone, and took a seat, sketching her plan in her mind. It was simple. She would arrive in Ponyville and make as many ponies as possible to fall in love. In order to do that, she would set up a dating service in order to help them find the one. It might take some time, but she knew how work with ponies. Once that was accomplished, she would return to her kingdom in order to tell her subjects that she had created a place filled with an enormous amount of love and then the next phase would begin. Large groups of changelings could go there and sustain their hunger by merely being there and no pony would notice. With the difficulty they now faced of taking the form of another pony and feeding off someone due to Equestria’s awareness, they would have no choice but to accept. She would then kick her younger sister Nymph off the throne, reclaim her rightful place, and send her into exile to see how she liked it. Once that was done, she would let her soldiers feed and grow stronger for a while and once they were strong enough, she would go for a second invasion. This time, she would make no mistakes.

Her mood immediately soured by the thought of her sister. When she returned after the invasion, many of her subjects were waiting for her, furious. She could not resist their assault on her because she was physically and mentally weakened from the barrier that had thrown her and her army out of Canterlot and she was imprisoned. Since Nymph was the only other heir to the throne and was considered to be less “tyrannical", they made her into their queen. Nymph was three years younger than Chrysalis and had always claimed to know better about ruling the kingdom than her. She even told her that her attempt of an invasion was very foolish and thought they were better off to remain in hiding and reap the resource of love in secret instead of an all-out assault.

After her forced abdication and imprisonment, Chrysalis was held on trial for her failures to the kingdom. The council and the public were outraged at her for failing in her plan as it not only exposed their existence to the world, but now they were at risk of going to war. Many of them wanted her imprisoned for life and some even suggested execution due to some of the casualties, but the decision was given to solely Nymph. Chrysalis felt incredible fear as she awaited her fate. She had not treated Nymph well for the last several years and was convinced that she would take vengeance on her at the first chance she got. However, this was not the case. The queen instead took “mercy” on her and had her banished. At least if she had been imprisoned she would still be home. It felt like Nymph did it in order to carry out her humiliation. Let her suffer without a kingdom or even a home.

Just to further add salt to the wound, she had heard about her sister’s activity in most of the pony newspapers. Nymph was having several diplomatic meetings with Princess Celestia and the Canterlot political elite, asking for forgiveness and even the chance to live side-by-side with ponies with some sort of compromise. What was worse was that she was using her own sister as a scapegoat. Chrysalis was disgusted by this. Changelings were meant to feed off the love of ponies. Ponies were prey and changelings were predators and thus the superior species. They shouldn’t have to ask them for anything. Chrysalis had the right idea of taking rule of them.

After several hours, the train came to a stop at her destination. She grabbed her bags and stepped outside. It was certainly a small town like she imagined. The first thing she needed to do was to find somewhere where she could start up her business. As she walked, she took notice of her surroundings. It was much greener and cleaner than Manehatten and the ponies were going about their day, mindlessly greeting each other with smiles and acting polite. Despite them being much friendlier, she hated them just as much as the citizens of Manehatten. She could never stand ponykind.

She kept her cool as she introduced herself to ponies, asking for directions for new housing, and eventually came across what she was looking for. It was a business district right in the vein of a street busy with ponies walking through. It was the perfect place to start as its location would surely attract many potential customers and one building just happened to be for sale. It was a two story building that was much smaller than what she considered to be ideal.

Chrysalis sighed in defeat. “From my palace, to a hotel, and now this. Can I possibly sink any lower?” She was really reluctant in taking it, but it could be weeks or months before anywhere else would become available. As she approached the door, she saw a white earth pony mare inside. Chrysalis tapped on the glass of the door and got her attention. The mare went to the door and opened it.

“Hello, Miss,” she said in a friendly tone, “my name is Short Sale. Are you interested in purchasing this estate?”

Chrysalis faked a smile. “Why yes. I most certainly am.” In truth, she would rather be dead than live here. “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to take a look at first.”

Short Sale smiled at her. “Of course! Allow me to give you the tour, Miss…”

“Cherub.”

“Alright, Ms. Cherub, please come with me.” She returned inside and Chrysalis followed her. “This is the main room here and the kitchen is right over there. There is a small closet just on the left here and a bathroom in the back. Now please follow me upstairs.” Chrysalis followed her up. “Up here is the master bedroom as well as a second bathroom. I know it’s small, but I guarantee this is a comfortable place to live and even run a business.”

“I’m sure it is,” Chrysalis said while looking around. She knew the agent was full of it. Whoever thought a building of this size was good for living in and working in was an idiot, which was probably why it was the only building for sale in the first place. Even the smallest shops she had been in had more room than this.

“Well that concludes our exciting tour,” said the salesmare, laughing at her own joke. Chrysalis didn’t even smirk. “So do you still feel like buying? It’s a great deal!”

Chrysalis bit her lip. She didn’t like the idea of living somewhere so small, but she was desperate to get started as soon as she could. She had no choice but to accept. “Yes! I most certainly would like to buy!”

Short’s expression lit up. “Excellent! Now let’s go downstairs and you can fill out the paperwork.”

Chrysalis suddenly burst out laughing. “I don’t think that’s necessary, seeing how that’s your job!” Before Short Sale could respond, Chrysalis shot her with a bolt of magic. Short’s eyes glowed green and she made her way downstairs with the changeling following. She took a stack of paper from her bag and set them on the table, beginning to scribble on them with a pen. Chrysalis chuckled as she watched her work. “And I do believe I have paid for this wretched place fully!”

After several minutes, the possessed pony finished and put away the papers. She then handed Chrysalis the keys as well as the deed. Chrysalis decided to reduce the amount of magic she was using, which allowed Short Sale to regain some of her free will so it was less obvious that she had been controlled as the pony made her way to the door. Chrysalis made sure there was enough magic left in her that the unicorn would think everything was done and would not consider double checking anything. When she stepped outside, Short Sale turned around and spoke. “Thank you for buying! I hope that you enjoy your new home. Oh, and I should warn you about the s-”

Chrysalis slammed the door on her and made her way upstairs. She dropped her bags and laid on the wooden floor, completely exhausted from her traveling. She was going to have to fill the place with furniture and other things before she got started, but she really didn’t feel like getting started today. She laid there and fatigue eventually took over, causing her to drift asleep.

An hour later, Chrysalis woke up, startled. She heard weird noises and voices coming from the room below. “Who could be possibly down there?” she thought as she stood. She had enough magic to take on any intruder, but maybe it was just Short Sale coming back because she forgot something.

That’s when a frightful thought appeared in her mind. What if somepony caught on to the mind control she had left on her? Ponies still jumped at the word of changelings, so they could be much more aware of such things. She then started to think that somepony caught on to her and reported her to the royal guards. They would take her back to Canterlot and she would face the wrath of Celestia. These thoughts kept playing over and over in her head as she slowly made her way down the stairs. “H-hello? Is somepony down th-“

“SURPRISE!”

Chrysalis shrieked and lost her footing, tumbling down the stairs and landing on the floor with a loud thud. She laid on the floor, head spinning and sore all over from her fall. She then looked back up and her eyes went wide. Not only were there many ponies in her home, but the place was filled to the brim with balloons. One of the living room tables was covered with cake, treats, punch, and a record player and hanging right above her was a large banner which said, “Welcome to Ponyville!”

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay!? I’m super-duper sorry! I guess that surprise had a little too much surprise!” Chrysalis felt her blood boil as she immediately recognized the voice. She looked up and saw a pink pony with a large curly mane. It was the same annoying pony who had planned on making the wedding party something for little fillies. She hadn’t even bothered to remember her name. Chrysalis, burning with fury, stood up.

“WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DID YOU GET INSIDE MY HOME!?” Everypony in the room immediately cowered at the sound of her booming voice.

“I’m-I’m sorry! I j-just wanted you to feel w-welcome on your first day in Ponyville! Short Sale gives m-me the keys to all the homes so I-I can welcome all the new ponies,” replied the terrified mare, now at the verge of tears.

Chrysalis snarled at her, but then caught herself. She looked around and saw everypony staring at her in complete terror. This kind of first impression would probably kill her business before it even got off the ground and she needed to fix it quickly. “O-oh, I had no idea! I was just taken off guard by the fact that a bunch of strangers were inside my home. Please forgive me.” She struggled to make herself smile, waiting for a response.

The pink pony’s expression instantly returned back to a giant grin. “Well these strangers are now your friends! My name is Pinkie Pie, and I will be your bestest friend in the whole wide world!” She grabbed Chrysalis’s hoof and shook it violently.

Chrysalis wanted nothing more than to throw all these ponies out, but now was a good time to mingle and advertise. The sooner she could make a positive introduction, the better. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Cherub. I’ve just come from Manehattan looking for something new and rural.”

Pinkie then jumped onto the table. “Well Cherub, now it’s time to PAR-TY!” She turned on the record player and music blasted out of it. Everypony cheered and proceeded to enjoy the party. The sound of the music and the other ponies cheering was deafening to Chrysalis. Pinkie grabbed her hoof. “Come on! Let me introduce to everypony!”

Pinkie dragged her all over the room, introducing her to everypony she could find. Chrysalis was not really paying attention to what Pinkie told her and focused more on spreading the news of her soon-to-come business. Eventually, she was brought to a group of ponies who were very familiar to her. “And here are my bestest friends ever! There’s Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and…”

Before Pinkie finished, Chrysalis looked at the pony she was going to introduce next and felt a surge of scorn flow through her body. It was the one who had put her into this awful position in the first place by foiling her plans. “Twilight Sparkle,” she spoke in a vile tone.

Pinkie and her friends stared at her, confused. “You know who I am?” the purple unicorn questioned.

“Yes, I...” She realized what she was doing and panicked. It was her personality which gave her away before when she was disguised as Princess Cadance. She could not make that mistake again. She spoke again, this time in a much friendlier voice. “I mean…yes, I do! Aren’t you the sister of Shining Armor?”

Twilight’s expression lit up. “You know my brother?”

“No, it’s just that I read about the wedding and I believe you were mentioned. It’s very nice to meet you.” She remembered from when she'd taken Cadance’s place that Shining Armor had mentioned Twilight at times and told her where she lived. She really wished she actually paid attention to anything he said, because now she was living in the same town as her mortal enemy. She couldn’t believe that she had overlooked this very important fact and now she was stuck with her breathing down her neck. She extended her hoof towards Twilight, hoping that she would shake it and forget what had just happened.

Twilight reached out and took her hoof, her eyes showing no sign of concern or curiosity. “It’s nice to meet you, too!”

Rarity, the white unicorn, spoke up. “So tell us, Cherub, what brings you all the way to Ponyville?”

Chrysalis was reluctant to have any of them know what she was doing in order to reduce any possible interference, but telling them to mind their own business would only draw suspicion onto her. “Well, it’s kind of embarrassing. I was sort of hoping for a chance to start a business here.”

“What kind of business?” the mare asked with sparked interest.

The changeling took a deep breath before admitting to them what her life had become. “A dating business. I’m a matchmaker.”

Pinkie suddenly became really excited, standing on her hind legs while flapping her forelegs. “Oh, so you make matches? That sounds fun! I’d buy from you, but the Cakes don’t let me handle matches anymore.”

All of her friends burst out laughing and Pinkie seemed confused. “Not that kind of matchmaking,” Chrysalis said in an annoyed tone as she placed a hoof on her own face. “I mean that ponies come to me and I help them find a special somepony. You know, romance?”

“That sounds nice,” said Fluttershy. She suddenly looked nervous. “S-so if any of us asked f-for a special somepony…”

Applejack cut her off. “Not me. Ah believe that findin’ somepony that ya want to spend the rest of your life with is just somethin’ that happens naturally. Not by having somepony else tellin’ ya who they think you should date. No offense to ya, Cherub.”

“I hear that!” said Rainbow Dash. “Take me for example. I just spend my time being awesome, because I am, and now I’m dating the best Wonderbolt ever, Soarin! Did I mention he’s a Wonderbolt?”

Rarity groaned with her other friends rolling their eyes. “Yes dear, it’s very nice and all, but I wish you would stop trying to bring it up at every chance you got.”

“You’re just jealous because the pony of your dreams was a jerk,” teased Rainbow Dash, only to receive a harsh glare in response.

Chrysalis spoke up, trying to get the conversation back on track. “Anyway, it will take me some time before I get started. I still need to furnish my home first and I’m afraid I am not at all familiar with anypony here.”

Pinkie tightly placed a foreleg around Chrysalis's neck, heavily intruding into her personal space. “Don’t worry, Cherub! I know everypony in Ponyville so I can introduce you to them and then you can make them fall in love!”

Twilight looked at Pinkie, her eyes beaming. “Hey Pinkie, that’s a great idea!”

Chrysalis suddenly felt herself worry. “W-What idea?”

“You should hire Pinkie Pie,” she responded happily while pointing a hoof at her friend.

Pinkie gasped loudly as well as strengthened her grip. “Oh my gosh, Twilight! That is a great idea!”

Chrysalis felt the color drain from her face while the others were excitedly agreeing with Twilight. Of course Twilight would make things worse for her. She had already found the party pony to be probably the most irritating person she ever met, and that was only from meeting her for a few minutes. The thought of being stuck with her for several hours almost every day of the week did not appeal to her in any way. She noticed they were all looking at her, expecting an answer, and she just smiled. “I’ll be sure to think about it.”

Pinkie looked a little disappointed as her ears flopped against her head. “Okay…” She suddenly became hyper again. “You ever play pin the tail on the pony!?”

The party went on for several hours as Chrysalis forced herself to eat some of the food and play several of the party games. She felt that she had spoken with enough ponies to get a nice jump start in customers for when she finally got started, so her time was not completely wasted. It was then late night and the party had finally come to an end. Thankfully, Pinkie and her friends stayed and helped clean up for her, giving her much less work to do. Once they had finished, they said their goodbyes and left. Right before Chrysalis closed the door, Pinkie suddenly ran back up to her. “So you promise to think about hiring me? I can be a really busy bee! Except I don’t buzz and I’m pink, but I really love honey!”

“Yes. Now please go away.” Chrysalis then pushed her away, closed the door, and locked it.

“Okie-dokie-lokie! Bye, Cherub!” Pinkie then bounced out of sight, finally out of the former queen's hair.

Chrysalis sighed with exhaustion and made her way up the stairs. She entered the bedroom and slumped on the floor while using her softer bag as a pillow. With her magic, she closed the door and made sure that all of the window shades were down. She then reverted back to her original changeling form.

“It feels so good to be me again.” She wished she didn’t need to be Cherub and could just return to being Queen Chrysalis, but right now she was only Chrysalis, former ruler and current outcast. Her only chance of reclaiming her title was to go through with her plan and succeed. Failure was not an option.

“It will be so nice to sleep in my bedchamber back home,” Chrysalis said happily as she stretched, “and all it will take is to make these stupid ponies to fall in love with each other.” She was a changeling, so she did have a lot of experience with love and even her ability to sense emotions. She closed her eyes and chuckled. “How hard could it be?”

The Queen and Twi (and her Friends)

After the chaotic dinner, Rarity and Rainbow Dash were brought to the guest room so they could calm down as they were completely hysterical from what happened. It didn’t help that the rest of their friends felt the same way when they discovered what was being served to the changelings. While eating emotions from other species was one thing, parasprites was a whole other story. “H-how could she just do such a thing!?” shouted Rarity frantically. “She just ate the thing alive!”

Celestia was seated on the edge of the bed next to the unicorn, holding Rarity’s hoof in attempt to calm her down while Spike held the other one. “Well changelings are omnivores,” she pointed out.

“You should have told us about the food!” yelled Dash as she pointed a hoof in the alicorn’s face.

“I tried to, but you two ignored my warnings.”

Rarity grabbed and shook the princess. “You didn’t say anything about eating parasprites!”

“I didn’t know about that. I was just thinking about my first visit, where they had-”

“I don’t want to know!” screamed Rarity as she threw her hooves over her ears and jumped back onto the bed.

“At any rate, I knew you would think badly of them if you knew too much of their eating habits, which is why I never said anything specific.”

“They eat cute little animals!” cried Fluttershy.

Celestia wrapped a wing around her. “It’s all a part of nature, Fluttershy. I know it is quite gruesome, but I hope this doesn’t change how you feel about them.”

“Ah’m mad at Nymph cause she was laughin’ at poor Rarity and Dash,” said Applejack.

“Don’t take it too hard. I think she was expecting them to react like that. I am so sorry I didn’t try harder to stop you two. I did not think things would get out of hoof as much as they did.”

“I guess we should’ve tried listening,” admitted the blue pegasus.

Celestia stood up. “It is getting late and I need to do some reading before I retire for the night. I will be in my room if you need anything from me. Goodnight, girls.”

“Goodnight, Princess,” they all said at once. Celestia left the room and right before she closed the door, Twilight appeared.

“Celestia, can we talk?”

“What is it, my faithful student? Is everything alright?”

Twilight entered the hall and closed the door. “Everything’s fine. I just want to ask you a few things.”

“Ask away.”

Twilight took a moment before asking, “What happened between Nymph and Chrysalis?”

Celestia’s smile faded and her expression turned into gloom. “So you know about their relationship.”

“Yes.”

The alicorn sat against the wall and her student joined her. “Poor Nymph. I don’t know how she could have possibly endured the torment Chrysalis inflicted upon her.”

“What did she do?”

“Chrysalis at one point became incredibly hostile to her and was emotionally abusive to her to such an extreme. It was so bad that Nymph was sometimes reduced to tears by her and gained the title, ‘The Weeping Princess.’”

Twilight could feel her chest ache. She could easily see Chrysalis being cruel to ponies, but to her own sister? “How could Chrysalis do that to her?”

“There was an incident that happened between them and it made Chrysalis vile towards her.”

“What happened?”

“If you want to know, ask Nymph, but I strongly doubt she will wish to share that information as she has yet to tell me, so please do not try. I fear of what will happen if you bring up such a delicate subject.”

“I won’t. I’m sure she just wants to never see Chrysalis again and move on.”

The alicorn took a deep breath and sighed. “Not exactly, Twilight.”

“Huh?”

“Nymph has become restless trying to locate her, worrying that something has happened to her since that has yet to be any sign of her after all these months.”

Twilight’s theory of the garden really seemed to hold water now. “Why would she want to do that? Chrysalis was horrible to her!”

“I’m afraid the poor girl is going through severe denial.”

“Denial?”

“Even after everything she has been through, she wants to believe that Chrysalis can be redeemed. She clings onto the memories of their close bond that had lasted for over three hundred years. She refuses to accept that her sister cannot be turned and has even asked a lot of questions about Luna and me.”

The unicorn stared at the floor, feeling sorry for Nymph. “I see.”

“Is that all, Twilight?”

“Just one more question. What do you think of Chrysalis?”

Celestia just looked up at the ceiling. “That is a tricky question. I am still very bitter about her invasion, but I am trying to see her the way Nymph does since she knows her better than I. I understand what it is like to have your sister turn against you and I would hate to think Chrysalis is beyond any hope. While Chrysalis had good intentions in trying to aid her kind, she did not care for us in any way and has proven to be very sinister and uncaring and that was without a nightmarish force.”

“So do you think she can be made good?”

The alicorn merely sighed. “Maybe. I would not worry about that until the time comes. Don’t worry about her too much, Twilight. I am keeping a very close eye out for her.”

“Okay, Celestia.”

Celestia stood up. “You should get some rest. Remember that you will be speaking to Nymph tomorrow.”

“I know. I just feel really nervous.”

“It’ll be fine, Twilight. I would have never brought you here if I thought otherwise. Just enjoy the night with your friends and forget your worries. Goodnight, Twilight.” Celestia then walked away, heading to her own bedroom. Twilight reentered hers and saw that her friends had calmed from the dinner earlier, now making themselves comfortable and making small talk with one another. She laid on her bed as she began thinking over everything from today. At this point, she was more than convinced that Nymph could not possibly be siding with Chrysalis and she began to believe that Nymph was not as evil as she originally believed. She still had some fears about the changeling race because they did want to invade Equestria before, but she was sure Celestia would know how to handle things.

Although she felt sorry for Nymph, Twilight still held contempt for her. The one thing about her that drove her up a wall was what she decided to do with Chrysalis. She could never wrap her head around why Nymph would think it was a good idea to not punish her. Chrysalis was powerful, clever, and extremely manipulative. The fact Nymph let her go free as a bird to plot her revenge bothered her to no end, even more now that she knew about how Chrysalis mistreated her sister. She even had night terrors about her return that often resulted in Spike being used as a teddy bear.

She remembered when Celestia first informed her about Nymph’s arrival in Canterlot, she completely freaked and demanded that Celestia arrested her before another invasion occurred. Once Celestia calmed her down, she explained to her what had happened. While she and Luna were in the throne room, busy creating laws and security plans in the case of another attack, several guards sprinted to them, informing that the changeling queen was in Canterlot and wished to speak with them about an important issue. Luna wanted to just arrest her, but Celestia wanted to hear her out before deciding anything. Reluctantly, the guards brought the queen and her guards to them.

The first thing that caught Celestia’s attention was that this queen was definitely not Chrysalis. Before she could ask anything, Luna took action. She flew in front of the changeling and with the belief she was Chrysalis, exploded at her in her Canterlot voice, threatening that there was going to be serious retribution for her attack. Celestia worried how this other queen would react, remembering that Chrysalis had overpowered her, but her response took everyone by surprise.

The queen simply fainted.

The changeling guards immediately flew into panic and formed a protective stance around their unconscious ruler, begging to be spared as they knew they could not possibly fight either alicorn. While Luna was completely baffled, Celestia rushed over to help the queen by carrying her to the infirmary. Once she was in a bed, Celestia questioned the guards about their visit. They told her that Queen Nymph was the sister of Chrysalis and she wanted to make peace, wishing to save the changelings from war. While the news of her identity surprised both princesses, being informed of the previous queen’s fate was a complete shock.They were disappointed that she was still running free and both had a suspicion that her being banished wasn’t true as neither of them trusted Nymph.

Once Nymph woke up, Celestia thought it would have been best to let her changeling guards see her first to help relax her. Since Luna left a wonderful first impression, she was made to bring Shining Armor and Cadance from Ponyville, where they were visiting Twilight. She was also made sure to not tell them what was going on until they were in the palace in order to prevent the news from spreading and causing a panic. Once Nymph was calm, Celestia decided to go see her alone. Nymph was very shy and it took some effort to get her to say anything.

They talked about the invasion and Nymph told her that it was only carried out because the status of her kingdom, where famine was taking toll. Celestia remembered Chrysalis saying it was her duty as queen to provide food for her subjects, but did not consider the idea of the changelings suffering. That was when Nymph asked her for help. Now that the changelings’ existence was known across the world, feeding became much more difficult and hunger was on the rise. Nymph wanted Celestia to help tell the ponies and other races they were no threat so they wouldn’t be persecuted and that they needed to start feeding off the large population in Equestria to stay alive.

Celestia was extremely surprised by her request after what she and her city had been through and when she slightly raised her voice to protest this idea, the queen immediately trembled before her and apologized nonstop. The alicorn noticed during their entire conversation that the changeling seemed to be very nervous and had difficulty maintaining eye contact. At first, Nymph denied that anything was wrong, but after constant pressure, she admitted she was scared for her life. She knew that Celestia was extremely powerful and feared that she would punish the changelings for the attack led by her sister. Celestia reassured her that she just wanted to talk and was not thinking of any punishment for the moment.

The white alicorn felt unsure about believing the queen, still mad at herself for not noticing the false Cadance’s behavior, so she asked about her and Chrysalis. Nymph simply said she hated her and left it at that. With a little pushing, they talked for a while about their previous relationship and Celestia began to believe more and more that Nymph did not share the former queen’s ambitions.

Whether or not Nymph was deceiving her, there was still an issue she knew must be dealt with. She could not bear to think that there was an entire race suffering and knew something had to be done. She asked many questions about the process of draining as Shining Armor suffered from fatigue and headaches for a few days and the changeling told her that those effects were only temporary and only occurred if a changeling took in a lot of their love. Celestia also asked Nymph about how to feed so many changelings, worried that their effects could really damage things in her nation. She was told that if the changelings simply stayed in Equestria, it would be enough to sustain them all because how much the land carried. Love could be stored into crystals and distributed to other locations, so not all changelings needed to move. The changeling population was much lower than what Celestia had estimated as there was barely enough food to create a population boom in their history, which might have happened if they started doing this solution. However, Nymph was sure she would find a way to deal with this when the time came.

Celestia had another idea to help with Nymph’s plan, but she knew this would be very difficult to pull off. Cadance was powerful in magic and could easily sustain many changelings if she tried. Of course, there was the obvious reason why she would refuse. When Luna returned later with the royal couple, Celestia briefly told them what was going on and, not to her surprise, Cadance started to have a panic attack. Once they calmed her down, Celestia begged her and her husband to give aid to the starving race. It took almost an hour before they decided to help and they took their time filling the crystals Nymph brought with her.

After much discussion with her sister and niece, they came to an agreement. As long as the changelings’ problem existed, they would be a potential danger to other races as fear and desperation could make them do desperate things. They decided to help the changelings in hopes of saving them and turning their enemies into allies. Celestia returned to the queen and informed her that they would not attack the changelings and would give aid to them. Nymph was overjoyed to hear this and swore her absolute loyalty to her and Luna. Since then, they both had continuously visited each other to help the changelings integrate into Equestria. While Nymph was having much trouble convincing the ponies to aid their plight, there were still other issues that would arise from a large population suddenly showing up. Twilight hated the changelings before, but she was beginning to let go what happened months before.

But her mind had sprouted another plausible scenario. Nymph was desperate to get her sister back and Chrysalis was an evil and deceitful creature. This combination could lead to something disastrous. Chrysalis, aware of her sister’s woes, could pretend that she is sorry for what she did and act like she wanted to make amends so Nymph’s desire for them to reunite would not allow her to see the truth. Chrysalis would take advantage of her sister and somehow use her and her subjects to gain vengeance. Twilight could not allow this to happen, no matter what.

Pinkie brought over her large suitcase to her friends. “Well since this is technically one big slumber party, what games do you girls want to play!?” Upon opening it, a bunch of sleeping bags, pillows, bags of candy, and board games flew out.

Twilight took the items with her magic and stuffed them back into the suitcase, which she slid under the bed. “We don’t have time for games, Pinkie. We’ve got work to do.”

All of her friends became confused. “Huh? What work?” asked Fluttershy.

“Important work. I want you girls to give me a status report on what you have learned about Chrysalis and Nymph.”

Rainbow Dash flew straight up, pounding her hooves together. “I’ll tell you what we learned! Chrysalis is a real piece of-”

“Ahem!” interrupted Rarity. “What she meant to say is that Chrysalis is too dreadful to possibly convince Queen Nymph in helping her.”

“I think the same thing,” Twilight admitted. “Besides the abuse, Nymph has worked too hard for peace to give it up. All of the changelings seemed happy about living with us and I don’t think she would want to change that.”

“So does that mean Nymph isn’t evil?” asked Fluttershy.

“After thinking over the evidence, I can conclude that she is most certainly not evil,” Twilight answered happily.

All of the ponies gave out a sigh of relief. “So does mean we can have a slumber party now?” asked Pinkie.

“No. We need to investigate the royal garden.”

Her friends were now even more perplexed. “Royal garden? Why do we need to go there?” questioned Fluttershy.

“Because I have a gut feeling of what we will find there.”

“Twilight, what is goin’ on in that head of yars?” asked Applejack.

“I think there’s something going on with Nymph and I need to know the truth.”

“Ya don’t trust her?”

“I do, but I’m worried about something else right now.”

Her friends looked at each other, understanding her concerns. “So what are you thinking?” asked Dash.

Twilight began pacing back and forth in front of them. “All the changelings claim to have not seen Chrysalis for months, but I cannot accept the idea that Queen Nymph would let her go so easily. I think Chrysalis is being kept hidden somewhere in the kingdom and there is only one possible place she could be hiding.”

“The garden,” answered Rarity.

“Correct. No changeling has been allowed there during Nymph’s reign, making it a great place to hide someone.”

“You think Chrysalis has been hiding out in the garden the whole time?” asked Rarity.

“She has to be. I can’t think of where else she could possibly be. No pony has sighted her even once and it seems like a long time for her to not try anything.”

“Are we really going to sneak in there? I think we could get in a lot of trouble,” said Spike.

Twilight firmly nodded. “If that monster is hiding there, then we’ll have a lot more to worry about than getting caught.”

Rarity came over and placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Twilight, I understand you’re worried, but don’t you trust Celestia’s judgment?”

“I do, but I’m not sure about Nymph. Celestia has told me herself that Nymph misses Chrysalis dearly, despite everything that happened. She thinks that like Luna or even Discord, she too can be fixed. I think she might be keeping her there in futile events of reforming her while Chrysalis is plotting something. Besides, can we really trust someone who just releases Chrysalis after everything she has done? Nymph may not be evil, but I don’t think she’s smart either.”

Pinkie rubbed her hoof on the carpet, feeling slightly ashamed. “I don’t know. This doesn’t feel right. Queen Nymph has been so kind to us and we’re betraying her trust now that she specifically asked us to keep out.”

“We have to go. If Chrysalis is there, Celestia needs to know this immediately,” argued Twilight.

Applejack nodded and faced the group. “She’s got a point. We need to take the chance. We were takin' by surprise last time. Ah don't want that to happen to us again.”

Twilight watched as all of her friends exchanged worried glances before looking at her with the same determination as Applejack, bringing a smile out of her. “The fate of our home could rest on what we do tonight. If she is there and we do nothing, I dread to think of what will happen.” She stuck her hoof out. “I cannot do this alone. I will need all of you if we are to take her down and protect Equestria. Are you all with me?” One by one, her friends placed their hooves and claw onto hers. “Great. Let’s go when it’s dark.”

“So until then…” Pinkie rushed to her suitcase and opened it, releasing its contents once more. “It’s party time!”

After over an hour of board games and a very memorable truth or dare session, the group arrived outside the entrance of the garden and hid nearby around the wall. Twilight peeked at their destination and saw that it was still guarded by two armored guards. “So how are we going to get past the guards?” asked Spike.

“I’ve got it figured out. Just don’t make a sound.” Twilight’s horn glowed and flashed a bright purple light, teleporting them deep into the mouth of the cave. They looked behind them and saw the guards had not taken notice of them. They quickly and quietly went deeper into the tunnel.

The gang traversed the passage without saying a single word, worrying that their voices would alarm someone if there was in fact someone ahead. The silence only increased their tension, all afraid of what was lurking in the dark. After about a minute, they saw faint moonlight in the distance. They dashed on ahead and exited the underground, wanting to escape the creeping darkness. They were now in a large meadow that was surrounded by large walls of rock from the mountain, isolating it from the outside world. The meadow was decorated with many types of flowers and trees. The glowing floral illuminated the area and they could see some butterflies flying around the flowers. A small pond was against one of the walls, reflecting the night sky. There was also a transparent barrier above it all, keeping the outside elements from disturbing the garden.

“It’s so gorgeous,” spoke Fluttershy in absolute awe.

Twilight shushed her. “Keep it down. Chrysalis could be here.”

“So now what?” asked Pinkie.

“We stay low and look around. We should stay together or she will pick us off one by one.”

The group quietly explored the area. While some of them were admiring its beauty, the rest were keeping an eye out for the former queen. The area being so silent made it much scarier to them. Their only comfort was the light provided from the flowers in the garden and Luna’s moon. They also came across many glowing roses that outlined the shape of a heart and Rarity was tempted to take one, but was stopped by the other unicorn. Twilight was surprised that the changelings held something so beautiful and thought it was a shame Nymph was keeping out any visitors, but she remained focused on her mission. After about ten minutes of scouting, they returned to where they came from.

“Guess she isn’t here,” said Spike with a hint of relief in his voice.

Twilight gritted her teeth as she glanced back into the garden. “She has to be here. We just need to look again.”

She tried to go look a second time, but was stopped by Applejack, who placed a hoof in front of her. “We’ve already checked the whole thing and nothin’. Chrysalis just ain’t here.”

The unicorn bit her lip. While not finding her should have been a good thing, she was very afraid of being wrong. “I was so certain she would be.”

“Let it go, Twilight. We looked all over and there has been no sign of her. She must really be out of the kingdom,” suggested Dash.

After some consideration, she gave a defeated sigh. “I guess. We better head back before they notice we’re missing. I wouldn't want to make Celestia worry about us.”

Right as they approached the mouth of the cave, a giant ring of green fire immediately surrounded them. All of the ponies screamed and huddled together. “W-what’s happening!?” cried Pinkie with fright.

“See!? She really is here!” screamed Twilight.

The emerald flame fully surrounded them, obscuring their view of the outside. After some seconds, it disappeared, revealing that they were now in a much different area. It was a large room that was mostly dark, only receiving light from the open window and the lit fireplace. The room was well decorated with a massive bed and a carpet that showed pictures of changelings and flowers. There were several shelves of books near the bed and a work desk by the window. The window showed the city down below, meaning that they were back in the castle.

“I hope you all enjoyed your stroll through my private garden.”

The ponies jumped and looked towards the source of the voice. Lying next to the fireplace was Queen Nymph, naked of any of her royal clothing and holding a glass of wine in a hole in her hoof. Her dark appearance had camouflaged her in the shadows. “How did you know?” asked Twilight.

Nymph levitated a green crystal towards the group. In the glass, they could see the garden that they were just in. “A queen must always be vigilante of her own kingdom.”

“You were spying on us?” questioned Twilight, shocked.

“I was actually just looking at my garden to see where I wanted to plant the apple seeds later. I just happened to notice you all walking around and I was very surprised.” She placed it aside and looked back at them. They couldn't help but feel afraid as they were not used to seeing her stern look. “So which one of you wants to tell me why you were all trespassing?” The ponies gulped and shifted their eyes around. The changeling got angry with their silence and decided to make things happen. “Twilight.”

“W-we just wanted a look.”

“And so you did, but I know there’s more to it since you went through the effort of sneaking pass my guards.” Nymph sipped her glass and placed it on the floor. “Princess Celestia wants there to be trust between us and that cannot be done if you lie to me. Just tell me why you went there and I’ll forget the whole thing.”

“I don’t get why you’re so upset. It’s just a garden,” said Dash while trying to hide her nervousness.

“It is the garden that my family has kept for thousands of years. It is our sanctuary and I would rather keep it to myself for now. The only reason I am mad is because I ordered you all to stay out and yet you all disobeyed. It makes me feel like that you don’t care about what I say and I find it to be extremely disrespectful.”

Twilight knew there was no way out. “We were looking for someone.”

“Is that so?” she replied in an unbelieving tone. “Now who could you have possibly hoped to find there?”

“Chrysalis.”

Nymph poured herself another glass. “My sister? I thought that you were more than aware than I had banished her months ago.”

“I just wanted to make sure.”

The queen glanced at her from behind her glass. “Are you implying that I would withhold a criminal here and keep it a secret from Celestia?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Twilight answered in an unfriendly tone.

Nymph’s eyes narrowed as she stared down the unicorn. “Now what is that supposed to mean?”

“Chrysalis had us all fooled before. As her sister, I’m sure you are just as capable.”

The queen just rolled her eyes. “Trust me. I do not share her ideas of ruling your kind.” She looked at the group. “I can tell by the looks on your faces that you do not believe me.”

“The changelings did not seem to care about us too much when they were invading Canterlot,” reminded Spike.

“And I apologize on their behalf. I hope you do not let the past affect how you see us today. The only reason the people agreed to do such a thing was because they were desperate and Chrysalis was charismatic.”

“Where is Chrysalis, anyway?” asked Pinkie.

Nymph gave a quick shrug. “The truth is that I do not know. The last time I have heard from her was the day I forced her out of the kingdom. I honestly find it surprising she has not returned with some sort of scheme or something.”

“What do you think she’s up to?” asked Fluttershy timidly.

Nymph sighed. “Most likely trying to overthrow me. I sometimes do hope she would hurry up if that were the case. I am prepared for anything she might try; I just want to make sure she’s still all right. I would hate to think she has gotten hurt or worse.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” muttered Twilight loudly.

Nymph threw her glass into the fireplace, causing a loud shatter and the fire to erupt briefly, turning green in the process. Everypony cowered from her with the exception of Twilight, who held her ground. All of the friendliness that was on Nymph’s face from earlier that day had vanished and now resembled the elder sister. “You have a lot of guts to say such a thing to my face, Twilight Sparkle.”

“I don’t get why you would care, Nymph. She is a horrible changeling.”

“She is my sister, I will always care.”

Celestia’s student gritted her teeth. “You should have just given her up, that way we wouldn’t have to worry about her turning up and hurting somepony!”

“Had I done that back then, you would have punished her very severely. I just wanted to keep her safe.”

“Well who’s keeping us safe from her? She is too dangerous to be left running around!” Twilight countered.

“She will not be much of a threat to any of you. She is nowhere as powerful without an army behind her and she knows better than to lay a hoof on any of you. Doing so would bring the wrath of two kingdoms down on her head.”

“You seemed to have everything figured out.”

“I thought long and hard before banishing her. I guarantee she is not as big of a threat as she was during her invasion.”

“If you thought the invasion was so horrible, then why didn’t you stop her?” asked Twilight aggressively.

“I tried, Twilight. It is extremely difficult to convince the public to oppose the word of the queen, especially when there was so much food to get out of it. She eventually had me jailed and I wasn’t released until the news of her failure came a week later.”

“You must have been pretty happy to hear that she lost.”

Nymph’s anger diminished and she seemed to be slightly sorrowful. “I was actually scared out of my mind. We received word that a few of the changelings did not survive the impact and I was scared the same had happened to her. I was going mad with fear until she appeared two days later.”

“Well you know what? I think it would have been a good thing if she didn’t return at all!”

All of Twilight’s friends gasped. “Twilight!” yelled Rarity with shock.

The queen stood up, towering over them. “Don’t you dare say such a thing about Chrysalis!”

“Well why not? She is an evil changeling who treats everyone horribly, especially you!” Nymph’s face immediately paled. “We know what she did to you, Nymph. How could you possibly stand up for a heartless monster?”

The queen started to tremble. “S-shut up.”

“While you’re off living in some stupid delusional world, everyone else is living in reality. Chrysalis is a horrible, cruel, unloving changeling and that will never change, no matter how hard you try! You said it yourself! She’s probably working on some sort of plan to get revenge on all of us and it’s all because you allowed her to! What you did was foolish, you knew it was foolish, and yet you did it anyway! You need to grow a brain and see her for what she really is! You’re not going to be a very good queen if you’re this stupid!”

The green flames intensified as Nymph got right up in her face. “SHUT UP, TWILIGHT!”

“Please stop, Twilight!” begged Pinkie. "I know you're upset, but you need to calm down!"

Twilight ignored her, still feeling furious. “What could you possibly see in her? She nearly tore my family as well as my country apart and never once did she feel remorse. She never took pity on you either, so there’s no reason for you to protect her. There is no way that fiend could ever be the changeling you want her to be. She is the absolute worst person I have ever met in my life and because of you, I have to spend every day worrying that monster is going to hurt my friends or worse! I hate Chrysalis more than anything and you know what? I wish she died that day!”

Faster than any of them can react, Nymph lunged her hoof and grabbed Twilight by the throat. She held her above her head and slammed her onto the floor. All of the unicorn’s friends screamed in absolute terror and Twilight lost all of her courage as she looked into the enraged queen’s glowing eyes and her razor sharp teeth. After several seconds, the fire restored into its original color as Nymph slowly released Twilight and walked back to where she originally sat. She lied on the carpet and just looked at the floor in front of her. “I’m sorry.”

They all gathered around Twilight as she tried to catch her breath. “You…you attacked me!”

“I know and I am sorry. I just lost control back there.” She looked up with moist eyes. “Why would you ever say such a horrible thing, Twilight? Why would you wish for the death of another?”

Twilight felt her rage subside as she looked into her eyes, leaving only guilt. “I was angry and I just said it without thinking. I’m sorry, Queen Nymph. I never meant what I said. I just can’t accept her in any way.”

Nymph sighed. “I understand why you feel so strongly about her. She had no right to do such monstrous things to you ponies. I know she meant well in regards of helping the changelings, but it went way too far.”

“How come you didn’t just imprison her instead of having her run free?” questioned the unicorn.

“I was afraid of two things. The first thing was that the ponies would demand I hand her over for punishment. I knew that I could never bring myself to doing that and that would make it much more difficult between our two nations. If I did manage to surrender her, I thought it might have been the last time I would have seen her. The second thing I was afraid of was her. Despite me saying how hard it is to convince the changelings to oppose the queen, Chrysalis is charismatic enough to actually make such a thing happen. I worried that she would speak out from her prison and somehow make things worse than they already are.”

“And you thought it was a good idea to let her go?” questioned Dash.

“As I’ve said: Without her kingdom, she won’t do anything against you. I promise you that she wants revenge on me first before she sets her sights on any of you.”

“What are you going to do if she does show up?” asked Fluttershy.

“I will imprison her this time, and after much discussion, she will be left in the hooves of Princess Celestia. I trust her in handling Chrysalis and I think some justice will be needed to set her straight. I will also personally see to it that I fix her. I don’t care what you think, Sparkle. I will never give up on her.” Nymph looked at the clock in her room. “I think I have kept you all here long enough. You may all return to your rooms. Goodnight, ponies and Spike, and I think it would be best if none of us mentioned to anyone of what happened here tonight.”

The group got up and left the bedroom after saying goodnight to her. When they were outside, they huddled together. “Now that was scary,” said Spike.

Applejack shuttered as she looked at the door. “No kiddin’. Let’s get out of here.” As they were about to go down the hall, somepony spoke.

“Wait.”

The ponies stopped and turned. “Pinkie?” asked Twilight.

“I think we should stay. We were totally wrong about her and you hurt her feelings, Twilight. You went way too far with what you said about Chrysalis. We’re here to make friends, not enemies!”

Twilight lowered her head, sighing. “You’re right.”

“Twilight?” Fluttershy asked with surprise.

“Princess Celestia brought us here so we could learn and understand the changelings, which also includes her. I do not think we have left a good impression on her and Celestia may not be happy about it. And also…I feel really terrible about what I said.”

Spike clung to Rarity’s leg. “Are you sure it’s safe?”

“She could have done whatever she wanted but she’s letting us go. I’m sure it will be fine,” Twilight assured. They broke from their huddle and opened the door to Nymph’s chambers. “Queen Nymph?”

She was slightly startled as she had not noticed them enter. “Yes?”

“Can we stay a little longer?”

“Stay? Whatever for?”

“We just want to get to know you better. We feel bad for not trusting you and we were kind of hoping that we could clear the air.”

When Nymph looked at each of them, she could tell that they were sorry for what they did. Relieved that they were going to give her a chance, she smiled and nodded. “Very well. Lay by the fire.”

They all sat in a circle as the changeling clapped her hooves, bringing on the other lights in her room. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you, Queen Nymph,” said the purple unicorn. “I was just scared of thinking you and Chrysalis were up to something. I just had to be sure.”

“It is quite alright. I know it must be hard to trust the sister of Chrysalis, but I intend to prove you wrong.”

“So you forgive us?”

“I do, but promise that you will never do anything hurtful to Chrysalis. She still means a lot to me.”

Twilight nodded. “We promise.”

“Why do you stick up for her?” asked Dash. “I thought you two hated each other, especially since she kept hurting you.”

“I know it’s hard to believe, but Chrysalis was much different before. You’d think she was an imposter had you seen her about thirty years ago.”

“So what was the ‘good’ Chrysalis like?” asked the dragon.

“Chrysalis was a very bold changeling who loved her family more than life itself. She always took good care of me and I always admired her. Chrysalis loved both our parents to death as I did and she did whatever she could to please them. She was kind of like me in a way, only with a bad temper. That temper of hers had gotten her into trouble many times, even as an adult. Still, beneath that tough exterior was a very caring changeling, as long as you don’t make her mad. Oh, how I miss the old Chrysie.”

The ponies giggled loudly. “Chrysie?” asked Pinkie.

“That was a nickname I gave her as a child. I always loved calling her that and she never minded. When she got older, she hated it when I called her that in public, but that never stopped me. The only thing that ticked her off more was when someone outside the family called her that.”

“Sounds kind of like her,” commented Rarity.

“I know it does. She was kind of a spoiled child and felt entitled to everything. She stepped on a few hooves with her attitude, even after I helped her readjust to some extent, but around me and our parents, she was the sweetest little thing imaginable.”

“I just cannot picture her like that,” said Twilight.

“Perhaps this will help.” Nymph stood and went to her desk, pulling out a large book. “Before cameras were brought to us, we simply painted our pictures. There are many paintings of my family, but there is simply not enough room to hang them all. I had this book made to keep them in a more organized and condensed version for easier access and to allow my people to view them.” She flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for. She levitated the art book to the center of the circle for them to see. It was a painted picture of two young changeling girls and one was hugging the other. They could immediately tell the one with the short green hair was Nymph while the changeling hugging her sister was Chrysalis herself. They were both sitting right next to each other and wearing pink dresses. While Nymph was giving a cute smile, Chrysalis was giving an excited grin.

Twilight could not believe that was Chrysalis she was seeing. “Is…is this real?”

“Yes it is. I want you to see this one also.” The pages magically turned until another picture appeared.

“Whoa,” they all said at once.

It was a painting of Chrysalis as an adult. What had surprised them was the peaceful expression she carried. Without anything sinister or vile they saw from her during the wedding, they thought she was beautiful and even gave off a motherly appearance.

“She looks so graceful,” said Fluttershy in awe.

“I hope she does. It took me forever to have it come out the way I wanted.”

They all looked up at her. “Wait. You painted this?” asked Dash.

“I most certainly did. I made this for her as a gift for her hundredth birthday. When you live as long as I do, you tend to learn many skills. Painting is just one that I enjoy deeply.”

“What was Chrysalis talented in?” asked Pinkie.

Nymph placed the book on her desk and sat down. “If I could name one thing, it would have to be singing.”

“She sang?” questioned Fluttershy.

“We both did, actually. Mother taught us for many years and we were both masters. Sometimes, changelings from all over the kingdom would come to hear us whenever we held performances. Of course, neither of us could ever outperform Mother.”

“Wow. Can you sing something to us right now?” asked Spike.

Nymph blushed. “I’m afraid it’s been a while as I have not really been in the singing mood lately. We used to do it together all the time for the children.”

“Aw, that’s so cute,” commented Rarity.

“Does Chrysalis even like kids?” asked Spike.

Since he was close enough, Nymph reached over and pulled on his cheek, causing him to blush while the others giggled. “We both adore children very much. They are ever so precious and I suppose who we are also plays a factor as to why we care so much.”

“Huh?”

“One title that the queen carries is The Mother of All Changelings. I believe this is because since the queen is always much older than any of her subjects and cares so much about them, she is essentially their mother. I’m surprised Celestia has never thought herself as one for her own subjects.”

“I don’t think it’s possible to put motherly and Chrysalis in the same sentence,” pointed out Twilight.

Nymph chuckled. “Oh believe me, she was. The only reason she never had any children of her own was that she could never find any changeling that could make her happy enough for her to consider marrying.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Shocking.”

The changeling grinned. “I did say she was spoiled.”

“Then why aren’t you married?” asked Spike.

She briefly blushed. “It’s much more difficult than you think to find someone I want to make my king.”

“But you’re the queen. I’m sure everyone would want you,” said Rarity.

“That is exactly why it is difficult. I get marriage requests every day, always more than Chrysalis, but I want you to guess why they want to marry me.”

“Because ya are of the highest authority and technically the most beautiful changeling around?” guessed the farmer.

“Exactly. I want someone who I can bond with and who will love me with all their heart, not use me as a stepping stone or see me as a trophy. I will admit that I can be a bit spoiled as well. I’ve dated many changelings who I really liked, but I kept turning them down because they were not exactly the changeling of my fantasy. I want my husband to be perfect in every way I want him to be. It is tradition that despite our long life span, royal changelings are to only marry once because if we are to have children with different fathers, the two families would most likely compete for the throne and that could get bloody.”

“That’s dreadful,” Rarity said sympathetically.

“Not really. I still have a lot of time to look for the one. It’s just that with Chrysalis and I being the last of the royal changelings, the family feels very small, especially now that she’s gone. We do have some very distant relatives, but I do not know them very well. I would love to know how Celestia handled this for a thousand years.”

“She didn’t,” said Twilight gloomily.

“Poor thing. It’s hard for me to imagine she was the only alicorn around for so long. A similar fate…” She looked away, lip quivering. “…could have happened to me had things gone differently.”

“Are you okay?” asked the party mare worriedly.

The queen looked back at them. “Yes. I just worry about my sister, which is why I plan on possibly breaking the tradition. Had Chrysalis died that day, I would have been the last royal changeling and if anything happened to me before I had a child, we royal changelings would become extinct. Without our leadership, I’m sure the royals would start a civil war to claim the throne, or even worse, my people would choose a government that runs on…” the queen shuddered, “democracy,” she hissed hatefully. “If all goes well with Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, I plan on expanding the royal changeling population as much as I can, meaning I will marry more than once. With their lessons on friendship, love, and tolerance, I’m sure they can keep any future royal changelings from fighting amongst themselves and hopefully create a peaceful existence. I probably should be careful about how many of us there are since we do live for about a thousand years.”

“That sounds like a lot of work with you pumping out so many kids,” remarked Dash.

Nymph laughed as she blushed. “It will be, especially since I can only produce one every seven months, but I am more than willing to try. I just wish Chrysalis was here to possibly help, but she might not exactly be the best role model.”

“So tell us more about Chrysalis,” said Twilight.

The changeling only shrugged at them. “What else can I really say about her that you don’t know?”

“How about some embarrassing stories?” suggested the cyan pegasus deviously.

Twilight laughed and shook her head. “Dash, I don’t think she would-”

“Okay!” said Nymph happily, which took them by surprise. “Let me think for a moment.” She was silent until her expression brightened. “Here’s one! One time when we were little girls, Chrysie asked Father to teach her how to fight. She always did admire him for being a soldier and she wanted to be tough like him. He agreed, thinking she was old enough. The first thing they did was practice some physical fighting by doing boxing. She was sloppy at first, but she got the hang of it eventually. I was there watching them, but I never participated because I was too soft to fight. So after an hour, Chrysalis felt like she could take on the world. She thought fighting was so great, that she wanted me to practice too. I was reluctant at first, but she managed to talk me into it. So she tells me, ‘Just try hitting me, I can block it!’ My first swing got her right on the nose, not even that hard, mind you, and the next thing I know, Chrysalis is screaming bloody murder on the top of her lungs.”

All of the ponies laughed. “Oh the poor thing,” said Rarity in between breaths.

“She was absolutely hysterical while Father tried to calm her down. After about a minute, Mother comes flying in, asking what was going on. Chrysie points at me and says that I was trying to kill her.”

That caused them all to laugh even harder. “She doesn’t seem like the type to overreact,” said Twilight.

“Well you should have seen me. I was in tears as well, feeling so bad about what I had done and also believing that I could have killed her. I kept apologizing, but she didn’t believe me. Our parents kept us separated so Chrysalis could calm down. Once she did, we made up. Sometimes when she acts all tough, I remind her about that incident and she just gets so embarrassed.”

“What a cute story,” said Pinkie once she got a hold of herself.

“Here’s another one. It was Chrysalis’s seventh birthday and she had a huge party as she does every year. I was only four the time, so I barely remember much. I happen to know this story because Father told me, much to Mother’s dismay.”

“Her dismay?” asked Fluttershy.

“You’ll see. Anyway, so after they all sang her the birthday song, Mother tells her to make a wish. Chrysalis didn’t have to even think of what she wanted.”

“So what did little Chrysalis wish for?” asked Spike.

“She blows out the candles and says, ‘I wish for a brother!’” The entire room roared in laughter once again. “I can only imagine the look on our parents’ faces when she said that. I heard that all of the nobles there were cracking up and making rather crude jokes toward them. Now of course, they had to tell her it was not possible, which was true since Mother could only produce more royal changelings, which are only of the female sex. Chrysalis was disappointed by their answer, but they told her to make another wish. She thought hard, but she didn’t know what she wanted. But then, one of the nobles suggests that she should wish that everyday should be her birthday so she could have more parties.”

“I would totally wish for that!” said Pinkie excitedly.

“Maybe you would, but then Chrysie said, ‘But I don’t want to be an old lady like my mom!’” The ponies continued throwing fits of laughter. “Oh, poor Mother. I only wish I could see the look on her face as her own daughter said that right in front of so many people. I am sure all of her friends called her that for weeks. Because of that, she didn’t allow any more birthday wishes.”

“Wow, Chrysalis was such a darlin’ little thing,” commented Applejack.

“I suppose that story was a little more embarrassing for Mother than Chrysalis, but I just thought it was cute. Now here’s one from when she was an adult. Chrysalis always believed she was talented, even if in fields where she clearly wasn’t, and one night she decided to make us all dinner without telling us as a surprise, just something for all of us to enjoy. Finally, dinner arrived and we were allowed to start. Not even one minute passes and something went horribly wrong. The moment the potatoes touched my tongue, I started gagging nonstop. I remember that I was starting to break out in sweats while some of the other changelings were tossing their food aside.”

Dash was clutching her sides. “That’s so awesome!”

“I am afraid it gets much worse. So after Chrysalis sees how disgusted we all were with her meal, Mother immediately calls for a doctor and an investigator, believing that someone was trying to poison us. Father had all of the cooks brought in for questioning. When they asked what was going on, Father said that the food tasted like a diamond dog’s butt and Mother was sure it was fatal for anyone to eat. So after we and the others angrily shouted our complaints, my sister slams on the table, silencing us. Chrysalis, in tears, stands up and says that she made dinner that night as a surprise.”

The laughter had died down as the ponies and dragon felt bad for making fun of the incident. “Oh my,” said Fluttershy, feeling very sympathetic.

“We immediately felt even worse, which was apparently possible after eating her ‘food.’ That moment was beyond a shadow of a doubt the most awkward event I have ever been through in my long life. The poor girl storms out of the dining hall, completely crushed. She just wanted to treat us all with her talent, but it turned out she had none for cooking. We all felt so guilty about what we said, and Chrysalis never dared cook anything beyond a simple meal again.”

“Maybe that’s going to be her revenge plan: to force us to eat her cooking,” jested Celestia’s student.

Nymph cracked up. “It would certainly be a fate worse than death. Some of the nobles had food poisoning for days and we had to stop one from surgically removing his tongue. Later that night, I went to my sister’s room and the poor thing was just lying there, tired from crying.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” interrupted the blue pegasus. “Chrysalis was crying? What a big baby.”

Nymph gave a hateful stare to Dash. “There is nothing wrong with crying, Rainbow Dash, especially after what happened. Chrysalis has emotions just like everyone else. I did believe she was slightly overreacting, but maybe we went too far with what we said. She may be a very stoic changeling, but if there is one thing she cannot tolerate at all, it is failure. She toiled for hours, trying to gives us something nice to enjoy, and we just spat it out and said the worst kind of things. We talked for a while and then she felt much better as we laughed about it. Just because she was a failure in that field didn’t mean she was a failure at everything. But I do remember one other thing that happened that we all swore never to tell her.”

“What?” asked Applejack.

“When one of the chefs went to put out the garbage, he found many rat bodies around the garbage can that carried her dinner. I think it is safe to say they were all victims of her cooking.”

“Those poor things,” said Fluttershy.

“So I guess she has a talent for being an exterminator,” Dash joked.

This caused them to break into laughter once more. “Now that is funny.” Nymph took a moment to catch her breath. “I think I’ve said enough about her for now, but speaking of Chrysalis, there's something I need to ask you all. What gave you the idea that she was in the garden?”

All of Twilight’s friends looked at the unicorn, who just grinned nervously. “The guards outside said you had yet to let anyone in during your time as queen and Celestia said you really missed her. I kinda thought you kept her around.”

“I see. I suppose my answer from earlier only made me seem more suspicious.”

“Your garden is very beautiful, by the way,” complimented Rarity.

“Thank you. I personally tend to it.”

“Really? You take care of that whole thing by yourself?” asked Pinkie.

“It’s how I take my mind off things. With my current access to Equestria, I have been planting more flowers and fruit trees. Shame the garden isn’t as large as I want it to be. It’s still a lot of work to manage, however, but that’s what magic is for. It’s usually nice and warm there and after some hard work, I just relax my beautiful body in the water and let go of any worries.”

“So why do you always keep your people out?” queried Twilight.

“Most of the time, royalty like myself need a place of escape; somewhere we can relax and do whatever we please without anyone knowing. Sometimes we allow some of the citizens to enter and admire it. I also like to give out the fruit whenever they are grown. I don’t often allow them in as I like the idea of it being all mine.” Nymph giggled. “I guess that makes me a little spoiled as I am hording one of the Kingdom’s treasures for myself.”

“I certainly envy it. It is so peaceful and beautiful,” said the orange pony.

“That’s the idea. It is considered to be the most sought out place to hold weddings in the whole kingdom and we occasionally allow a few. I’m sure some are not too happy I have been preventing this opportunity from them, but I’ve only kept them out because I need to go there a lot since my time as queen. Asides from the negotiations, the kingdom still has other issues that I must oversee that take up a lot of my time. Being a queen is not as fun as you would think.”

“I loved that heart you made from the roses. It felt so romantic,” complimented Fluttershy.

“You like it? I thought it up myself. It might be a while until I put it to use.”

“Put to use?” asked Applejack.

Nymph giggled uncontrollably while blushing furiously. “What’s so funny?” asked Pinkie.

“I’ll tell you if you promise not to ever repeat what I say to a soul, not even the Princess.”

All of the ponies and Spike exchanged curious looks. “Okay. So what’s the big secret?” asked Dash.

“It is sort of tradition that whenever a royal changeling gets married, they go into the garden with their spouse to make love.” All of the ponies felt their faces heat up. “Can you imagine how romantic it is? The first night of your marriage, you go to a private sanctuary and it is only you and your lover, where you perform the ultimate act of passion out in the open and under the stars. You can do whatever you want and no one can hear you scream in pleasure. I just thought the little rose bed would enhance the mood for the love making.”

An awkward silence filled the room as the queen swooned over her thoughts, which only made them feel more awkward. “So wait,” Spike said suddenly, “if you can make love, then why do you need to drain it from ponies?”

Everyone slowly turned their heads at the dragon with expressions filled with surprise. The silence was broken when Nymph burst out laughing. “It appears I have forgotten how young you were, Spike. I was sure you would have learned by now after living with Twilight for so long. Surely she would have a book on it.”

“Maybe I’ll go find it when we go back to the library.”

“NO!” shouted Twilight. “You are not old enough to learn about such a thing!”

“But she said it’s the ultimate act of love. I just want to try it with Rarity.”

Rarity was next to blush as everyone was snickering at her. “D-darling, I think you should listen to Twilight!”

“Fine.” He took a moment before turning towards the blue pegasus. “Hey, Rainbow Dash.”

“So Nymph, how are things with Princess Celestia?” Dash asked in hopes that Spike would immediately forget the subject entirely.

“They are going great. I always love having her here. I am glad she is still working with me on the many issues that the ponies have with my people. They’ve been deadlocked for some time, but I’m sure that will change soon, she just needs to work on her charm.”

“Have you met Luna?” asked Fluttershy.

“I have. She was rather unhappy with my presence at first, but she came around. She also supports my people and for that I am thankful. It is a shame they can’t force Equestria into accepting us, but this might be for the better.”

“What about Princess Cadance?” questioned Applejack.

Nymph shifted around uncomfortably. “Along with her husband, we still have some issues to work out. They refuse to come here and see me and I understand their choice.”

“They’re still willing to let the changelings come to Equestria,” said Twilight.

“I know, but they still have doubts. It might be best if we don’t integrate into the Crystal Empire for some time. Speaking of the empire, what is it like? I am dying to see it for myself.”

“It is simply marvelous,” stated Rarity. “The buildings and even the palace are made entirely of crystal and there’s green as far as the eye can see. The citizens there have bodies that shine like actual crystals.”

“It sounds wonderful. Twilight, you really need to convince them to let us go there. I want to see it with my own eyes.”

“I’ll try. Did you know Spike actually helped save the Crystal Empire?”

“Oh really?” She looked at the timid dragon. “Come closer. I want to take a good look at you, little hero.”

Spike gulped. “Uh…”

When she tried reaching for him, he recoiled behind Rarity. “You seem to be afraid. Is everything all right?” asked the queen.

“M-me? Afraid? Why would that be? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

She was now watching him very carefully. “I never said you did.”

Spike began to shake as he worried that she would find out about the scare he gave the citizens and seeing how she attacked Twilight made him fear the royal changeling much more. “Well I didn’t, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Then why are you trembling?”

“Because…” His eyes shifted around until his stomach growled. “Because I haven’t eaten much all day and I’m starving.”

“Oh, Spikey, did I not pack enough gems for you?” asked the seamstress.

“I know! Why don’t we have some candy?” Pinkie suggested.

Dash couldn’t help but grin. “That sounds really good right now. Want any, your highness?”

“Of course.” Nymph suddenly grinned as well. “Spike, would you kindly go fetch Pinkie’s candy? I would like to try some.”

“Alright.” Spike got up and quickly left the room. He made his way back into the guestroom they were staying in and found Pinkie’s large bag of sweets in her suitcase, carrying it over his shoulder as he left.

On his way back, he was met with a friendly face. “Good evening, Spike,” greeted Celestia, who was wet with a towel around her waist. “The bath here is amazing. You have to try it for yourself.” She then noticed the bag he was dragging. “What are you up to?”

“I’m just bringing some candy to the girls.”

“The girls? Where are they exactly?”

“In Nymph’s room.”

Celestia was surprised. “Really? I hope everything is going well.”

“It is. We’re just getting to know each other.”

“I am happy to hear that.” Celestia took a pile of candy from the bag with her magic. “Well just come to me if you need anything, Spike. I'm always available for you.”

“Okay I will,” said Spike as he continued down the hall. When Spike returned to the royal bedchamber, he saw the mares looking at him with anticipation. “I’m back. Did I miss anything?”

“No, not really,” said Fluttershy.

“Bring the candy over, I’m starving!” demanded his soon-to-be marefriend.

“Uh…sure, Rarity.” Spike dumped the stash in the center of the circle. The mares began taking some, while Rarity and Twilight were wolfing down whatever they could grab. “Are you girls alright?”

“Sure,” answered Rarity, hardly taking any notice of anything besides the treats.

“I’m doing super amazingly super now!” said Twilight as she devoured a chocolate bar.

Spike scratched his head. “You girls are acting weird.”

The farmer shook her head while eating. “Boy howdy, Spike. You should just eat some candy, I tell you what. Nothing weird here, no siree bob.”

Believing her, Spike just shrugged and started taking from the pile. “So Spike, I have yet to hear of how you feel about changelings,” said Nymph.

“They’re all right, I guess.”

“Poor Rainbow Dash had a nasty encounter with one and was viciously attacked,” Fluttershy informed.

The drake gasped. “She did!? Are you okay, Dash?”

“I am perfectly fine,” she answered while eating a chocolate bar.

“Her ego isn’t since she was attacked by a baby,” added Fluttershy.

The room filled with laughter as the pegasus blushed. “It wasn’t just one, it was a whole group of the little guys!” stated the blue pony.

“Are you saying you were attacked by an army of babies?” asked Spike.

“That happens much more often than you think,” said Nymph. “Our young are trained to be lethal fighting machines. Why, even I have personal baby brigade that carries out secret missions for me.” The whole room roared in laughter except for Spike, who just stared in confusion.

“The way Dash took the pain was so heroic. You should have been there, Spike,” commented Rarity. “There’s just something about Rainbow Dash that brings out my wild side.” All of the ponies’ snickering became louder.

“So what did you three do today in Bugartha?” asked Nymph.

“We went to the library and saw all of the books that had!” answered Twilight.

“I’m sorry, but you need to stop reading so much, Twilight. You’re the only one who has yet to have a special somepony because of your nerdiness. Maybe you should think about hiring Cherub to help with your serious problem,” said Rarity.

The other unicorn happily nodded. “Maybe you’re right. Perhaps I should ask her and Pinkie for some dating help. I get to even hang out with Pinkie Pie!”

“Now just hold a minute,” said Applejack. “You are perfectly fine the way you are. I’m sure there’s somepony who will love you for you.” The whole room smirked while Applejack huffed under her breath.

“Speaking of which, how is Caramel doing?” asked Fluttershy mischievously.

The farmer suddenly had red on her cheeks. “Oh, he’s fine. We like to kiss and stuff.”

“So what base are you on now, Applejack?” asked Nymph with a dirty look on her face.

“I don’t remember playing baseball with him.”

The entire room fell dead quiet. After a few seconds, everypony but the cowgirl and Spike exploded in laughter. Rainbow rolled onto her back and kicked her legs in the air. “Looks like Applejack needs to borrow some of Twilight’s books!”

“Hey, I don’t need to read any more books! I know exactly what I’m doing. Giddy up, yeehaw!” They all stopped and just looked at her. “Um…yar?” Applejack buried her face into her hooves as the laughter resumed.

“So Nymph,” asked Pinkie once they quieted down, “do you have anyone you’re interested in?”

The queen tapped her chin, thinking. “To be honest, I think I like Princess Celestia!”

All of the girls gasped. “You…do?” asked Pinkie.

“Of course I do. Princess Celestia is the most elegant and beautiful pony I have ever met, besides Rarity, and she is so very kind. I think I…love her.”

The whole room fell dead quiet. “Congratulations?” said Spike with uncertainty.

She smiled widely and clapped her hooves. “You know what? I think I should go tell her how I feel right now!”

Nymph stood, but Twilight stood up as well. “Not so fast, Queenie! I can’t let you have Celestia!”

“Is it because of what my sister did? I promise you that my love for her is sincere.”

“No, because I love her too!”

The whole room gasped. “Oh wow,” said Fluttershy.

At first, Nymph looked shocked, but then she laughed. “She would never pick you over me. I am a queen while you are just a lowly student.”

Twilight got up to her face. “Well I’ve got news for you! I’m…pregnant!” The whole room let out a louder gasp.

“What!?” exclaimed Spike.

“HUH!?” screamed Applejack.

“I think it’s cute,” said Pinkie warmly.

“That’s right, I am carrying her child! It will be the symbol of our love!”

“Twilight, your parents are going to kill you!” exclaimed Spike as he clutched the sides of his own head.

“The power of love will shine through!” countered Celestia’s student and apparently lover.

Nymph scowled than lowered her head to get it in front of Twilight's. “Well guess what, Sparkle. I’m carrying Princess Celestia’s hatchlings!” The whole room produced another gasp. “In fact, I’m carrying a hundred eggs!”

“SERIOUSLY!?” yelled Dash in shock.

“Well I’m going to marry Celestia!” argued Twilight.

“Not if I propose first!”

The two mares glared at each other. “Here’s an idea,” said Fluttershy, causing everypony to look at her, “why don’t you both marry her?”

The two thought about it for a moment. “I’m fine with that,” said Nymph calmly.

Twilight happily nodded and hugged the changeling. “Me too! Looks like it will be a double royal wedding!”

The whole room filled with cheer and laughter with the exception of Spike, who still had not gotten over the shock of Twilight's pregnancy. “Spike, in light of recent news, we have a very special responsibility for you,” said Nymph with a smile on her face.

Spike gulped. “Uh-oh.”

“You see, I am much too busy to raise all one hundred of my children as I am a queen, so I will need you to take care of them for me.”

“WHAT!?” shouted Spike as the ponies laughed.

“Hope you know how to change a diaper,” said Dash.

Everything was going insane for the young dragon. In five minutes, Twilight and Nymph admitted to being in love with the princess and were having her children, which he would be forced to take care of. He slowly curled himself into a ball and rocked back and forth. “You okay there, Spike?” asked Dash.

“I’m in a happy place. I’m in a happy place.” He was cut off from the world around him.

“Spike!” Rarity snapped.

He broke from his trance. “Huh?”

“My back needs a good rubbing. Get to it, lover boy.”

“Sure, Rarity.”

He hoped on her back and began to massage her. Rarity let out a sigh of pleasure while her hind leg twitched. “Oh yeah, that’s good.” She noticed Nymph giving her a deathly glare and stuck her tongue out in response. “So Spike, I’ve been thinking about us.”

Spike cringed, worrying of what other surprises awaited. “What do you mean?”

“I think it’s time we have an open relationship.”

He paused his massaging. “A what?”

“It means you can now date other ponies along with Rarity,” said Applejack.

“Really? Is that legal?”

Rarity laughed. “Of course it is. Just try not to like your other marefriend too much.”

“But I don’t know who I like besides you, Rarity.”

Twilight waved her hoof excitedly. “Pick me! Pick me!”

“But you’re almost my sister!” Spike protested as he backed away from her.

“I think that just makes it so much hotter,” said Rainbow Dash in a dirty manner.

Spike was visibly sweating while they laughed. Totally bizarre things were happening and none of them paid any heed. All they did was laugh. “You girls are acting really crazy!”

Pinkie was trying to contain herself. “I think I know somepony who would like you.”

“But aren’t you dating Fluttershy, Pinkie?” questioned Spike.

“I don’t think she was talking about her,” said Applejack as she was snickering.

Before Spike could ask what she had meant, he was suddenly covered in a blue aura. He was lifted off the ground and placed into the forelegs of Nymph. “I’ve always had taken a liking to dragons,” she said playfully.

Spike was struggling desperately as the changeling smothered his face with kisses. “W-what are you doing!?”

“Relax, Spike. I will take good care of you,” she cooed lovingly.

“Come on, Spike. Isn’t Queen Nymph the loveliest creature you have ever laid your eyes on?” teased Rainbow Dash.

Spike looked into the warming smile of the changeling with his shrunken pupils. “You’re just so adorable.” She ran her tongue across her fangs. “I could just eat you up!”

That was the last straw for the drake. He immediately started struggling like mad and was screaming at the top of his lungs. “HELP! PRINCESS CELESTIA, WHERE ARE YOU!? SAVE ME!”

All of the ponies were rolling on the floor laughing and Nymph ceased her actions. “I think we’ve traumatized the poor thing long enough,” said Dash. Her forehead glowed green and light engulfed the entire room. When Spike’s vision came to, he saw that they were all sitting in different spots. He was no longer being held by the queen, but by Rarity instead.

“Huh…wha…who?” he babbled.

Rarity hugged him tightly and gave another kiss. “Relax, Spikey. We were just having fun with you.”

“But how?”

“I have the power to disguise others,” explained the real queen. “I’m surprised you did not catch on by how we acted.”

“That was the best prank ever!” exclaimed Pinkie. “Don’t you think so, Spike?”

The dragon did not reply and just stared into space. Rarity waved a hoof in front of him, but received no response. “Oh dear, I think we’ve blown his little mind.”

“Serves him right for scaring my people." The changeling looked at her. “And Rarity, seriously? Me carrying a hundred hatchlings? My figure could never handle that.”

The seamstress blushed. “I’m sorry, but I felt that I needed to one up Pinkie. It certainly made things more entertaining.”

“Making me sound like I have romantic feelings for the princess was certainly odd, but it all worked out much better than I expected,” commented Nymph.

“Aw, you don’t like her?” asked Pinkie as she pouted.

“I do, but not in that way. I’m not into females like my sister is.”

“Oh, she’s a lesbian?” questioned Pinkie with increased interest.

“Bisexual, to be accurate.”

Pinkie scratched the back of her head. “Bisexual? If being straight means liking boys and being gay means liking girls, what’s bisexual!?”

“She likes both.”

Everything in Pinkie’s mind came to a complete stop. Her mouth fell to the floor and her pupils shrunk. “B-b-b-b-b-both?”

“Yes, Pinkie. Chrysalis likes males and females.”

They all noticed Pinkie convulsing. “Ya okay there?” asked Applejack.

The pony only babbled as foam formed around her mouth. After several seconds, her eyes rolled up and she fainted. Nymph gasped and ran to her side. “Is she okay!? What happened!?”

Twilight laughed as she got Pinkie onto her back. “She’ll be just fine. She just had a brain overload. This has actually happened a few times. She just needs some rest and she’ll be back to her old self.”

Rarity placed Spike on her back. “Speaking of rest, I think it might be getting late.”

Nymph looked at her clock. “Oh, how the time flies. I was having so much fun, too.”

“Well we better get going to bed. It’s been fun, Nymph,” said Twilight.

“I suppose I shall turn in for the night as well. Goodnight, ponies. I look forward to seeing you all in the morning.”

The ponies left the room and began walking back to their room, each talking about their fun moments with the queen. When they weren’t looking, Applejack went up to Rarity. “Hey, Rares?”

“What is it, Applejack?”

She leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “Third.”

The earth pony walked ahead with a smug expression as Rarity stopped dead in her tracks, eyes wide and mouth agape. After she got a hold of herself, she ran ahead to catch up with her friends.

Morning arrived and Celestia awakened all of her subjects staying in the Changeling Kingdom. Once they prepared themselves, they followed her to the dining hall, where Nymph awaited them. Not wanting to repeat the previous disaster, she had her chefs prepare cinnamon rolls.

“I hope you all slept well,” said Nymph as the ponies seated themselves.

“Most of us did,” remarked Twilight as she looked at Spike, who just crossed his arms and looked away.

“So was everything all right last night?” asked Celestia.

“Everything was fine, Princess. They are a lot more fun than you have described,” answered Nymph

“I didn’t think you were even going to meet them until today.”

“I wasn’t, but then I caught them sneaking around in my garden, so I brought them to me,” said Nymph as she bit into her breakfast.

Celestia slowly turned her head to the ponies, causing them to shrink. “They did what?”

Nymph swallowed. “Twilight was convinced that I was hiding Chrysalis there and she and her friends decided to take a quick peek.”

“Twilight!” scolded the princess, causing her student to cringe.

“Now, now,” said the changeling calmly. “She was just making sure you weren’t all in danger. I think it was rather noble of her to take risks to protect the ones she loves.”

“I suppose.”

“And let us not forget, it was her that discovered my sister, not you.”

Celestia's face flushed. “R-right. Um…good job, Twilight.”

Nymph patted her on the shoulder. “I’m glad she went, Celestia, otherwise we would not have bonded. We got to know each other very well last night.”

“Hey, Nymph, we didn’t really get to talk much about you,” informed Twilight.

She set her breakfast down. “I think you’re right. Why don’t you all ask me something?”

“Did you always want to make peace with ponies?” queried Pinkie.

Nymph hesitated for a moment and then spoke in a slightly serious tone. “The honest truth is I did not. Like everyone else here, I did not trust your kind or any other for that matter. I was content with living in secrecy, despite wanting to see the world for myself. You have no idea how terrified I was when I went to Canterlot to meet with Celestia for the first time.”

“I did notice you hyperventilating when I first saw you,” teased Celestia.

“Well what did you expect? I heard stories about you as a child, so I knew how powerful you were and when I heard what you did to those like Sombra or even Luna, I feared a similar fate would befall me. But in the end, you treated me with great kindness and every day I am thankful for that.”

“And I am grateful that Chrysalis had such a reasonable sister to take over.”

“Indeed. Chrysalis, on the other hoof, has always been very…racist. As a child, she had dreamed of taking Equestria by force. We both blamed ponies and other races for isolating us underground because they would fear us and even attack us if we were discovered. She thought it was wrong for us to be pushed around by our prey and always desired setting things right. As for myself, I didn’t want conflict, just for us to survive. I won’t lie to you. I sometimes supported Chrysalis’s dreams when I was younger, but when she actually wanted to go through with it, I decided to step in. But…I will admit that when she left for Canterlot, a small part of me wanted her to win. Not only would her success have brought in a new age for us, but I dared not think of our fate if she failed. Anyway, do any of you have a question of a different subject?”

“So besides gardening, what do you do for fun?” asked Fluttershy.

“Let’s see. I visit my friends, visit the people of the city, paint, make dresses, and read.”

“Oh, you read? What kind of books?” Twilight asked with immediate interest.

“Adult romance novels,” answered Celestia.

Fluttershy choked on her breakfast as the other ponies mocked the changeling. “W-well what’s wrong with that? I am an adult, after all!”

“It might not be healthy to have an entire stash. Why, I remember you telling me that you one day wanted to meet a changeling prince who was so strong and handsome like one of the characters from your stories, who would lovingly hold you every night and told you how much he loved you,” teased Celestia as she sipped her drink while the laughter increased in volume.

“Well you thought they were pretty good, too!”

The alicorn rejected her drink from her mouth as the laughter shifted onto her. “I wasn’t doing anything with them! I-I was just doing research!”

The queen gave her a dirty smile. “There’s no need to be ashamed, Celestia. If you’re that lonely, then maybe you should work on your sex appeal.”

“Don’t judge me. I don’t make it a habit to spend some nights reading a dirty book by the fireplace while drinking wine. And let’s not forget what happened at that social gathering last month.”

Nymph’s smile bent downward. “You promised never to speak of it again!”

“Oh, I have got to hear this,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Last month, Nymph attended a little party during one of our meetings in Canterlot. She was still not used to how the nobles treated her, so she decided to cope with it by drinking. Of course, Equestrian wine might be a little too much for the changeling queen.” Nymph dug her face into her hooves. “So while intoxicated, she heard that there was a certain nephew of mine attending.”

Rarity gave a loud gasp. “Oh…my…alicorns.”

“That’s right. She tracked down my nephew Blueblood and tried to seduce him in a drunken manner.”

Nymph’s face burned as the ponies laughed. “My life is over.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“He was screaming for help, saying that I was going to drain him.”

“Like he has any love in him,” retorted Rarity.

“It wasn’t love he thought she was after,” corrected the princess.

“Then what?”

Celestia turned her head toward the royal changeling. “You want to tell them?”

Nymph lifted her head to show her scowl. “The idiot thought I was seducing him so I could have him impregnate me with his ‘perfect children’ and create some sort of super army to conquer Equestria with.”

Everypony was laughing again. “That’s a scary thought,” commented the seamstress.

Nymph crossed her forelegs and rolled her eyes. “As if I would ever do a thing.”

“I meant the thought of Blueblood reproducing.”

“What about that other time you got flirty, Nymph?” chimed in Celestia.

The changeling gave her the stink eye. “Celestia, why are you telling them these things? These were supposed to be secrets!”

“Relax. There’s no need to be embarrassed. You were drunk that one time and it was more embarrassing for my nephew, not you. Besides, it might be better if you tell this story before somepony else does.”

“Which story?” The alicorn leaned in and whispered to her, generating a look of agony on Nymph, who just planted her face on the table. “Right. That one.”

“Which one?” asked Applejack.

The changeling sat up and cleared her throat. “During my first visit to Canterlot, I met a very attractive stallion." Everypony immediately gained interest. "I tried introducing myself to him, but he kept giving me the cold shoulder. He kept asking me many questions about me and my sister like he was interrogating me. I didn’t wish for him to hate me and thought he was cute, so I worked my magic on him. I began to come on to him and it took him some time to realize what I was doing. Upon this discovery, his personality completely changed. He was just babbling in protest, but I told him to just relax. All I wanted was for him to give me a chance. But then, the worst part happened.”

“What happened?” asked Spike.

“His wife came in.” All of the ponies laughed uncontrollably. “She was furious, yelling at me to stay away and that she would have me arrested for trying to steal him while I kept telling her that I had no idea he was taken. I felt even dumber when she pointed at the ring on his horn, which I stupidly failed to notice as my eyes were lost on his body.”

“Wow, Nymph. I’m sorry to hear that happened. Maybe that stallion should have said something earlier. I mean, wasn’t it obvious what you were doing?” questioned Twilight.

“I thought it was, but I guess not. I’m pretty sure they’re both still mad about the incident.”

“They are,” Celestia added, “but they’re getting over it. They just need time. I just find it funny they never told Twilight after all this time.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Huh? Why would they tell me about that?”

“Because,” Nymph started, “the stallion was your brother.”

Everypony but Celestia became completely still. “W-what?” stammered the violet unicorn.

“I was hitting on Shining Armor.” All of Twilight’s friends put their hooves over their mouths to cover their snickering. “I’m sorry it happened, but I had no idea at the time. I only knew the groom’s name, not what he looked like. And I’m sure Cadance was not happy to see the sister of Chrysalis making moves on her husband.”

“She wasn’t,” commented Celestia.

“But that’s enough about me. My dignity needs time to heal. Can we talk about something that doesn’t involve me being laughed at?”

Pinkie jumped on the table. “I wanna talk about how me and Fluttershy became special someponies!” The yellow pegasus just blushed as Pinkie through a foreleg around her and pulled her close.

“I would love to hear that. You two seem very adorable together. And afterwards, we should discuss what you have learned about the changeling civilization. After all, that is the reason you all came over here in the first place.”

After breakfast, the ponies packed the little luggage they had and had Celestia’s guard’s collect them. As the group was traveling down the hallway, a pair of changeling guards approached them. “Twilight Sparkle,” one of them said.

“Yes?”

“Queen Nymph wishes to speak with you in her garden.”

The unicorn gulped. “She wants to speak with me? Alone?”

“Yes. Please go to her as soon as you can. She eagerly awaits you.”

Once the guards left, the ponies and dragon looked nervously at each other. Spike then clung to her leg. “Please don’t go! It could be a trap!”

She just laughed as Rarity pulled him off. “I’ll be fine. I completely trust her.”

“What do ya think she wants?” asked the orange mare.

“I’ll go find out. You girls finish packing and wait by the carriage with the princess while I see her.”

Outside the palace, they parted ways. When Twilight saw the cave entrance, the guards saluted and allowed her entry. She walked past them and entered the tunnel from the night before. Twilight approached the garden with a knot in her gut. While she was sure that Nymph was nothing like Chrysalis, being asked to speak with her alone in an isolated area just made her feel nervous. She decided the best option would be to keep her guard up. As she stepped into the sunlight, she could hear a beautiful voice singing. When the garden finally came into view, she saw Nymph wearing a sunhat and singing a cheery tune while watering her flowers with a watering can. At last, the changeling took notice of Twilight and stopped singing. She approached the unicorn with a friendly smile on her face. “Twilight! I’m so glad you’re here.”

“You wanted to see me?”

“Yes I do. Come lie with me in the shade.” Twilight went under a pear tree and lied on the soft grass as the queen joined her. “I will not keep you long. I know you are eager to return home.”

“What did you want to talk about?”

Nymph took in a deep breath. “First, I want to apologize for how I acted last night. I should not have attacked you like that, but please watch your words more carefully.”

“Apology accepted. I shouldn’t have said those things to you and I feel so awful thinking about it now.”

“It’s all right, we all make mistakes. Now I brought you here because I just wanted us to talk. I know you have more reason than any other to feel negatively about my kind and I want to change that.”

“That’s not necessary. I’ve learned enough from yesterday and I now realize I was wrong about the changelings. You are such a unique species and I hope everypony can see you like I do.”

The changeling lightly blushed. “That means a lot to me, Twilight.”

“Queen Nymph, I also want to apologize again for not trusting you yesterday and for saying those things.”

“Do not blame yourself. I understand fully what Chrysalis had put you all through and I completely understand why you would feel that way about her. She had no right to do any of those horrible things to you.”

“I’m also sorry to hear about what she did to you. I’m glad to see you are usually in high spirits after everything you’ve been through.”

The changeling sighed. “It’s partly an act, Twilight. The mood of the ruler affects the mood of the people. Times are very tough on them, but as long as they see me smiling, they have hope.”

“So you’re not happy?”

“Not completely. Being the queen of the changelings was not something I had completely prepared myself for. I had always seen it as more of the role of Chrysalis and yet here I am.”

“But you’re doing a good job.”

Nymph looked towards the sunny sky. “Yes, but it is only because of Celestia. She is so kind to forgive us for our actions. Had she been more like the other ponies, my race would have been in trouble. I am very thankful for her mercy and her friendship.”

“Friendship?”

“Yes. She was really curious about the changelings since we were asking for citizenship right after the invasion and we got to know each other from our discussions. She could tell that I was mildly struggling as a queen and she began helping me in becoming a better ruler. Later on, we became close friends.”

“She never told me that.”

Nymph chuckled. “Probably because you would have been upset at her, but being the queen during a time like this is only the lesser reason of my misery. I don’t think I need to tell you the other cause.”

“Chrysalis.”

The queen slowly nodded. “When she turned against me, it felt like someone reached inside me and tore out a piece of my soul. She was my very closest friend for over three-hundred years. Banishing her was easily the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life. Can you imagine, Twilight, Shining Armor doing something wrong and you have to send him away, with your last memory of him is him telling how much he hates you?”

Twilight flinched. “I don’t want to think about it.”

“I don’t blame you. I always wonder where she is and the more time passes, the more I worry. The only thing I can do until she is found is fix all of the damage she has caused. It pains me to see how everyone despises her. When these negotiations are done, I will go out to find her. I will bring her home and try to help her. I do not want to think that my hopes for her are misplaced and that she will stop her nonsense.”

Twilight nodded, but there was something she really wanted to know. “Why does Chrysalis hate you?”

Nymph fell silent and it was almost a minute before she spoke again. “I do not wish to speak of it right now. You already think ill of her and the memories are very painful for me.”

“It’s hard to believe she was once like how you described her.”

“Trust me, that is the Chrysalis I remember and cherish. I would give up everything to see her once more. You might think it is foolish of me to have any hope for my sister, but it is hope I refuse to let go of. The true reason I kept everyone out of here is because I like to sit here and recollect the memories of her and I. We used to come here all the time when we were younger and even worked together on the garden with Mother when we got older. I cannot go on believing that the evil Chrysalis that you and I know cannot be changed. She is family, and that will never change.”

“I really hope you’re right.”

“I do too.” She sighed and laid her head on the grass. “Many of my friends think I am fool for putting any faith in her and sometimes I wonder if they are right. Even you think there is no hope for her.”

“I never said that.”

“I can see it in your eyes, Twilight. It may look like a fool’s errand to try to bring the good out of her, but I need this more than anything. I would throw away everything to get my beloved sister back. If Nightmare Moon or Discord can be reformed, surely she can. I know you hate her and you are even scared of her, but I do not want you to worry. Knowing her, she is attempting some sort of plot to reclaim the crown, but if you happen to somehow run into her, I want you to tell her that she needs to turn herself in. I don’t care if you have to beat her and drag her all the way to Celestia, Twilight. I want her to be somewhere where I know she is safe.”

Twilight nodded. “I’ll be sure to do that and I think I should seriously consider the beating part.”

The queen cracked up. “You have my deepest gratitude. Speaking of my sister, I also want you to know that I am no idiot.”

“Huh?”

“You thought I would have blindly taken in Chrysalis after her saying sorry without considering she was tricking me, did you not?”

Twilight nervously gulped. “H-how?”

“When you went to the bathroom during breakfast, I asked your friends some more about why you thought I would have possibly kept her around despite what you knew about us.”

The unicorn turned her head away. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, but just know that I am smarter than I look. I would have brought her in, yes, but I would have been ready for her to stab me in the back. I know better than put blind faith in someone with so much risk involved. And just so you know, if you ever need help with defeating a powerful enemy like my sister, come to me and I will help you. My mind is a very dangerous weapon.”

“And so is mine.”

Nymph just chuckled and waved a dismissive hoof. “Says the pony who needs a teacher to learn about friendship. Besides, I am much older, so I am also much more intelligent than you.

“Oh yeah? What’s the molecular mass of titanium?”

“Ha! Trick question! Titanium is a metal, not a molecule!” The queen smiled proudly from her answer, but then Twilight burst out laughing. The changeling blushed at the realization of how stupid she looked. “Okay, I will admit there may be some areas where you are superior in intellect. Speaking of knowledge, I am happy to see you have acquired so much while you were here.”

Twilight wiped a tear from her eye from laughing so hard. “My whole stay here has been very enlightening. I am glad Princess Celestia had brought us here.”

“I am too. I was never sure if I wanted to meet you for obvious reasons, but now I am happy to have met you.”

“I guess this means we’re friends now?”

Nymph gave a look of surprise. “You want to be friends with me? Really?”

“Yes, and my friends as well. We have learned that-” Her speech was over when Nymph suddenly wrapped Twilight in a very tight hug. Even though she had a frail appearance, she had a large amount of physical strength.

“Oh thank you so much, Twilight Sparkle!” Twilight struggled desperately, wondering if she was going to die from suffocation or a crushed spine. She then teleported a few feet away from her and was trying to regain her air. “Twilight, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she wheezed. “You might want to give lighter hugs from now on.”

Nymph blushed as she helped Twilight up. “Sorry. I forget my own strength sometimes. I’m glad we are now friends, Twilight. This is certainly good progress towards the acceptance of changelings.” Nymph began heading towards the entrance of the garden. “Come on. I wouldn’t want your friends to think I’m doing something horrible to you.”

Twilight giggled as she caught up. “No, we wouldn’t want that.”

The changeling smiled back at her. “By the way, do you have any brothers besides Shining Armor?”

“Spike is actually kind of like a brother to me,” Twilight replied.

“So I have heard and I think it’s cute, but do you have any brothers who are ponies like Shining Armor?”

“I don’t. Shining is my only real sibling.”

Nymph pouted her lip. “That’s a shame. He’s a real hunk.”

Twilight immediately felt herself flare on the inside. “H-HUH!?”

“Well he is. It’s nice that he married that lovely Princess Cadance, but I sort of wish he was single so I could show him what a queen can do. He’s a brave and handsome prince who holds more love for his wife than any pony I have ever met, not to mention he’s got that nice, muscular butt." She happily sighed. "Oh well. I’m sure I will find a nice changeling like him someday.” Twilight was completely unsure how to respond, so she just kept quiet. By the entrance, Nymph took off her hat and approached a neatly placed pile of her clothing. After putting on her royal attire, they continued walking on and returned to the courtyard where the other ponies awaited. “Sorry to keep you all waiting.”

“Is everything all right?” asked Celestia.

“Everything’s fine, Princess,” replied Twilight. “I’m ready to go home now.” She turned towards the queen. “Thank you for everything, Nymph.”

“And thank you as well, Twilight. It will be a while until we see each other again, but I look forward to it.”

“Me too. Goodbye, Nymph, and good luck with the kingdom.” Twilight entered the carriage and her friends followed after saying their goodbyes to the queen.

Celestia approached the royal changeling. “I am glad to see that young Twilight and her friends have gained wisdom and trust from this trip.”

“They are such a fun little bunch. I always thought avoiding Twilight would be best, but I can see I was wrong. It’s a shame Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor are not so forgiving.”

“Give them time. I promise you that they will be your friends as well in the future.”

Nymph nodded. “I hope so. And Celestia?”

“Yes?”

“Keep looking for Chrysalis.”

The princess approached the queen and hugged her. “I haven’t stopped.”

“Your kindness inspires us all. If you were a prince, I would ask for your hoof in marriage.”

“You make me blush.” They stopped hugging. “Take care, Nymph.”

“You too, Celestia. I look forward to our next meeting. And say hi to Luna for me.”

Celestia entered the carriage and closed the door. The pegasi in front pulled on it and brought it into the air. Once she was comfortably seated, she addressed her student. “Is everything okay with Nymph, Twilight? I still find it strange she wanted to see you alone.”

“Everything’s great, Princess. She just wanted a few last words about us before we left and I completely trust her. She’s a little too affectionate, though.”

The princess looked at the other riders of her carriage. “I hope this trip has changed all of your opinions on the changeling race as well.”

Fluttershy was first to speak. “It has, Princess. I am more than willing to allow them to come. As for Nymph, she’s definitely not like Chrysalis in any way. She’s too nice and caring.”

Dash put her hooves behind her head and relaxed her seat. “They’re not so bad, I guess.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Ya only like them because ya got all of that attention. As for me, Ah will gladly welcome them with open hooves.”

“I think Nymph’s a jerk,” muttered Spike, causing everypony but Celestia to laugh.

“You’re just mad because you fell for it,” Pinkie pointed out.

“Fell for what?” Celestia asked.

“Nymph played a little prank on the poor guy and he’s still sour,” answered her student.

“Oh? What did she do?”

“Gave me nightmares.” Everypony laughed at him as he grumbled.

“Don’t ya mean Rarity gave ya nightmares?” asked Applejack.

He put his hands on his head. “This is giving me a headache.”

“But at least you had Rarity cuddle with you,” Twilight reminded.

The dragon rolled his eyes. “Not worth it after what you all put me through.”

Rarity began to look worried. “Oh darling, are you still mad at us?”

He folded his arms and stared out the window. “Yes. I’m especially mad at you, Rarity.”

Hurt by his words and attitude, she pulled him onto her lap. “Is there anything I can do to make you forgive me?”

Spike thought for a moment. “Well…there is one thing.”

“Just say what it is and I’ll do it, Spikey-Wikey.”

He looked up at her. “You have to tell me what it means to make love.”

All of the ponies said, “ooooh,” while Rarity become flustered. “S-Spike, that’s quite a tall order.”

The dragon harrumphed at her. “Either tell me now or I won’t forgive you.”

Rarity became totally panicked when she saw the eager expressions from her friends. “Right now!? In front of everypony!?”

“Now this is going to be funny,” said Dash as she watched with great anticipation.

After a few hours of traveling, Celestia’s carriage landed right outside of Ponyville. The door was opened and the ponies and the ill dragon stepped out. “Come on, Spike, let’s get you home,” said Twilight as she placed him on his back.

Spike only groaned, causing Rarity to rub a hoof against his head. “You poor thing. Did I give away too much information?”

“Ah think any amount would have been too much for him,” teased the orange pony.

The ponies laughed at the ill drake. Once they settled, Twilight addressed her mentor. “Thank you for taking us, Princess Celestia. It was a really amazing experience.”

“I’m glad you all enjoyed it. The changelings are such an interesting race and I would like all of you to do your part in helping them. We must all ensure that we can give them a bright future they can look forward to.”

Twilight nodded. “We will.”

“Excellent. You may all go now. Have a nice day.” After they said their goodbyes, they headed into town. “Pinkie.” The pink pony looked at the princess. “Could you come over here for a moment?”

Pinkie bounced over to her. “Yes, Princess Celestia?”

“Is there something wrong with your friend Cherub?”

The Element of Laughter’s eager attitude diminished and she stared sadly at the ground. “Yes, but I don’t know what. She was so happy earlier and now she’s all gloomy and she’s beginning to yell a lot again.”

Celestia sat next to her and put a wing around her. “Have you tried asking her what is wrong?”

“She won’t tell me. She barely even speaks to me anymore!”

“Something must be deeply troubling her to cause her to act like this. Luna feels that she has done something wrong and it’s really bothering her. Tell me, what do you know of Cherub?”

“Well, she runs a dating service, she has a sister that she doesn’t like, and she almost got married one time.”

Celestia was visibly concerned. “You do not know anymore of her?”

“Nope. She really hates talking about herself.”

“That is troubling. Even Luna knows little of her, despite them being so close." Celestia stood and took a few steps forward, staring into the distance. She then turned back to the earth pony. "Pinkie, I have a very important task for you.”

“What is it?”

“My sister has taken a real liking to Cherub and she is very upset that she is cutting her off. It is clear that Cherub is incredibly depressed about something and if she does not receive any help with this problem she is dealing with soon, things will undoubtedly take a turn for the worse. She has already rejected you and Luna, so it is only a matter of time before she goes even farther, only to end up hurting herself in the end.”

Pinkie became very alarmed. “Oh no! What do we do!?”

“I want you to try to help her in any way you can. You are the pony I trust the most for when it comes to bringing smiles onto others. You need to find out what it is that eats her from the inside and help her in any way you can. Do not expect her to open up in a day and please try not to push too much. Just let her know you are worried and wish to lend an ear. It is very important you do this for her own good, Pinkie.”

“You can count on me!” She stood on her hind legs and placed a hoof on her chest. “I swear from this moment on, I will work on finding a way to make Cherub happy and I will not fail!”

Author's Note

And so concludes the thrilling adventure in the Changeling Kingdom. Next chapter will resume our main story, where we get to see how Chrysalis is doing. Just so you all know, Chrysalis does not know the Mane 6 went to Bugartha as Pinkie did not tell her because Chrysalis acts like a pony who despises changelings. As for the scene where Nymph disguises the other ponies, here's a list that shows who the pony originally was and who they were disguised as.

Rarity->Nymph
Dash->Rarity
Pinkie->Twilight
Twilight->Applejack
Applejack->Fluttershy
Fluttershy->Pinkie
Nymph-> Dash

Bonus: Kill the Wabbit

Author's Note

I know what you're thinking and no, this isn't an April Fools' gag. I've had this thing written out for a while and how could I not post it today, especially when it stars Discord? The reasons I consider this to be a bonus are because it takes place earlier in the story and has no impact on the main story. I know plenty of you want to know what the heck happens with Chrysalis and would prefer the next chapter, but I still hope you all enjoy this.

As for the main story, I'm working as hard as I can to finish the remaining chapters, but a combination of writer's block and real life keep getting in the way, so hang in there.

So for this chapter, you may remember in The Greatest Discovery Ever that Pinkie mentioned something about them doing something with Angel and Discord, which made Angel scream and run away. What happened back then? Find out right now!

Bonus: Kill the Wabbit

Kill the Wabbit

Bored was putting it in the lightest of terms. Discord was absolutely bored out of his immortal skull, finding this moment duller than the thousand years he spent as a statue. Sure, he could just enter his own brain and do fun things without anypony knowing about it, but his creativity felt a tad dry as of late. He loved creating chaos, but being put on a leash really strained him. Nightmare Night was on the horizon and he wanted to see how many ponies he could make wet themselves, but he so far had no master plan ready. He wasn’t that mad about it, however. He truly cherished Fluttershy as a friend and sort of liked the other Elements and the princesses, but he just wished he could be a little more himself. He’d loved to see how Twilight would like it if they kept her from studying.

He snapped his fingers, creating half of a pineapple with some juice and a straw in it, drinking as he rested in the sun’s rays. Looking at the sun made him think of Celestia. He never got what she saw in him to give him a second chance, but he appreciated it. He never admitted it, but that princess had to be his second favorite pony from that gesture alone and he valued her somewhat. Sure, she was all royal and whatever, but messing with her always produced the best reactions. It was too bad she couldn’t just lighten up on him sometimes.

Once he emptied his cup, he tossed it behind himself and closed his eyes. It may have been boring, but at least sunbathing was always nice. Before he could find himself full relaxed, he was rudely tapped by something. He opened his eyes and saw a certain bunny bothering him. He noticed that he had his cup on his head and was covered with juices, causing him to chuckle. “Sorry about that. I honestly didn’t see you.” He closed his eyes, but Angel forced them open by tapping on him again. “What do you want? I’m not doing anything.” The bunny took a paw out in another direction. “Are you telling me to move?” The rodent nodded and Discord just closed his eyes in response. “Too bad.” He felt Angel reaching under him in attempts to move him, but the Lord of Chaos was too big for him. All of a sudden, the air with filled with a high-pitched cry. The draconequus lifted himself and looked at the crying rabbit. “What in the world is the matter with you?”

“Angel?” Approaching them was Fluttershy, who came down from the sky and scooped up her pet. “What’s wrong, sweetie?” The rabbit continued screaming and pointed at Discord. “Oh, you poor thing!”

Discord, angered, stood up. “What did I do!? I was just laying here and he all of sudden comes bothering me.”

“Oh, you didn’t do anything wrong. Angel just likes that spot to take a nap and prefers not to be disturbed, so he wants you to leave. Could you maybe do that?”

“But what about me? I’ve acted gentlecoltly about this, so I should be able to stay!”

“I’m sorry, Discord. I know you’re telling the truth, but Angel has his needs and will be cranky if he doesn’t get them.”

“Fine,” he said hatefully. He walked off and shot a glance at Angel, who spat his tongue at him. He watched as the pegasus lowered him on the grass and scratched his ears.

“There, there. Isn’t that all better?” she asked while scratching his ears.

“She never scratches my ears like that,” he muttered as he stormed off with a raging storm cloud floating above his head. At first, he thought living with Fluttershy would be great. She was very kind and had a lot of interesting animals. However, there was just one thing that always made everything stink and that was Angel. Ever since Discord reformed himself, the little bunny seemed to like bothering him whenever possible. Because he was Fluttershy’s favorite, he usually had things go his way be pretending to be so loving and innocent. Usually they tried to keep out of each other’s business, but lately he had been getting on Discord’s nerves. He jumped onto the roof of the cottage and relaxed, trying to not think about it. It wasn’t that big of a deal and Discord was not the type to hold a grudge. If he couldn’t stay mad at two princesses who imprisoned him for a thousand years, how could he be mad at a little rabbit?

Night rolled in and the draconequus was ready to call it a day. He made a note to himself to find a hobby or something as there wasn’t a lot to do in Ponyville without being able to make chaos happen. There was that important task given to him by Celestia and Luna, but it was just too simple and boring for his tastes. Before he could tuck in on the couch, he was met by a craving that was far more powerful than his craving for mischief. He walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, setting his sights on something as beautiful as a puzzle cube with the stickers switched. Sitting there was a slice of Pinkie’s loco-for-cocoa cake, one of the most delicious treats in the world as it possessed fourteen different flavors of chocolate mixed together for a magnificent taste. The pony had an absolute talent as a baker as this amazing treat took a week to prepare and was usually sold out the moment it appeared.

Discord stared hungrily, drooling hard enough to create a waterfall from his mouth and a small pond on the floor with fish jumping out of it. He reached out his eagle claw to the cake, only for it to suddenly disappear. “Hey!” He looked down on the floor and saw Angel with the slice. “Oh, come on. You already ate more of the cake than I did.” The bunny ignored him and opened his mouth wide enough to eat it one bite, only for Discord to swipe it at the last second. “Sorry, but I saw it first.” All of a sudden, Angel released his annoying cry, causing Fluttershy to appear within several seconds.

“What’s going on?” she asked while rubbing one of her eyes. She saw the both of them as well as what Discord held and immediately knew what this was about. “Discord, what did I say about sharing?”

He sighed dejectedly. “Sharing is caring.”

Fluttershy nodded and took the plate from his hands, offering it to Angel. “That’s right. You should always share with your friends.”

Discord crossed his arms. “We’re not friends, we just live together and I want my cake.”

“Well, I am sure Angel bunny is willing to share it with you. Isn’t that right?” They both looked at the rabbit, whose face was coated in chocolate, and in front of him was the plate with the slice missing. “Oops. I guess he was really hungry.” She bent down and picked him up, pressing him on her shoulder while patting his back. “I hope you didn’t get a mean old tummy ache from that.”

Discord slowly picked up the empty plate. “B-but…but I…” He saw Fluttershy carrying away Angel and the rabbit once again spat his tongue out. Discord’s eyes remained fixed to the room out of the kitchen until he heard Fluttershy close the door to her bedroom. He then looked at the empty plate. “He even licked all of the crumbs and frosting.” He held the plate tighter and tighter until in broke in half. He growled loudly and all of a sudden, his head turned into a volcano and erupted with violent force.

Rabbit season was officially open.

Discord threw a dart, hitting a picture of Angel right between the eyes. He then took all of his remaining darts and threw them all at once, each impaling the rabbit. He stormed back to his chair and sat in front of the fireplace. He snapped his fingers and gave himself a pipe, blowing out bubbles as he stared into the flames. The day after he was robbed of his cake, Discord went off a bit from Ponyville to blow off some steam at his newly created hunting lodge. The walls were covered with trophy heads of a certain rodent, multiple pictures of him that were struck with darts, arrows, and battle axes, and the giant rug in front of him was made of rabbit skin.

He slammed a first down. “Who does he think he is!? He has messed with the wrong draconequus! No one bosses around Discord! That little pipsqueak wouldn’t be so tough without Fluttershy helping him. I let Fluttershy boss me around because she’s always so polite, but not him! He’s a jerk! He even acts like that to her! If she didn’t always protect him,” he snapped his fingers and created an Angel plush, “I’d squeeze him until he popped like a balloon!” With enough force, the plush’s head flew off and fell into the fireplace.

He slouched in his chair. “How did I ever let this happen? I have the power to make the whole world shaped like a banana, and yet here I am being bossed around by a tiny bunny.” He put his paw over his face. “Maybe I should move out for a bit, but I don’t know where I could go. I guess there’s always Canterlot, but I’m pretty sure Celly and Looney are still mad at me for making those ponies at the parade fall over like dominoes. Still, at least hanging with that white pony would be far more relaxing that that white rabbit. She at least has a good reason for acting the way she does.”

With a snap of his fingers, he created a bag of gummy rabbits and proceeded to eat them. “I just wish I could put Angel in his place. I wish I could unleash some true chaos on his little head, but everypony always watches what I do. Maybe being a statue for a year would be worth it if I could get some sweet revenge, but why bother? In the end, Angel always gets what he wants.” Finishing his snack, he created a blanket and made himself comfortable, drifting off to sleep in front of the fire.

All of a sudden, his eyes shot open and he sat up. “Angel always gets what he wants.” At first, the room was filled with chuckling, but then it grew into evil laughter.

Discord sat at the kitchen table, hard at work with building his creation. The animals practically dismissed him since they had no idea what he was doing and Angel didn’t even know about it, which was perfect. As he continued to put it together, he used his brain to make some important calculations. All of it seemed fairly complicated, so maybe he would have to change the laws of science for a bit to get this to work the way he wanted. The sound of the front door being opened caught his attention. He turned his head and saw Fluttershy coming in. “Welcome back, Fluttershy,” he said in a joyful tone.

“Hello, Discord,” she replied as she entered the kitchen. Right as she took out some milk, she saw his project on the table. “Um…what are you making?”

“It’s a rocket ship!”

The pony sat at the table. “A what?”

“A rocket ship!” he answered while setting a bolt into place with a wrench. “It’s something that holds people and goes all the way to outer space!”

“Oh, wow. It looks pretty small, though.”

He got some tweezers and attached some wires inside the rocket. “Well it’s not meant for me. It’s meant for sweet Angel.”

“Angel?”

“Yep!” He looked up from his work. “You see, I realized Angel and I have been getting off on the wrong foot and we made up earlier today. While we were talking, he told me his dream was to someday go to the moon.”

“The moon?” she asked in surprise.

“That’s right. Haven’t you stared up at it at night and thought about how beautiful it looks? I guess he just wants to go up there for himself and take a look around. So I decided that to make up for everything I did, I would help make his dream come true!”

Fluttershy got up and hugged him. “Oh, Discord, that’s so wonderful of you!”

He grinned deviously. “It sure is. Now Fluttershy, I want this to be a surprise, so could you not mention this to anypony until it’s ready?”

“I promise. I bet Angel will be so thrilled when you finish.” She then left the kitchen and went upstairs.

“He’ll be something, alright.” He put a protective mask over his face and proceeded to weld his rocket.

It took several days for Discord to finish his “present.” Once it was complete, he had Fluttershy gather all her little friends to her house. At sunset, she arrived at her house with her friends and Discord stepped out to greet them. “Hello, everypony! Are you guys ready for something exciting!?”

“Not when you’re involved,” said Dash in an unfriendly tone.

He chuckled at her and then noticed there was a seventh pony with them, causing him to grin. “Greetings to you! My name-”

“I know your name is Discord, you idiot,” spat the crimson unicorn.

“Well nice to meet you, too,” he said sarcastically. He actually knew who she was, but never bothered to meet her in person. She had a certain quality about her that made her stuck out and he would be sure to keep an eye on her in the future. If he remembered correctly, she chose to go by the name Cherub. “I happen to also know who you are, Cherub,” he said as he bent down to get on her eye level. “Pinkie mentions you quite a lot. I hear you like to bring some mushy-gushy love to ponies. Ain’t that cute?” He made the shape of a hearth with his fingers and a pink heart suddenly appeared in front of them.

The mare lunged her head forward and ate it, greatly startling him. She chewed on it for several seconds before swallowing. “So what’s this stupid thing you’re doing? Pinkie dragged me all the way out here and it better be worth it.”

“Trust me, it will!” He turned towards the house and called, “Angel! Come on out here!” The door opened and the small rabbit appeared. He hopped up to Discord and looked at him with impatient eyes. “Guess what? I have a surprise for you!” He stepped aside to show something large under a large piece of cloth, causing Angel to become excited. The draconequus went up to it and removed the cloth, showing the rocket ship underneath. “Ta-da!”

Everyone but Fluttershy looked at it in confusion. “What the heck is that?” asked Spike.

“A rocket ship! It goes all the way up to the moon!”

“The moon? That sounds pretty impressive,” complimented Twilight.

“Indeed. Now Angel’s wish can finally be fulfilled!” He snapped his fingers and placed the rabbit in a tiny space suit. Before Angel realized what was going on, he was picked up. “You see, dear Angel here has dreamed of going up to the moon. He looks up towards the night sky and says, ‘It sure looks beautiful up there. I wish I could go there and see the moon rabbits.’” The rabbit struggled as hard as he could in Discord’s unbreakable grip. “And thanks to yours truly, his wish will be granted! It is time for Angel to go where no rabbit has gone before!”

“That’s very generous of you, but I can’t help but feel suspicious,” spoke Rarity.

“Yes, because I’m the most suspicious character here.” He opened a door on the tiny rocket, pulled out some duct-tape, and used it to strap his victim to the rocket. “There, he’s ready for launch!”

“Uh, shouldn’t he be inside the rocket since it’s got windows and everythin’?” asked Applejack.

“Are you a rocket scientist?”

“No, but-”

“Then hush! Come on inside, everypony! It’s almost time!” After exchanging looks of uncertainty, they went inside the house and looked at Angel from the window.

“Why is he moving around like that?” asked Dash, noticing the rabbit was moving around nonstop. Had Discord not put a helmet over his head, they would have seen or heard his terror.

“He’s just so excited that he can hardly contain himself!” Outside, they could see the sky turning from orange to blue. “And look at the time! The moon is here for our sweet Angel! Let’s get right to it!” He snapped his fingers and created a plunger with wires that went all the way out to the rocket. “Countdown to liftoff! Five! Four!”

“Bye-bye, bunny,” the matchmaker said evilly.

“Three! Two! One!” He pressed it down.

Celestia walked down the hall while happily humming to herself. Today had been a very easy day for her and she decided to spend some quality time with her favorite pony in the world. She opened the door to her sister’s room, finding her standing on the balcony. “Good evening, Lulu.”

Luna turned towards her with a smile. “Good evening, Tia. How has this day been for you?”

“It’s been great. For once, everything went pretty well without any sort of trouble.” She stood beside her and they looked down towards the land before them. “Equestria is certainly beautiful at night.”

“It is. I could stare at this view forever.”

“With you at my side, me too.” Luna blushed as her sister put a wing around her. “Such a perfect picture.”

All of a sudden, a bright light appeared below. “Tia, what is that?”

The older alicorn squinted her eyes. “Is that a fire?” They then noticed that it was steadily heading towards the sky, leaving behind a large trail of smoke. “Is…is it some sort of flying creature?”

“I’ve never seen anything like it.” They watched as it climbed higher and higher with great speed, creating a larger tower of smoke. “Should we investigate?”

“I think so, but we should move with caution. It could be a great dragon or-”

The sky was suddenly covered with a blinding light that rivaled the sun and the air was filled with the deafening roar of a cataclysmic explosion, shaking the ground beneath their hooves and causing great gusts of wind that pushed against them and shattered all the windows in the palace. They braced against the sudden force and used their wings to shield their eyes for the fiery explosion that engulfed the night sky. Eventually, the wind stopped and they removed their wings. They could hear the faint sounds of screaming as the citizens of Canterlot ran around down below in complete panic. When they looked back at the sky, all that remained was smoke that was made into words that spelled out, “Eat at Doughnut Joe’s.” The two alicorns then looked at each other.

“Discord.”

Everyone looked up at the sky with their hair completely blown back and with expressions of absolute horror, except for Discord and Cherub, who both wore malicious grins, and Pinkie, who had an excited one. “Wow! That was awesome! Can we do it again!? I looked away for a second!”

“DISCORD, WHAT IN THE WORLD POSSESSED YOU TO PERFORM SUCH A STUNT!?” boomed Celestia with enough force to pin him against the wall in Fluttershy’s bedroom with her voice alone.

“Hey, I said I was sorry! I even fixed all the damages, so cut me some slack! It was just a harmless prank!”

“Harmless!? You unleashed panic on tens of thousands of ponies who believed the world was ending!” Luna pointed a hoof. “And look at poor little Angel! You could have killed him!”

“It’s not like I intended to!” he argued as he secretly dropped a tiny coffin and tombstone in the trashcan behind him. On a tiny bed was his victim, covered in a full-body cast and he had many machines and an IV attached to him. Celestia and Luna had done their best to heal him and they only needed to wait about a week before he was completely healed.

“You have seriously crossed the line! Keep it up and you’ll find yourself as a statue in a deep, dark cave near the center of the world!” Celestia stormed out of the room and Discord followed her.

“Come on. Don’t be like that. I was trying to be nice by helping Angel reach his goal in life. The explosion was just a mistake in my engineering.” He was met with an extremely powerful glare. “Okay, fine. That little loser disrespected me far too many times and I got even.”

“I think you got many times more than even,” Celestia snapped. “I didn’t take you as the type who would actually bring pain onto others.”

“Well the suit was meant to protect him. Like I said, I never intended on killing him, I just wanted to teach him a lesson.”

The princess growled. “Discord, you need to learn about controlling yourself because this is absolutely not acceptable. If you were having troubles with Angel, you should have talked with Fluttershy instead of acting out. I suggest you do that next time before doing something so stupid that you find yourself all alone again.”

“But…but…” He hung his head and sighed. “Okay, I’ll do it next time.” He suddenly looked up. “And I am totally honest about being sorry. I even got you a gift to show how sorry I am!”

Celestia turned her head and sighed. “I am not interested in anything you could give me.” When she saw it in the corner of her eye, she immediately turned her head. “Is that Pinkie Pie’s loco-for-cocoa cake?”

“You bet it is! So how about it? Do you forgive me?”

Celestia suddenly took it with her magic. “I’ll consider it, but I am warning you about doing something like this again. My mercy has its limits.”

“I’ll try, but it’s hard when it’s so fun and when you make that adorable face when you’re mad.”

The princess scrunched her face as a tint of pink appeared on her cheeks. “Good day to you.” She then walked downstairs and out the door.

Discord then noticed Luna coming out of the bedroom. “Luna, I am sorr-” She stomped on his foot with thunderous force, walking out the door without saying a word as he jumped around, yelling in pain. Once the pain faded, he went back into the bedroom. “So how’s our little astrobunny?”

Fluttershy looked up at him with disappointment. “Discord, how could you do such a thing to him!? He’s just trying to be your friend and then you ended up hurting him! You’re grounded for three weeks!”

He let out a laugh. “Grounded!? You honestly think you can ground the Lord of-”

She suddenly flew up in his face and used her ultimate weapon. “Do you want to be grounded for four weeks!?”

He put his hands up and backed away. “No, three is good!”

She knelt down by her pet. “You can’t hurt your friends like that. It’s not right. As part of being grounded, you have to sleep outside and you have to be Angel’s servant, meaning you have to do whatever he asks.” Discord’s jaw dropped and hit the floor as Fluttershy walked by him. “You better be sorry and make it up to him, or else.” She then closed the door.

After shaking himself out of shock, he looked at the injured bunny. “Well, we certainly had fun.” He chuckled as he got on the ground next to him. “Oh, don’t be like that. We’re pals, right?” He received a muffled response. “I’m glad you agree! I even got you something to celebrate our friendship!” He snapped his fingers and created a carrot cake, causing Angel’s eyes to grow with hunger. “Here, let’s have some right now!” He held the plate over Angel’s head and turned it upside down. He then reached down and grabbed a fistful of cake, revealing the flaming rage in Angel’s eyes. “Like I said, Angel always gets what he wants!” He broke out into powerful laughter as he stood up and flew out the window.