"You sure you don't want to talk about it? You're lookin' pretty down, ma'am," Pony Joe replied, concern in his voice.
"I'm fine, just leave me," the Changeling Queen replied coldly, wiping away the trails of tears streaming her cheek.
"If you insist," said Pony Joe, returning to mopping the floor and leaving the porous pony to continue moping into the glass of milk and half-eaten donut in front of her.
Pony Joe's Donuts was one of the remaining few establishments open at this hour of the night. All of the other lights in the buildings and houses had gone out, so that Luna's moon provided the darkened streets with their only illumination. It was here that Chrysalis sought solitude, hoping to find some measure of comfort, or, if nothing else, the ability to let her mind go blank if only for a little while.
Her recent failed coup of Canterlot had left her in understandably low spirits. The months of careful planning and preparation it took to carry out her elaborate scheme now gone to waste, and worse, her subjects still faced a crisis of sustenance, devoid of the love to feed from they needed. It meant once again returning to the drawing boards, but Chrysalis had the sinking feeling in her gut that she was quickly running out of alternative options.
She only allowed herself brief reprieves such as this to feel sorry for herself. The Queen tried her very best to maintain her headstrong composure, but in the face of such defeat, even she felt her morale take a hit. She lightly traced the end of her hoof around the rim of her glass and rested her head on the other. She was on her third donut of the night, and while the buzz wasn't yet strong enough to help her forget her troubles, it did help make her feel a little bit better, at least. She found it so hard to believe that love of all things would be the cause of such distress for her. The corner of her mouth managed a small smirk at the thought of this bit of irony.
Without warning, the doors of Pony Joe's slammed open, causing Chrysalis to jump slightly and Pony Joe to briefly lose his magical grip on his mop. Chrysalis heard a small yet undeniably angry voice enter the donut shop behind her. She turned around to see a young, purple dragon stomp in, his brows furrowed and smoke steaming from his mouth, muttering angrily under his breath.
"Stupid Twilight...you want your bookshelves organized so precisely, you can do them yourself, then! Hey, Pony Joe! A round of donuts and a hot chocolate with a marshmallow, on the double!" he called out. Rather than respond, Pony Joe simply went to prepare the donuts without a word. This wasn't the first time that Spike had come to blow off steam in his shop, and he knew it was best to simply let him get it out than cause trouble.
The small dragon took a seat a few down from Chrysalis, angrily rapping his fingers on the counter waiting for his pastry. His eyes wandered to the changeling queen, who was doing her best to avoid eye contact.
"You're upset about something, too, huh?" Spike asked, presumption in his voice.
"I suppose you could say that," said Chrysalis, keeping her eyes on her donut. She had enjoyed the comfort of the silence from before, his presence now beginning to spoil her mood.
"Y'know what, that's no good," said Spike, shaking his head. "Yo, Pony Joe, a couple of donut holes for me and my friend here."
About a minute later, Joe returned, carrying two glazed donut holes delicately placed on cocktail napkins and setting them down in front of the two.
"Thanks, kid," said Chrysalis with a small nod.
"You know what they say, misery loves company," said Spike, holding the sweet up to his face.
Chrysalis couldn't help but let out a small smile at the dragon's words of wisdom. She, too, held up her donut.
"Cheers to that," toasted Chrysalis, tapping her pastry with Spike's before tossing it in her mouth. She grimaced slightly at the small donut's bite as it went down her throat, having not had donut hole shots in quite some time. She let out a sigh after she swallowed and chased it with a sip of her milk.
"So what's your deal, kid? What brings you here at this hour?" asked Chrysalis.
"Oh, my stupid caretaker is being impossible to please, as usual. We live in a library, and she asks me to help her organize her books, but she wants this shelf arranged alphabetically by author, this one by title, that one by date of publication, blah blah blah, and every time I make one little mistake she goes off on me about it. I mean, I'm just one dragon, I can't get it right all the time!" vented Spike, taking a bite into his sprinkled donut. "And of course she doesn't bother to bring it up at home, no, she's gotta mention it while we're vacationing in Canterlot. Perfect timing, right?"
"Hmm, it sounds like you do most of the work while she does nothing. If I were you, I would take that library by force and arrange it however I want to!" said Chrysalis, some excitement rising in her voice.
"Mmm, yeah, maybe..." said Spike, his voice trailing off as he took a sip of his hot chocolate. "I'unno. Anyways, what about you, what brings you here?"
Chrysalis came down from her brief high of excitement and returned to a more even tone. "Oh, it's a long story..." she began.
"Mmm, sounds like we might need a few more donut holes for this one. Hey, Pony Joe!" hollered Spike as he signaled the pony baker.
Twilight Sparkle slowly trudged up the road towards probably the only building in Canterlot still lit up at 1:30 at night. Her mane was a rumpled, bed-ridden mess, but she didn't care enough to bother making it presentable. Her eyelids hung with the same weight that she dragged her hooves along the pavement with, unsure if her sleepiness outweighed her annoyance. After all, the last thing she expected on her trip to see the Princess was a late-night phone call from Pony Joe to come drag her blitzed assistant back to their hotel room.
Chrysalis walked out the doors of the donut shop right as Twilight was approaching them, a slight stumble in both of their steps. The two former combatants exchanged glares as they passed each other.
"Chrysalis," Twilight said, coldly.
"Hmm, Twilight Sparkle," replied Chrysalis with equal ice. Ordinarily, she'd pound the purple pony into dust, but the donut holes in her had numbed her senses enough that picking a fight probably wasn't in her best interest.
"I suppose you're here for him...well, good luck with that," said Chrysalis smugly, gesturing her head back towards the door. Twilight continued to glare as Chrysalis walked (stumbled) past her into the night. After a few steps, she paused for a moment. "Oh, and go easy on the poor thing, alphabetizing is tiring work and mistakes are easily made."
"What?" asked Twilight, but Chrysalis simply continued on without another word. Twilight shrugged her comment off and entered the shop.
Inside, Pony Joe was hard at work scrubbing glazed sugar off the ground. On the counter, three pans covered in crumbs were haphazardly strewn around the form of a bloated, passed out baby dragon, an arm draped over his chest and his spiked tongue hanging out of his sugar-coated mouth.
"Ugh, what happened this time?" asked Twilight, rolling her eyes.
"Eh, I dunno, there was some storytellin', which led to a donut hole-eatin' contest, and, well, long story short...he lost," said Pony Joe, his attention still on the floor. Twilight rubbed the bridge of her nose with her hoof, carefully picking up the passed-out dragon in her magical aura.
"Oh, and by the way, he owes about fifty bits on his tab," said Pony Joe.
"Ugh...Spike, you're in for a world of re-alphabetizing when we get back to Ponyville..."
The rush of the cool wind felt nice as it passed through Chrysalis' mane. She drifted and wobbled ever so slightly in her flight, but for the most part, she was still able to cruise at an easy pace as she flew home.
She had enough donut holes in her to not quite remember how she came to eat so many donut holes, so in that sense, her evening was a resounding success. There was still a great, pressing matter at hand that she knew she had to deal with soon, but for now, she would leave Canterlot as a donut hole-eating champion.
...she, the Queen of the Changelings, won a donut hole-eating contest against a baby dragon...
"...eh, it's a start."
