"Will you come to my talent show, Twilight?" These words were said very carefully and slowly by a frail voice still recovering from the magical induction it had suffered only a month before.
Both Twilight and Spike dropped their forks in dramatic fashion which only moments ago had been feeding them their Nth helping of pancakes. It was such a waste of food, and doubly so for the two who scrambled to pick their forks back up from their surprise, as these pancakes had been made almost entirely alone by the voice that had asked the question. You would have thought they'd be tired of them by now, but not so for this occasion no matter how flawed those cakes were. Imperfection was perfection, in this case.
"Of course, Chrys! Of course! I wouldn't miss it for the world. Consider it done." Twilight said hurriedly after returning to the small girl's direct vision from catching her fork half way to the floor mid-air with magic.
"Are you sure? Not busy?" The worried girl with bright amber eyes asked.
Twilight produced her list of duties she always made and gave it a cursory glance to imitate the idea that she was checking to see if she was free that day. She wasn't, but there was no way anything took precedence over Chrys' show, especially after she'd been asked to go by her. Chrys' worried stare didn't leave her until Twilight cleared her mind and made of show of tearing the long, long scroll into shreds with her magic.
"Well, well. Will you look at that. Seems like I'm totally free that day by some miracle." Twilight shoo'd the torn bits of scroll through the open window with a magical gust and into the breeze.
Chrys blew up her cheeks with frustration obviously catching Twilight's ruse, but was happy nonentheless that she would do everything in her power to attend, especially considering how nervous Chrys was to stand before so many ponies and needed her moral support
"Oh, oh! Unlike Twilight, I'm totally free that day! Can I come too?" Spike interjected in that moment.
"Mm!" Chrys was more than happy to hear Spike wanted to go as well.
Twilight on the other hand... she just stared at Spike with a look of betrayal. Which he just returned with a smug look as he munched on a pile of small yellow crystals for dessert, gems he'd acquired as a gift from the little changeling. It was quite the dangerous atmosphere Spike had created but was almost immediately alleviated by the squeaking giggles of an amused Chrys as she found their laid-back dynamic, fun to be around.
Now they were feeling a strong sense of normalcy that had not existed until that moment. It had been a full month since those dire events had happened, and ever since, everyone had been on edge about any number of things. For starters, they couldn't be 100% sure the Mistress was gone for good. The old Queen's act to suppress her had helped the concerns about any possible slips in her form coming back to haunt them, but magic was all sorts of wily, and the Mistress had been quite cunning indeed.
Even if, per chance, they really didn't have to worry about her return, the Mistress had done quite a lot of damage to Ponyville via the Guardian. Its stones had rained down on the city causing all manner of broken things. Thankfully by some miracle, or perhaps not, noone had been harmed despite the catapulted stones. Still, it kept the citizens on edge all month long of another possible attack all while rebuilding the damaged part of town.
The mood had definitely improved in that time, however. Random ponies could be seen bowing their heads slightly to Chrys each time she walked out into the public. They'd all had a semblance and a memory of all the awful things they'd allowed in their weakness, and all of them seemed to realize the kind of hurt they'd made the little changeling go through. It was the same thing they'd done to Zecora twice over, and a lot of them felt beyond guilty. Especially those who had done the most damage.
None of them had, had the courage to voice their regrets and give her a proper apology. It was not shame that stopped them from doing so, but a deep, deep remorse that made them feel like sorries wouldn't be nearly enough to earn them her forgiveness. Not until very recently had she had anyone give her a verbal apology, when the first to do so were two notorious fillies who had recognized their mistake. Awful as they were, they had seen something far worse and wanted nothing to do with that kind of evil. Time and contrasting experiences had afforded them the ability to reflect, and they did so in front of a public audience outside of school in the market after they spotted her walking with Twilight.
"You! Changeling girl..." Diamond Tiara had said to stop her. "Chrys, I mean. Well... I'm..." Her face contorted, struggling to say the words she meant to say. "You are forgiven!" She turned away with a flush to her cheeks. "No um, what I meant to say is sorry, yeah." She said with an airy breath that didn't sound apologetic at all.
"Yeah, I'm sorry too. Shouldn't have called you all that stuff." Followed the snide remarks of Silver Spoon, who to everyone else didn't sound nearly sincere enough to have been worth uttering.
To everyone's surprise, Chrys initiated a hug between the three of them, fully accepting their apology despite their haughty behavior. If you don't understand why this was, then you've forgotten what Chrys has been dealing with this entire time. Her amber eyes. The gifts of a sage, and her window to the world of souls. She could read their true intention like the back of her hoof, and she was deeply touched by their intentions, not their words.
After seeing how 'magnanimous' Chrys had been at that moment, more and more ponies felt the courage to voice their regrets and apologies to Chrys. In reality, none of them had ever had to voice those feelings, for the little changeling had already taken them in, in kind. Every day since those events, the townsfolk could only wonder how the small girl had the courage to walk amongst so many ponies who only days before had verbally harassed her even out in public due to false rumors. They thought her strong, immovable, and truly noble of heart. They saw her bright smile constantly and making brighter every scene she passed by, that suddenly, what only a month before had been a harbinger of doom and everything awful in her image had transformed into this saintly, angelic creature. She fought for and saved everyone. She'd forgiven them so easily. And love and joy resonated from her like a strong hearth.
Simple misunderstandings, assuredly. She was not as perfect as they were making her out to be. She still feared their gazes. She'd saved them, but just barely, and she'd abandoned her sense of duty and morals when it had been all too much to bare once in that fight. The only reason why she pulled through it all and saved them was because of her love for Twilight and her close friends, not them. Why was she constantly happy walking through town? Because she walked amongst much kinder folk, whose opinions were changing for the better and seeing her in a much brighter light. She was surrounded by positivity, when the contrast from before had been almost entirely negativity. How could she not enjoy this change of pace?
And she was walking with a much lighter load on her shoulders. No longer did the fate of the changelings haunt her every waking moment. No longer was it just her sole responsibility to wake them from their lingering madness after Twilight had ordained and organized a group of medical magical professional unicorns to upkeep their rehabilitation.
But she still had one major responsibility left. Her role as Princess. Her desire to breed a world without prejudice for her kind, so that the changelings could one day live in peace amongst the races of Equestria. She would have to do the hardest work she'd ever have to do to accomplish that, even above saving the world twice.
What kind of grueling work was it that even Chrys could not akin it to the events a month before? Public speaking. Diplomacy. Building bridges. Making friends...
And the path to that started with the truth. For her talent show, she had a rather special plan in motion that no one but her knew. Happy that the two closest to her heart would attend, she went back to working on whatever special thing she was working on, careful to stay away from prying eyes.
It took a lot of willpower from Twilight not to peek at whatever it was she was doing, wanting to give Chrys her privacy and the gift of surprise for when the show was eventually put on. She paced up and down the library constantly, doing a number of mental gymnastics in her mind about what it could be. This continued all the way until the day of the talent show, and even through it as Chrys was the last to do her presentation in front of most of the ponies of Ponyville.
The group of Twilight and her friends and even the Crusaders who had finished their own show were now in the crowd waiting expectantly. All of the ponies, dragon, and zebra who mattered most to her were in attendance for this moment too. What could it be? They'd all murmured under their breath. But something was wrong. Miss Cheerilee had already announced the winners for the talent show despite Chrys having not done her show. Was she not going to do it? But just as the show was wrapping up, Cheerilee announced to everyone to stay for one final show which she made sure to mention was very special and needed a window of its own outside of the normal contest. There was a real sense of excitement when they heard this.
Everyone's jaws dropped the moment those curtains lifted and Queen Chrysalis stood proud and tall at the front of the stage.
She looked a world different. No holes dotted her legs. Her hair was organized and shorter. And her horn was perfectly straight. She was beautiful, and a true sight to behold. Like a true fairy of legend. The friends and crusaders were reminded of the imperfect but very much alike version they'd seen of the sane Queen when they had seen her inside the Guardian.
They all held their breath to see what she would do next. The silence in the crowd was palpable. Was this another attack? What was the Queen doing here? Wasn't she supposed to be sleeping?
Behind her, a cardboard wall of crude drawings stood. On that wall was dark illustrations of a cave and its stalagmites with a lot of green dots lining it. Where those... Changeling eggs? Far to the opposite end of where the Queen stood was another cardboard cutout of a yellow egg, unlike the rest of them. The Queen silently walked over to it and placed her horn to its surface, and the bright light of her horn created an aurora of golden magic all around the stage and even in the crowd. That magic was comforting and warm, and all who felt it could sense their hearts ease as it passed by them. Then the cardboard cutout of the egg broke, and was quickly replaced by a small rendition of a baby changeling. A unique one at that with a twisted little horn and a short, light green mane that closely resembled the Queen's.
Little by little, it became apparent as to what they were seeing. The history of the changelings... And the Queen was likely...
She took this cardboard cutout and placed it onto her back and turned around to show her walking out of the cave. The wall of drawings flipped around quickly to its other side to show a background drawing of a large field with a warm orange glow peeking out from the horizon, to illustrate a sunrise. Then, she placed the cardboard down gently onto the ground, and from her mane she produced a perfectly translucent crystal which she proceeded to infuse with magic and hold it up to the cutout.
From there on, a number of scenes happened. The story they were seeing was truly something else. It had its up and downs, and it was telling the life of this small cutout. The Queen was often replaced by a number of figures. She would walk off the stage and white pony with a yellow mane and amber eyes would walk back on to act out some of those events. All of them in some silent display.
The cutout itself was replaced a number of times as those scenes played out, growing bigger and more detailed until the resemblance started to look like something they all recognized...
Then, the story took a turn for the worse. Illustrations of fires, and many of them, began to fill the stage. The cardboard wall was replaced with the ghastly sight of a ruined city, with only the skeletons of buildings surviving those events.
The final scene of this play showed the Queen standing on top of a pile of rubble and looking out to a crowd of changelings. Red lines indicated the ire of the changelings affected by this tragedy. The Queen bowed her head to them all in that moment. When she brought it back up, her horn lit up with magic. But this time, the magic was a different color. Green, a dark green. Or as dark a green as the person casting that magic could make it, which wasn't all that dark in the end. But it clearly showed that something had changed. Then, the silent play that they had all witnessed ended and the curtains closed. Out from the curtains, Chrys appeared.
She faced everyone with a solemn look to her face and bowed to her knees.
"Our tragedy became yours." She said slowly, carefully, and concisely. "Changelings were consumed by madness. Waged war. Made mess of the world. Sealed away for a long time. Our punishment. But freed and caused trouble again. Ponies pay price for our mistake."
This was the first time any of the ponies outside of those who had been inside the Guardian had heard the truth of the changeling's past. And they had just finished seeing a recreation of that past and what lead up to them becoming that way...
What were the ponies to think? For a month now, this idea that Chrys was an angel had been perpetuated until so many of them believed it, and now they'd just been witness to something truly stunning and awe inspiring that had been done by her transformational ability. It was a heavy truth, and a sad one. This story had connected her to them in a much more personal way than before, and now all of those thoughts were racing through the crowd in a sort of mass, silent reflection.
If it was Chrys' intention to rock their very worlds with such a big display in an act of trying to get public opinion on her side, then she'd succeeded. It wasn't, as all she intended was to apologize on behalf of her kin with all of her heart to every pony who had been affected. But at least for the small town of Ponyville, it was everything they needed to hear. She'd created myth and historical truth itself at the same time. She had won over the hearts of even those who still sat by the fence. She had won their empathy and their trust, and all around her you could hear the thundering sound of hooves stomping their approval like a standing ovation.
While Chrys was very happy to feel the kind of emotions coming out of the crowd in respects to her, she was deeply embarrassed by what they decided to do next. Now all of them knew that she was a Princess. And so what started from one of those ponies showing his respect by taking a knee to bow, so followed everyone else, even her close friends.
Even in the Formless Kingdom, she had never been seen as a true Princess. She never could've imagined the respect of that title the likes of which the Queen commanded in her prime being directed at her, so this feeling of reverence was new to her, and something she felt she did not deserve at all. In her flustered shame, she ran off the stage and over to Twilight, who still bowed to her.
Twilight and everyone else could see how it flustered her, but all the same, in their respect for everything she'd accomplished, they continued to bow until Twilight stood up first after so many nudges of protest from the little girl. For that night and a few days to come, she looked like a true celebrity as so many ponies lined up to voice their heartfelt opinions about her talent show and their feelings and regrets for what they had done to her.
Before that night ended, a large, tall white alicorn made her way through the crowd. Every pony made way to give her a path as she did so. Her pastel rainbow maned flowed in the wind and made for quite the sight, and Chrys' eyes widened when at the sight of her.
Chrys stared at her unflinchingly all the while she walked up to them, and to up her, and even when her tall figure bowed all the way until her long horn reached the ground.
"That was a truly wonderful show. The truth can be a sad thing, but it's important to put it out in the open if we are to move forward together. In my prime and as a regent, I'd always wondered why Queen Chrysalis placed all her hopes into you despite the dire circumstances all that time ago. But now that I'm older and wiser, I see she was entirely right about what she'd done. Even if she hadn't been, then she did it out of her love for you as any mother would. I realize now, I'd probably do the same too. I always feared I'd made so many mistakes in the way we tackled those issues in yesteryear, but you and Twilight have given me so much peace of mind now it's hard to imagine I've lived with it all this time." She brought her head up to look at the little changeling and smiled at her. "It's so very good to see you again, Princess Chrys. And so good to see you are well."
"Auntie!" Chrys hugged Princess Celestia at that moment, making for quite a heartwarming scene.
"Seems I haven't been forgotten either." She chuckled. "I owe so much to you and your predecessor. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to save you." She said remorsefully as she fell into Chrys hug even more. She may have had the grace to not cry at that moment, like any true ruler would, but Chrys felt her deep sorrow well up at that moment like tears from the heart.
Chrys proceeded to tap the purple crystal on her breastplate with her horn and infuse her magic into it. She placed the calming effects of her usual spell into it to help ward off those saddening emotions, and slowly, Princess Celestia regained her composure again.
"Haha." Her voice shook as she laughed weakly. "Like mother like daughter. You can probably sense this was a gift from her, can't you?" Chrys nodded up at her. "Thank you, Chrys." She composed herself and turned to Twilight. "My dearest Twilight, I cannot express how grateful I am that you've allowed me this opportunity. Thank you as well."
"It's nothing, Princess Celestia! Truly, it's nothing. Nothing would've stopped me from taking care of her." She brushed aside her own welled up tears after having witnessed this reunion between them.
Before they could lose themselves in a sea of pleasantries and circulating reminiscence, a deep voice from someone behind them spoke up.
"A truly wonderful story from beginning to end. The very signature of love encompassed throughout your lives shaping the very world around you and yourselves. Truly one worth for the strings of fate." This deep, musky voice was coming from an aged creature with long, long flowing coat hairs. His eyes were completely covered by his bushy, white brows. His mouth, by his long moustache and beard that blended together and reached almost all the way down to his knees.
Stranger yet, this was no pony. This was a creature unlike anything any of them had ever seen before. An elk. A very, very ancient one. His antlers were massive, and they branched out in every direction like a huge tree. On them, runic carvings dotted along their length in a language none of them had seen before, telling stories all throughout it. Hung from the ends and all along wherever there was space, talismans with stories in them flowed in the wind majestically.
Both Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight bowed the full way to show their utmost reverence for the creature, which made everyone else present do the same albeit not understanding why.
"Your holiness... welcome..." Princess Twilight began.
"Holy? Nonsense. I doubt we are any more special than the lives of anyone here. We are but simple chroniclers of history. Please, treats us as you would any others."
"What? But you're a Sage of Fate... we can't..." Twilight stammered.
"It's okay, Twilight. Fimbulþulr is a longtime friend of mine since I was but a filly myself." Princess Celestia chuckled.
"And yet you incentivize the rest to treat us like royalty, Celest." He huffed.
"A joke, you old goat." She laughed.
"So uh, what's a Sage of Fate? No offense, old man." Rainbow Dash asked, addressing everyone's confusion.
"None taken." He replied.
"The Sages of Fate are also known as the 'Keepers of Fate', who have long lived outside Equestria and have chronicled many of its stories. They are revered by all who still know of them as god-like entities themselves, and often thought to have a handle on the very hands of fate." Twilight explained.
"We are not gods nor can we control fate, of course, but given our long lifespan and rare appearances throughout the ages, you can see how that would inspire rumors. Many of my fellows have gotten it stuck in their empty heads too that they come with some sort of divine providence and act all mighty because of it, but they're just a bunch of senile fools if you ask me."
"So then, to what do we owe this meeting?" Twilight asked.
"Well, you've heard what we do. Care to guess what I came here for?" He chuckled in an old man's style of laughter, coughing and hacking up in the process. He pointed to Chrys with one hoof, and then moved it over to Twilight. "I came to listen to some stories and write them down too. Rest up for now, however. I shall come around again and often, so be prepared to accommodate this old man if you can."
He lowered his head over to Chrys and inched his brows up so that his eyes were now fully exposed, getting a good glance at the small girl who stared back at him with fascination. He smiled a big grin, which made for a funny sight and who made Chrys chuckle.
His eyes were deeply amber, and she saw how alike they were to her own...
"From Svássver, to Tera Amare, down to you, little Chrys. Where your eyes follow, so does a love for the world. That's how my late wife always saw it. That's how Tera would've seen it too, as I'm sure you remember. And that's how I see it in you too." The great elk ruffled her mane until it was a mess, laughed at his handiwork, and said... "Your story is truly special and will live on in not only the history of this world, but in ours too. See you soon, small miss."
Then he departed for the night, down into the thicket of trees to disappear like a phantom.