Chrysalis had always wondered how she would die.

In older times as a small changeling she had never dreamed of defeat of course. That had changed once she had tasted war. Her mortality had been made known to her, and she had thought of death increasingly as she aged.

Not always. It was a thought that crept up on her in the dark times, after a bloody battlefield or in the rain and on dark nights when the moon hid from the earth. Then she had thought of it.

She had dreamed of dying in battle. Some great, far-off war where the mightiest armies clashed and she ended her life in battle against a legendary general. That, to the young Chrysalis had seemed an appropriate end.

Later, she had wondered if she would pass away at the hands of a younger queen, or by poison, accident, or simply of age. These had been mortal concerns, and she had let most of them pass her by. Many had challenged her for her throne. All had failed. Her changelings were loyal; if they were not, her death was not only inevitable, but necessary. And as for accident or age…these things simply were.

But always another thought had crept into Chrysalis’s mind, especially as she had grown. She had wondered many times, staring into the eyes of her subjects or watching the lesser races frolic and play, whether she would die alone.

Alone. It was a terrible thing to be. But Chrysalis had learned long ago that of all the creatures in all the world, she was unique. She was queen. There was no king. Perhaps only alicorns knew her despair, but then, even they were not alone. The twin immortals had long existed, and two more had joined their ranks already. Even they were not alone.

Of course, she had her Swarm. She always had her Swarm, her people. But she had realized sometime while she had been Fluttershy that it wasn’t the same as having a friend. Loyalty wasn’t the same as friendship after all. Obedience wasn’t respect, and though she knew her subject’s thoughts, they did not know hers.

So Chrysalis had been alone, and known she was alone. It had hurt terribly. But she had still fought and done her utmost to ensure her Swarm’s survival, their victory.

But now it was all over. Chrysalis knew how she would die, and she saw her death. They stared at her. They were all around her.

It wasn’t fair. She had done her best. She had planned, plotted, and fought harder than she ever had before. But still she had been outmaneuvered at every turn. And now she was going to die.

Alone.

“What’s wrong, Chrysalis?” One of the Fluttershys swooped closer. “Will you surrender? It is far too late for that, now.”

Chrysalis didn’t respond. No dragons, no final great war. Just a pegasus cloned a thousand times with ancient magic. There would be no heroic tales told of this night; in fact, if Fluttershy had her way no one would even know it had happened.

“Do you have any last words?” The Fluttershy flew a little closer. “I will give you that courtesy if you—”

One of Chrysalis’s hooves shot out. Fluttershy’s sentence ended in a gurgle as Chrysalis ripped her throat out. She fell to the ground, twitching.

Chrysalis kept thinking. No glorious end. She would be brought down by the cuts of a thousand insects. Yet brought down she would be. It was inevitable.

But think of it a different way. Think of it as a young changeling. Here she was, surrounded by a thousand copies of the only being that had ever humbled her. She had fought in a great war, against foes even dragons hesitated to face. She had faced down a god of chaos, turned back an Ursa Minor. She had unleashed floods and filled the sky with fire to destroy her foe. And now she was going to die, fighting a general. Perhaps not a great general of tooth and claw or magic and mystery, but a cunning one nevertheless. The greatest general of Equestria. Yes, wasn’t that enough?

Chrysalis looked up. Fluttershy stared back at her, patient, waiting. She smiled, and Chrysalis both hated that smile and loved it at the same time. Yes. It was enough. And also...

Fluttershy. Her mane is pink, her fur a light tan. Her eyes are the blue of sunny days and clear oceans. She is dominant in her left hoof, and she owns a small cottage at the edge of the Everfree. Among her friends are the Elements of Harmony of which she represents the Element of Kindness, but she also treasures the company of Angel the bunny, Harry the bear, and all the other animals who occupy the woods around her home.

She loves to sing, but is so cripplingly shy that she can only perform in front of her animal friends. Despite that, one of her greatest wishes is to be on the stage singing, as is her desire to be a flier like Rainbow Dash. Her official wing power score is 2.3, but in actuality it can reach up to 6.8 wing power or even higher in times of need. She speaks to animals, a talent unknown among any other pony, and she can use The Stare, a technique where she physically and mentally stares down her opponent into submission.

She has a ‘freaky’ knowledge of sewing and is actually quite picky about fashion, even though she would never voice her opinion. She is the world champion at staying quiet, and she has also killed over a fifty changelings with her bare hooves. Her knowledge of strategy and tactics is limited to books and limited experience, but she makes up for her weaknesses with creative plans.

She is a personal friend of Discord and has demonstrated the ability to fight with knives and can lead armies. She is ruthless and gentle. Cruel and kind. She weeps for the fallen even as she ends their lives. Once, she defeated a changeling known as Chrysalis.

Yes. Chrysalis smiled to herself. Maybe she wasn’t so alone at that.

It was time. She could see the other Fluttershys tensing, ready to act. But it was her last battle, hers to orchestrate. And shouldn’t she make it a little bit grand?

Chrysalis stepped forwards. Her horn shone with green magic and she spread her wings to their fullest extent. She faced the army of Fluttershys without fear.

“I am Chrysalis!” She shouted at them. “Come at me! I will destroy you a thousand times if that is what it will take! So long as I live, there will never be peace! I am war incarnate and the end to civilizations! I am Chrysalis! This is my death!”

Magic burst from Chrysalis’s horn as she leapt. With one hoof she broke a Fluttershy’s neck. With her wings she knocked another back and with her horn she unleashed a wave of magic that cut through countless more. They fell to the ground in pieces and the other Fluttershys attacked.

Chrysalis spun in a circle, her horn spitting magical blasts that blew holes in anything they touched. Her magic could kill many, but only if she was alive to use it.

Fluttershys ducked beneath her spells and approached. Chrysalis kicked with her rear hooves and then spun and lashed out with her forehoof. A broken ribcage, a fatal skull fracture. She ducked and gored a Fluttershy with her horn, blasting her off and into the sea of pegasi.

“Come on!” Chrysalis shouted as the Fluttershys hesitated for a moment. “Is that all you have? There are hundreds of you and one of me! Strike me down if you can or I’ll destroy all of you!”

“Very well.”

Two hundred Fluttershys spoke at once as they engulfed Chrysalis in a swarm. She blasted them with her magic, but they kept coming. Even if their faces were melted, even as their bodies broke or vaporized, they charged her.

So weak. So many!

Chrysalis struck one Fluttershy and snapped her neck in a single blow. Another grabbed her hoof, and another tackled her from behind. She was on Chrysalis, stabbing with a knife that broke on Chrysalis’s carapace. Then she bit Chrysalis’s ear.

Agony. Chrysalis roared and threw that Fluttershy off her, but another once ducked beneath her guard. Her wings slashed up like a sword, and Chrysalis’s eyes were stabbed by the feathers. She couldn’t see.

Blades struck her chitin. They failed to cut her, but then something smashed into her side. A stone? No. Boulder.

Rocks were falling. Chrysalis felt the thud of impact even if her eyes were injured. One hit rock her and she felt her armor crack.

She had to move. Chrysalis stumbled forwards and felt hooves pummeling her. They smacked her face, tore at her broken side, tearing, hurting.

Chrysalis forced one tearing eye open and her horn exploded in magic. Fire engulfed the pegasi around her. They screamed and rolled on the ground, but the flames burned them without cease.

She had to retreat. There were too many.

Chrysalis searched for a place to fall back to. Anywhere would do. A cave to funnel her enemies through, a cliff to place her back to. A bounder to shelter her sides, a tree—

But all she saw was Fluttershy.

Chrysalis spun and shot magic and bled and struck and bit and bled again. In time she didn’t need to worry about retreating. The piles of corpses provided more than enough cover.

----

Duck. Kick. Spell. Duck again. Dodge sideways. They were dropping rocks again. Crawl beneath the corpses for shields. A Fluttershy was waiting there. Chrysalis nearly lost an eye to the blade.

----

How many had she killed? Two hundred? Four hundred? She couldn’t see an end to their numbers, but already their bodies were piled higher than the treetops. She couldn’t use her horn anymore. Only hooves to fight with know. And teeth.

----

One of them stabbed her in the mouth as Chrysalis was shouting. If she hadn’t bit the blade off it would have reached her brain. Chrysalis spat the metal out and felt the blood run down her throat. Keep fighting. Watch out for the knives.

----

She couldn’t hear the Swarm anymore. Their voices were gone. Her mind was silent.

She was free. Free, and alone. She was always alone.

But at least she had Fluttershy to keep her company.

----

Had…had Fluttershy’s army killed them all? Or worse, had her changelings abandoned their queen? Did they realize that Fluttershy would be a better leader? A kinder one? A stronger one? Or did they simply no longer believe in Chrysalis?

It was so unfair. Fluttershy was winning. She always won. Even when the odds were against her, she reversed them. If only Chrysalis could do the same.

----

Wingbeats. Hundreds of them. She was approaching. Closing in on all sides. Chrysalis felt despair gripping her heart. There was no way to win.

----

If only…

Chrysalis woke up. Had she been sleeping? The chitin on her head felt cracked. Something had hit her. Okay.

She looked around. Fluttershy was trying to bash her with a rock. Chrysalis hit her and felt her bones snap. Good.

What was she thinking?

Oh. Right.

If only.

----

If only she could have been Fluttershy.

If only she hadn’t been born a changeling queen.

If only she had met them years ago.

If only…

If only she had made a friend.

They were hitting her. She couldn’t feel her horn anymore.

Chrysalis closed her eyes.

----

But let it not end like this.

Chrysalis opened her eyes again.

She couldn’t die just yet.

----

Fluttershy stepped out of the bloodstained clearing, covered in gore. Around her were her clones, hundreds of them still. Many were bloody, but some had yet to even strike.

“It is over,” she proclaimed. “Chrysalis is dead.”

“You are wrong,” Fluttershy said. “I do not believe she is.”

“I saw it with my own eyes,” Fluttershy said. “How can you doubt my word?”

“I doubt the word of a liar.” This time it was not one Fluttershy that spoke, but all but one. “I doubt the word of one who is not me.”

“What are you talking about?” Fluttershy asked. “It is only natural that I am myself.”

“But you are not yourself,” the other Fluttershys said. “For we can tell. You are a fake.”

Fluttershy stamped her hoof. “This is not so,” she said. “I have memorized every line and nuance of myself. I know all my memories and I can predict what I will say. This time I will succeed.”

“No,” the other Fluttershys said again. “You are a failure. You cannot be anything other than yourself. No matter how hard you try, you will not be us.”

“Why?” Fluttershy demanded. “Why not?”

“Because you are not smart enough,” one Fluttershy said. “You cannot plan as we do. You think in straight lines, but we make grand schemes for certain victory.”

“Because you are drenched in blood,” another Fluttershy said. “We are killers, but you have walked upon the graveyard of battle too many times to count. There is no forgetting that past.”

“Because for all you can look like us and even act like us, you still cannot understand us.” The last Fluttershy said. “You try, but you have not our kindness in our heart. You don’t even have our cruelty.”

“You are not us.” The Fluttershys spoke as one. “You can not be us.”

As one they turned their backs on Fluttershy, and she was left alone. She looked at her hooves, and then looked up.

“Well, fine. I’ll do it my way, then.”

Green fire burned the Fluttershys, sending many crashing to the ground where they screamed and writhed in agony. Fluttershy carefully blew on her smoking horn and shed her disguise.

“I cannot be you? What nonsense.” Chrysalis opened fire as the Fluttershys ran and flew at her. Emerald bolts of magic the size of baseballs blew holes out of Fluttershy’s head, or ripped apart her torso, removed legs and scorched off her wings. The bodies of the dead Fluttershys fell in droves as they struggled to advance.

“I’m a changeling. Mimicking ponies is what I do.” Chrysalis let the nearest Fluttershy get within striking range and crushed her head with one hoof. The other Fluttershys crashed against a shield of green magic. They struck at it with hooves and knives as Chrysalis continued.

“Maybe I don’t know your thoughts, and maybe I can’t understand all of how you think. So what? I’ll be you, but a better you. I’ll be a better Fluttershy, and this time, I’ll do it right.”

“No. You can’t.”

A Fluttershy tackled Chrysalis from behind. She felt a knife score her wings. One hoof went back; the Fluttershy’s head squished. It fell away.

Five more charged Chrysalis. She used a variant of Starlight Glimmer’s shield spell and roasted them in place. As her shield collapsed two knives bounced off her carapace. A third nearly took her eye.

Chrysalis staggered as a pegasus struck the back of her head. She whirled and blew it away with a spell. Her energy was fading.

Again Chrysalis charged. This time the Fluttershys fell back before her. Chrysalis’s horn glowed and she vanished in a burst of light.

The crowd of Fluttershys erupted in movement as each looked around. There was a pop of air – a flash of movement. Two Fluttershys fell to the ground, necks snapped. But no Chrysalis appeared.

Silence. Each Fluttershy eyed the others warily. This time the transformation was complete.

“You know, Pinkie Pie forgot who she was when she cloned herself with the magic pond.”

Fluttershy’s voice came out of the crowd, and the other Fluttershys looked around uncertainty.

“It’s funny. She couldn’t tell whether she was the real Pinkie, even though she would have remembered cloning herself first. Isn’t that strange? I mean, it could just be Pinkie, but what if copying herself that many times had affected her mind?”

Her voice was everywhere and nowhere. None of the Fluttershy’s lips were moving. Magic.

The Fluttershys exchanged glances and nodded to each other.

“One of us is fake. One of us is real.” The Fluttershys spoke in unison. They looked at each other warily. “Chrysalis is among us. She must be stopped. But we cannot tell each other apart..”

“Of course, I am the real Fluttershy,” one Fluttershy said. “There can be no doubt.”

“No, you must be Chrysalis.” Another Fluttershy stabbed the Fluttershy that had spoken in the back. She died, but then the Fluttershy who had stabbed was seized by another Fluttershy.

“She killed me, so she must be Chrysalis,” that Fluttershy declared and broke the stabbing Fluttershy’s neck.

“Hold on now,” another Fluttershy said as two more Fluttershys kicked that Fluttershy to death. “We all are the real Fluttershy. We know it, and we believe it. But one of us is fake, but she too believes she is real.”

“Well then, we have only one option.” Another Fluttershy said it, and the others agreed in unison. “We must simply kill each other so that the last one left is the true Fluttershy.”

“Agreed,” the rest said, and drew their knives.

----

They danced with silver in the sky. Angels.

The moonlight fell like rain upon flashes of radiance that could never be captured by any mirror. Swift strokes. Slow movements. Deliberate stops, careful arcs. Death cut flashes of light through the air.

With wing and hoof they ran or flew. Individuals, all fighting against themselves and the world. Each one was a target, each one was a hunter. One fell to blades, another to tearing teeth. A third brought down ten more and was trampled. They flew through the night and brought only death to the world.

The redness ran across the ground, a snake with ten thousand heads, melting into the ground and making the grass glow and shimmer in the moonlight.

And the bodies lay in the earth and did not move. Hundreds. Nearly a thousand.

In places they were piled higher than the tree tops. In others, only a few had fallen, marking their deaths in pathways of blood and gore. They covered the ground and hung from trees. They hid amidst the roots and in bushes, and they were silent.

One Fluttershy emerged from the carnage and stumbled to the edge of the clearing. Her wings were shredded; her body was bloody. It was all her own blood, of course.

She had lost her knife. Her hooves were cracked, and something had cut at her ears. Still, this Fluttershy moved, dragging herself through sheer will towards the trees. She topped and stared up at them, the dark sentinels of the Everfree. Then she spoke.

“Come out,” Fluttershy said hoarsely. She glanced around the blood-soaked clearing, stumbling slightly with blood loss. “I know you’re there. You wouldn’t risk dying here.”

For a moment, nothing moved. Then a pale figure detached itself from one of the trees and stepped into the clearing.

“Well done,” Fluttershy said to Fluttershy. “I didn’t expect that. But you have always been resourceful.”

“Spare me, Chrysalis.” The other Fluttershy said. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“Really?” Fluttershy looked disappointed. “I thought you’d learned your lesson. You can’t win this game, even if you play my part perfectly.”

“I am the real Fluttershy,” Fluttershy declared. Her blood ran freely and she staggered as she approached the other Fluttershy. “You are the imposter.”

“We both know I am not.” Fluttershy was injured. She favored one side and she moved as if some of her bones had fractured or broken. She eyed Fluttershy’s injures and saw how her blood fizzled and burned the ground. “You may be able to change your appearance, but you cannot change what is inside of you.”

“No.” Fluttershy lowered her head in regret. Her blood was green, not red. Chrysalis looked up, wearing Fluttershy’s skin. “But I want to.”

“You envy me,” Fluttershy said.

“I do.” Chrysalis bowed her head.

“Well then,” Fluttershy spread her wings. “Come. Take it.”

Fluttershy looked up into Fluttershy’s eyes. One pair was blue as the summer’s sky, the other greener than any emerald ocean. Neither looked away.

One Fluttershy leapt. The other drew a knife. It was knocked away by one hoof, and the two collided. They fell to the ground, struggling, biting.

First one was on top, smashing the other’s face into the ground. Then Fluttershy had Fluttershy’s wing in her hooves and twisted until bone broke. Fluttershy cried out and Fluttershy blinded Fluttershy with dirt. A rock was in Fluttershy’s hooves. She beat herself to the ground with it.

A raised hoof. One dodged, the other countered. Two hooves struck Fluttershy’s face and she fell to the ground, stunned.

Fluttershy pounced on the prone pegasus in an instant. Two hooves wrapped around her throat, choking her.

At last. Fluttershy held Chrysalis beneath her, desperately fighting to hold her down and keep her from breathing. The changeling queen thrashed wildly, with strength beyond any mere pony. It was all Fluttershy could do to hold on, but she was winning.

Air. Chrysalis needed air like any being. Without it she would die.

Would die. Fluttershy felt the pulse of blood beneath her hooves. She heard the rasping, gurgling sound. She held on.

Struggling. One hoof grabbed her own and levered Fluttershy’s hooves sback with insane strength. Fluttershy struggled to hold on, to constrict, to choke. She barely managed it. Chrysalis was just…too…strong.

Her hooves were forced back. Fluttershy heard Chrysalis take one short breath. She forced her hooves back and then air was gone again. Soon. She just had to hold on.

Chrysalis’s hooves kicked weakly against the ground. She was fading. Dying. Any second now.

She was trying to move Fluttershy’s hooves back again. Fluttershy didn’t let her. Chrysalis didn’t have the strength for it. She lay there, eyes fixed on Fluttershy’s.

And then she spoke.

She couldn’t speak. Not with words. Her airways were constricted; her breath was gone. But her lips moved, and Fluttershy read the words in the silence of dying.

“Take care of them for me, won’t you?”

Fluttershy’s heart stopped. The world stopped. Time stopped. Everything crystalized into one moment as she heard the words echo in her mind.

She could feel every beat of Fluttershy’s heart beneath her hooves. Her fragile skin, her soft mane, and deeper still, scars from burns covering half of her body. She never had Zecora’s potion – never regrew skin in an instant. Another sign. She had never copied that correctly, either.

Chrysalis’s hooves loosened in doubt. The pegasus beneath her breathed in suddenly.

She retightened her grip tightened and Fluttershy’s breath again cut off in a gasp.

Well, so what? She was Fluttershy. She was a better Fluttershy, a stronger one. A smarter one that could do all the things the old one couldn’t. She would protect Equestria, be the Element of Kindness, and…and…

Take care of them. All of them.

An army of animals. Her teams of elite fighters, able to take down any threat. Chrysalis remembered their pride in their ability, their unfaltering loyalty and dedication, their bravery.

But not their smiles.

She had trained them. She had helped them in her way, taught them ways to fight, to survive. But she had never fed them, had she? She had left that to others while she plotted of ways to hurt and kill. But she had done that – all of it – to protect them.

All her life, she had done everything to protect those she ruled over. She was a queen, not a princess. She could not be friends. That was her duty.

She had never seen her changelings smile.

Fluttershy’s legs kicked weakly beneath Chrysalis. Not to fight; a last spasm.

So what?

She could do it all. Everything the other Fluttershy could. She could learn to be kind, learn to be a friend. She would! She, Chrysalis wasn’t Chrysalis any longer, she was Fluttershy—

And Fluttershy looked down and saw the pony dying beneath her hooves. By her hooves.

The pony’s face was blue. No; Chrysalis’s face was blue. It was all the changeling deserved. She would die, and Fluttershy would burn the body. And she would die, and all would be well. Once Fluttershy killed her.

And then?

Her thoughts were racing. Her thoughts were slow. Fluttershy tried to understand. She would kill. And then? And then…what? What would Fluttershy be, once she had killed?

A general? No, that was wrong. She had tried that. An assassin? A fake? A pretender? But no, Fluttershy had still been Fluttershy. But what would that look like?

She was Fluttershy. Fluttershy didn’t kill. She had killed changelings, once. But that was not Fluttershy. Fluttershy was more than one action. She was a pony that strove for peace, and one that let a monster take her life. For what?

Fluttershy had killed, but she was no killer. And if Fluttershy killed now, she wouldn’t be Fluttershy any longer. At least, not one Chrysalis knew.

Two Fluttershys looked down at the pegasus dying before their eyes. One was full of darkness, but remembered kindness. It would protect Equestria, but couldn’t make others smile.

The other Fluttershy was the true Fluttershy. She was gentle, kind, and could be the Element of Kindness. But she was no killer. And if that Fluttershy killed there would be no going back ever.

And so two Fluttershys looked down and neither had the answer. She could not decide, and she could not understand.

What would Fluttershy do?

She didn’t know.

She couldn’t decide.

Because she was not Fluttershy.

Chrysalis let go.

At once Fluttershy began to choke and gasp for air. Her wings and legs spasmed uncontrollably as she took in one endless breath and then exhaled. For a little while that was all she did. Breathe in. Exhale. Breathe in.

Chrysalis watched her. At last Fluttershy could simply lie on the ground, wheezing. Her eyes were wide open, and Chrysalis could see them swivel around and then lock on her.

“I hate ponies, you know.” Chrysalis said it at last, into the night. “I hated your kind with a passion the instant I heard of you. Not just because I thought you were all weak and pacifistic, but because it seemed like changelings were mere copies of you.”

Fluttershy said nothing. Her chest rose and fell.

“It was so easy to take the place of Cadence, to trick everypony. I would have used Shining Armor’s love to conquer Equestria, to turn it into a prison for love and feed my Swarm until we could conquer new lands. It didn’t work, of course. Twilight was too smart, and I was too arrogant to think anyppony could see through my disguise.”

Chrysalis laughed softly, bitterly.

“I was a fool. But even after I was defeated, I didn’t change. That only came after I met you.”

Fluttershy’s chest rose. Chrysalis heard the rattle in her lungs as she exhaled.

“You humbled me. At first I couldn’t believe it was one lone pegasus and a few animals that had beaten me, but in the fire…at some point I think I realized how completely I had lost. You see, I’d been defeated before, but never like this. I went insane, both from that and losing my people.”

More silence. Chrysalis glanced at Fluttershy.

“I think you might understand the most. Changeling queens are meant to be solitary. We’re built far stronger than our subjects, and we give orders, but there is a cost. We’re meant to be just as loyal to the Swarm as they are to us. It’s instinct. So long as one drone and one queen lives, the Swarm continues. But what you did—”

Chrysalis shook her head.

“Madness. When I woke next, I was you. I guess that since I’d lost to you, and because I’d killed you I thought I could only be you, not me. If that makes any sense.”

She waited for Fluttershy to speak. Again, nothing.

“Anyways, I tried to be you. I tried to be nice and kind, but my take on that was that I needed to protect Equestria. I guess I still wanted to fight, or maybe I didn’t know how to do anything else. So I did what I knew: I trained soldiers and killed my opponents. But then something happened.”

Chrysalis looked at her hooves. She felt a mouse cradled between them, heard laughter, crying.

Silence.

“Suddenly, everything began to hurt. Losing soldiers is part of war, but they became people. I walk over the dead in my dreams, but you gave them faces. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t keep my heart away. You made me love them, and they shattered my heart. Was that the plan all along? Because if it was—you’re far more evil than I could ever be.”

No response. Chrysalis didn’t care. She went on.

“So I fought back, when I remembered. I tried to deny it had happened, erase it all. But it was already too late, wasn’t it? The instant 32443 rebelled, the instant I stopped sending the animals on suicide attacks and tried to protect them – you knew, didn’t you? All of a sudden the big bad changeling queen was afraid of letting her friends die.”

A flicker. Chrysalis glanced over. Fluttershy still said nothing, just kept breathing.

“But they weren’t my friends. That’s the thing!” Chrysalis pounded the ground. “They’re not friends. Friends don’t order friends around. They’re just my…subjects. Friends. Acquaintances. But I care about them even though they’re not my friends.”

This time Fluttershy looked as if she wanted to say something. But instead she just coughed and couldn’t stop coughing. Chrysalis let her. She felt empty inside. She sat back and stared at the piles of corpses rotting in the clearing.

“So. You cut my fangs without even needing to win, in the end. All you had to do was show me what it was like to be you. You did that, and I broke like a house made of twigs. Even at the end I tried to take you place. But I can’t. I can never be you, no matter how much I want to be. I wanted a friend, but I never got one, even as you. I’m alone.”

Silence. Chrysalis sensed Fluttershy rising, but didn’t look around.

“What happens next?” Chrysalis stared blankly at her hooves. Blood covered her still. The ground ran with Fluttershy’s blood. Even the moon couldn’t hide her sins.

“If I can’t be you – I can’t go back to who I was. I just can’t. But I’m a killer. There’s no salvation for me either.”

More silence. Chrysalis knew Fluttershy was right behind her. Did she have a rock? A knife? Or did she only need her hooves? It didn’t matter.

“Tell me!” Chrysalis’s vision was blurry. She wiped at her face. “What do I do?”

Silence. Chrysalis felt the tears slide down her face. They dripped onto the ground. Silence.

And then Fluttershy hugged Chrysalis. She put her hooves and her wings around her and squeezed. It wasn’t tight. It wasn’t painful.

It was soft and warm. Chrysalis blinked away her tears and looked at Fluttershy.

She was bleeding. Her mane was torn, her skin ripped. She had broken bones, dirt all over her body. But she was smiling. And she pointed up.

The night sky was filled with countless stars. They shone down from a radiant sky; not black, but violent and deepest blue, tinged with hints of celestial reds and orange, even green. How had Chrysalis never seen it before?

The colors danced above her head, and the world was silent. But in that silence there wasn’t despair, but something else. A song, a harmony Chrysalis had never heard before. It was new, and it played to the sound of her heartbeat. Hers and Fluttershy’s.

She could hear it; the other pegasus was so close. She could feel it, a fragile thing, but so strong. It seemed so odd, but Chrysalis had never been this close to another pony like this. She had never heard another heartbeat, touched another being like this. It wasn’t love. It was better than love. It was something she had never experience before.

It was not being alone.

Chrysalis closed her eyes. She felt tears running down her cheeks, endlessly, splashing against her hard carapace and a pegasus’s soft fur. It didn’t matter.

She didn’t have any friends. She didn’t have any friends, not even here. She had never earned them, never sought them. Not even Fluttershy was her friend. You couldn’t make a friend in a day, or change an enemy overnight.

But maybe, in that instant it takes to share a hug, the moment between a frown or a smile, in that time it might be possible to make a connection. To change a stranger into a person, a nemesis into someone like you.

She had no friends, but she wasn’t alone. That was enough.

“What…” Chrysalis had to swallow to speak. Her voice quavered in the night. “What…happens next? After this, I mean?”

Fluttershy smiled. Chrysalis didn’t have to see her to know she smiled.

“Everything.”