Chrysalis sat and stared at her cup of tea. After a while she prodded it experimentally. The tea sloshed in the cup about but didn’t spill, probably due to the saucer. She debated drinking it, and decided that anything that looked like brown sewer water probably wouldn’t take good.

No help for it then. Chrysalis looked up.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” She asked.

Fluttershy raised one eyebrow. “Drink it. If you feel like it. Otherwise feel free to let it sit there.”

“Right.” Chrysalis went back to staring at her cup of tea. When that failed she surreptitiously glanced around the cottage.

Now that the old management had returned, animals once more scampered, flew, and occasionally buzzed around Fluttershy’s cottage. They were hard at work, clearing up the debris and giant hole in the ceiling and walls from Discord and Chrysalis’s first meeting. It looked like hard work, but Chrysalis had not been invited to help.

Rather, she was sitting at the kitchen table with Fluttershy, drinking or at least pondering the act of drinking tea. It was bizarre, but she felt so out of place just sitting here. It would have felt far more natural if Fluttershy had flipped the table over and used the tea cup to try and gouge Chrysalis’s eyes out. She would at least have been ready for that.

But here she was, drinking tea with a pony. Sometimes Chrysalis wondered how her life had gotten so weird. The silence felt awkward, to her at least. Fluttershy seemed perfectly content to remain silent, but Chrysalis had to speak or explode.

“Nice weather we’re having,” she ventured. “Of course, it’s always nice weather when you have pegasi that control the weather, right?”

Fluttershy looked up and sighed slightly. “You seem antsy, Chrysalis.”

“Antsy? I’m not antsy,” Chrysalis said, enjoying the excuse for the slightest confrontation. “What makes you say that?”

“Merely an observation.” Fluttershy said. “But how are you feeling, Chrysalis?”

“I’m fine. My wounds are healing, and the Swarm is resting in the forest.” That wasn’t what Fluttershy had asked, but she let it slide. “More importantly, what’s the next step?”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Next step?”

“What are we doing now?” Chrysalis gestured to the cottage and the teacups. “You patch both us up, you take me back to our armies and stop the fighting…now what?”

“We sit here and relax,” Fluttershy said. “We rest. You may sleep if you wish. My bed is open, but if you prefer I can make up a cot in the guest room.”

“And after that?” Chrysalis pressed. “If I don’t feel like sleeping, then what?”

“Just sit here. Enjoy the moment.”

Chrysalis tried. She really did. She lasted for about two minutes and then had to speak.

“How many died?”

Fluttershy sighed again and this time put down her cup. “You know, this conversation could wait,” she pointed out. “Maybe after we’ve both slept? This tea break is nice, but I could use some rest and another healing potion, come to it. So could you.”

Chrysalis glanced down at her body. Cracks riddled her hooves, her chitin was broken in numerous places, and her entire body was covered by a patchwork of bandages. Everything hurt when she moved, or come to that, breathed.

“I’m fine,” she said. “There’s more important things to do.”

“Maybe.” Fluttershy sighed and scratched at one of her own injuries, wincing as her hoof met bloodstained bandage. “But they’re not urgent. You saw your army and made sure they were alive Chrysalis; what more do you want?”

It had been a miracle of miracles. Chrysalis had emerged from the forest with Fluttershy, fearing what she would see. But rather than the sight of her slaughter changelings she instead found Discord with a giant glass bottle holding her entire swarm. There was also a giant bug net, but that was a minor detail. Once he had released him Chrysalis had regained her connection to the Swarm. They had survived, almost all of them.

Almost.

Fluttershy glanced at Chrysalis’s expression and sighed again, this time deeply. But she straightened up in her chair, wincing, and seemed to focus more on Chrysalis.

“58 animals dead,” Fluttershy said. “And our rough count is 137 changelings.”

“139.” Chrysalis said flatly.

Fluttershy inclined her head. “I’m sorry. We tried to reach them, but the Everfree monsters were far too efficient at their jobs. I couldn’t control them entirely; just point them in your direction.”

“The defeated have no right to complain.” Chrysalis said the words mechanically.

“It’s not about rights, it’s about what’s right.” Fluttershy looked at Chrysalis with something approaching sympathy. “If I could, I would have made it a bloodless battle. I suppose you could say it was due to the threat you represented that I couldn’t hold back.”

“Thanks.” Chrysalis said sarcastically. She paused and closed her eyes. “Still. So few casualties? In any other battle of this scale I’d have expected hundreds more deaths – at least a thousand on your side. How did you manage to do it?”

“Zecora,” Fluttershy replied simply. “And Discord.”

“That’s me!” Discord popped into the cottage. Chrysalis nearly flipped the table over in surprise. He waved cheerfully at Fluttershy and Chrysalis. “Is there gossip afoot? Oh, my ears are burning!”

“I still don’t understand,” Chrysalis growled, coughing and waving away the smoke.

“Zecora has quite a number of exceptional healing potions as you know,” Fluttershy said. “WE used that to treat any animals we could reach in time while Discord also teleported animals in and out before they could be killed and replaced them with fake clones.”

“Stunt doubles,” Discord put in helpfully as Longfoot doused his head with a bucket of water.

“What?” Chrysalis snarled.

“Discord, please.” Fluttershy sighed. “They were just bodies made out of dirt magic.”

“Dirt magic.” Discord huffed. “It was beneath me, both figuratively and literally. But it fooled you, so I suppose it worked.”

“You were occupied with the flood!” Chrysalis said. “It was all you could do to hold it back!”

“The flood?” Discord scoffed. “Oh please. As if a few hundred thousand tons of water would make a difference. Haven’t you heard of acting? Per Fluttershy’s instructions we all pretended to let you win, even though I could have squashed your army with one thumb. Your little tricks would never have worked if in a real battle.”

Chrysalis’s eyes blazed. She opened her mouth for a cutting retort – or failing that, a cutting bite but stopped as Fluttershy rested one hoof on her shoulder.

“You are not helping, Discord.” Fluttershy glared at Discord. “I’m sure your help would be greatly appreciated by Angel in the cleanup process…elsewhere.”

“Fine,” Discord huffed. “But I reserve the right to needle Chrysalis unmercifully at a later date.”

He clicked his fingers and was gone.

“I’m sorry.” Fluttershy turned back to Chrysalis. “He isn’t cruel, just thoughtless. You can’t change his nature too far.”

“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” Chrysalis growled. To her surprise, Fluttershy hid a small smile at that comment. “But if what that idiot was saying was true, then you could have wiped out my army with Discord. So the entire battle was a setup?”

“More or less.” Fluttershy took a sip of tea. “Parts of it were orchestrated. Discord could have easily swayed the battle so he had to pretend to be occupied – the floodwaters were well timed. But as for my army – no. They had to fight hard to keep you from advancing too far, and they didn’t have to pretend to fall back. It was just as well they were aware of the ruse, or they might have broken and run after you charged in.”

“You mean they knew?” Chrysalis was incredulous. “They knew, and they still fought? Why? Did you force them?”

“Of course not.” Fluttershy looked mildly indignant. “I explained everything to them. My plans, what I hoped to accomplish, and the nature of the battle.”

“Then how—”

“I asked for volunteers,” Fluttershy said simply. “I had to turn away more than half to make you take the bait.”

Chrysalis stared at Fluttershy. More than half—

“You mean you had six thousand animals under your command and you didn’t use them? You—you—” Chrysalis spluttered, “you would have been able to sweep my army away under sheer weight of numbers!”

“Yes, but I would have lost you.” Fluttershy pointed out. “And you forget: if I had forced you to fight till the end, casualties would have been far, far greater. As it stands, two armies fought in a prolonged battle resulting in less than 200 casualties. It is an acceptable result, if not a desirable one.”

Chrysalis looked at Fluttershy. For the first time she felt uneasy in the pegasus’s presence.

“You throw away your so-called friend’s lives like dirt, then.” She told Fluttershy. “How is that kindness?”

Fluttershy turned her head and Chrysalis flinched. “One life for many, Chrysalis. It makes no sense mathematically, but kindness doesn’t weigh lives. Save who you can and pay whatever price it takes. You could say that is the cruel edge of pure kindness.”

“…Monster.” Chrysalis said at last.

“Yes.” Fluttershy held Chrysalis’s gaze. “A pragmatic monster. You are more valuable than a thousand animals. If a foe such as Tirek or Sombra appears again, you are one of the few who can stop them. It is worth countless lives for such a valuable piece in this war.”

“What war?”

“The war to protect Equestria,” she said. “You started it yourself. I don’t intend to be quite as aggressive in pursuing potential threats as you were, but I do agree it’s right to have some backup plan in case of emergencies.”

“Regardless of the cost?” Chrysalis pressed. She could see the piles of dead animals in her mind. “Do you remember the disastrous battles we’ve fought? You’d still engage enemies, knowing what will happen?”

“…Selectively yes,” Fluttershy replied. “Obviously full-scale engagements like those against Sombra and Tirek would be out of the question, but if it comes down to it, I can be a monster again. The few animals who fight and die as well as myself are small prices to pay if it means losing thousands instead.”

Chrysalis was silent. She could find no argument against the cold logic Fluttershy spoke of except that which came from her aching heart.

“Besides which,” Fluttershy added, “the Tree of Harmony might revive them. It did once before when we triggered our Elements – it may do so again.”

“I still don’t understand that,” Chrysalis muttered. “It brought back my changelings and your animals. Why? What has that to do with harmony?”

“Well, is war very harmonious?” Fluttershy asked. “I rather think it isn’t. And all the lives lost leads to a huge gap in the ecosystem of the forest, not to mention those affected by the deaths. All that suffering, all that grief and loss…I rather think that the Tree could sense that and used its power to fill the gap?”

“That makes sense,” Chrysalis conceded. “But my changelings? We are death and pestilence incarnate, not peaceful animals.”

“I think that statement is true,” Fluttershy said carefully, “but also false in every respect.”

“Oh?” Chrysalis straightened in her seat. “I think the trail of burning nations we left in our wake would beg to differ. Changelings have never coexisted with other species before.”

“Yet there was a period where one changeling did her best to preserve harmony and peace,” Fluttershy pointed out. “And now I think that war is the last thing on your mind at the moment. In this new situation, it would be far better to restore the changelings rather than let a people die out, am I right?”

“It still seems completely backwards,” Chrysalis muttered. “We may not be at war now, but we certainly fought one against you lot! Our history has been nothing but deceit in violence – many would call us pure evil. How can this Tree of Harmony allow that?”

“If the Elements of Harmony represent good, evil must be present too. You may be disruptive and chaotic, but without these things how do we define harmony and peace?”

Meditatively Fluttershy sipped at her cup of tea. “I talked with Zecora about that. Harmony may mean no strife most of the time, but it does seem odd that it also means blasting a giant magic-absorbing centaur as well. Strife must be a necessary component of harmony, or else why would the tree allow it?”

“Maybe it’s one of Discord’s damned seeds,” Chrysalis growled. Her head hurt just thinking about what Fluttershy had said. “I can’t understand it.”

“The Tree is certainly hard to fathom,” Fluttershy agreed. “But at the very least, it does seem to want to change this world for the better. Perhaps the tree just dislikes death and slaughter. Besides which, what is a queen without her subjects or a caretaker without her friends? I suppose we must just be happy for our blessings.”

“Fine then,” Chrysalis said. “It’s a bloody miracle. But tell me something else while we’re sharing all this lovely information.” She paused and glanced at Fluttershy.

“Go on,” Fluttershy said gently.

“Why did you save me?”

Chrysalis glared at Fluttershy. The pegasus set down her cup and sat in silence for a moment.

“I know you must despise me,” Chrysalis said. “After all, it was my changeling that attacked your friends. I tried to kill you and every creature in the Everfree, and I was marching an army to destroy Equestria. After all that, after all the fighting we went through – what made you turn around and decide to try and save me?”

Fluttershy was silent. Chrysalis waited for several minutes until the pegasus finally looked up and spoke.

“At first I did hate you,” Fluttershy said honestly. “I hated you with more passion than I hate hated – well, I had never really hated anything before that. I hated all changelings, and I wanted to kill you all. And so I did. It was a cruel, cold war I fought.”

“It was brilliant,” Chrysalis said.

“It was not.” Fluttershy held Chrysalis’s gaze. “It was vengeful. You said it yourself. I could have called for reinforcements. I could have let others take care of it. But I wanted to hurt you all. So then I fought you and you defeated me and killed Angel.”

“I can’t imagine how you would have forgiven me after that,” Chrysalis said. “He was – is your best friend, right?”

“He is.” Fluttershy smiled out the window. “And if he were not alive, maybe I would have still tried to kill you. But after that day, after I awoke half-dead and burned…I didn’t hate you after that.”

“Why n—”

“I was too sad to hate,” Fluttershy said. “I was too full of sadness after I realized what my war had cost me. I came back to the cottage, fearing you had killed my friends and every pony I knew, only to find you helping them. Bandaging their wounds, pretending to be me.”

“That was because went insane,” Chrysalis pointed out. “It was all delusion.”

“Was it?” Fluttershy looked at Chrysalis. “Was it all just part of the act? You helped them. You even learned how to speak to animals, a feat no other pony has achieved.”

“Well…” Chrysalis traced patterns on the table, unable to meet Fluttershy’s eyes. “It’s not hard. It’s like speaking to changelings, really.”

“Regardless of what happened, you helped them,” Fluttershy told Chrysalis. “That was enough to make me doubt. And though you hated me as I pretended to be a fake changeling, and though you were cruel at times and violent, I couldn’t find it in myself to hate you any longer. You were broken as much as I from that battle. Both of us had lost everything.”

Chrysalis was silent. She couldn’t look up and meet those deep blue eyes.

“At some point I stopped hating you, Chrysalis.” Fluttershy said quietly. “At some point the ice in my heart melted, and realized how much my vengeance had cost me. And when Angel and all of my friends returned, I knew that killing you couldn’t be the right answer. That was when I decided to give you one more chance.”

Silence. Chrysalis sought for the right words and found none.

“Well, it worked out in your favor,” she said at last. “And now you have two armies at your disposal.”

“Two armies, but no enemy,” Fluttershy said reprovingly. “Besides, I think your people and mine have had enough of fighting. There is no Tirek to fight against, Chrysalis.”

“Starlight is still out there,” Chrysalis pointed out. “She could still be dangerous.”

“Yes,” Fluttershy said. “I have my friends looking for her. Discord will keep an eye out too, but she is one unicorn in the end. Not nearly as dangerous as you, Tirek, or Sombra.”

“She may just be a unicorn,” Chrysalis said flatly, “but aren’t you just a pegasus? Come to that, Twilight Sparkle was once a unicorn too.”

“Fair point, but aside from looking for her, there’s not much else to do,” Fluttershy said. “Your changelings might be able to scout the more populated cities and towns, but for now I think we must wait and see what Starlight Glimmer does.”

Chrysalis scowled, but she had to concede that Fluttershy was right. Mentally she ordered a fifty of her changelings to immediately prepare for departure and infiltration.

“So now what?” Chrysalis finally said what was really on her mind. She looked at Fluttershy expectantly, and with not a little bit of trepidation.

“Excuse me?” Fluttershy said.

“Now what?” Chrysalis was snappish with nerves. “What are you going to do with me? If I’m a pawn in some great war, I’d like to know what I’m supposed to be doing. And if you’re going to punish me, I’d rather you did it now than later.”

“Punish you?” Fluttershy blinked. “No. I wasn’t going to do anything of the sort. And as for plans…I was rather thinking it would be better if you kept pretending to be me.”

“…What?”

“You didn’t do much of it before, but now I believe you might actually learn from the experience,” Fluttershy said, sipping from her cup. “It wouldn’t be all the time of course, but if you and I alternated days—”

“Cut the horsecrap!” Chrysalis slammed her hooves on the table. All the animals in Fluttershy’s cottage froze in alarm, but Fluttershy did not. Rather, she stared at Chrysalis’s hooves until the changeling queen withdrew them.

“What’s the problem?” Fluttershy asked.

“Me? Be you?” Chrysalis spat. “Wasn’t that the entire problem to begin with? And why in Tartarus would you want me around your friends? We’ve already agreed that I’m not going to play nicely with ponies.”

“As Chrysalis you wouldn’t,” Fluttershy said. “As me I hope you would act somewhat differently.”

“And you want me to learn how to be kind, is that it?” Chrysalis snapped. “Or is this just another suggestion? Can I waltz off without being punished too? It doesn’t seem like you have any intention of doing that either.”

“Would you like me to?” Fluttershy inquired.

“It would certainly make a lot more sense than pretending nothing happened at all!” Chrysalis was shaking slightly, although she wasn’t sure if it was with anger. “You beat in battle; you recruit me to protect Equestria – and now what? You want me to pretend to be you to learn how to play nice, and you don’t even try to get revenge for everything I’ve done.”

“And I’m guessing you would do the exact opposite were you in my hooves,” Fluttershy guessed.

“I would.” Chrysalis glared at Fluttershy. “Surprised? That’s who I am.”

“Not in the least.” Fluttershy sighed and put down her cup. “But Chrysalis, I think you’re wrong on several points.”

“Enlighten me, then.” Chrysalis was still trembling, but she managed to sit back down. Her eyes were locked on Fluttershy, but the pegasus still seemed totally calm.

“You speak of vengeance and retribution, but that’s because you’re warrior,” Fluttershy said. “You need to be cruel, or at least merciless with your enemies.”

“It’s the only way to survive,” Chrysalis said.

“Yes, but I’m a pony. I’ve lived in a peaceful nation, and we have little need of soldiers or warriors. Our worst criminals are imprisoned, never killed. And even villains such as Discord we try to reform. You see, I know that there is a way to reform others, while all you know is killing. You may think your actions merit only death, but that is how you were raised. The way I was raised, I see death as a waste.”

“As to punishment…” Fluttershy trailed off and looked at Chrysalis with sympathy. “No. I don’t believe that’s necessary. Not because I couldn’t do it or because it’s against my principles, though.”

“Then why—”

“Chrysalis. What could I do to you that would hurt more than not doing anything to you?”

Chrysalis froze. Fluttershy’s calm stare suddenly pierced her like an arrow. She felt it tear through her flesh and reach for her heart.

“Kindness is quite painful, isn’t it?”

She knew. Chrysalis saw it in Fluttershy’s eyes. She could see the dead at Chrysalis’s hooves, hear them whispering in her ears when she tried to sleep. Maybe she too could see the blood-soaked corpses standing around her. She knew, and that was why she wouldn’t punish her.

Because it hurt more that way. Because a bit of kindness was far crueler than plain cruelty itself.

Her heart hurt. Chrysalis hung her head. Kindness. Cruelty. They were too close together, and the pegasus in front of her wielded both like a double-edged sword. Face with it even Chrysalis’s armored heart was slowly sliced open and salted for good measure. If she had known what Fluttershy was capable of, she would have never attacked Equestria to begin with.

Come to that, if she had learned even half the lessons Fluttershy had taught her, she would have come to Canterlot with peace and words rather than with deception and war. It was humbling to think what a mere pegasus could—

Chrysalis’s head snapped up and she looked at Fluttershy. The pegasus was busy talking with Angel and didn’t notice her stare.

Wait a minute. What Chrysalis had learned? Yes, she had learned a lot from Fluttershy it was true. But it was the cadence of the thought, the way she framed it in her mind. In this situation – let’s say it was just chance, but here were two beings. A learner, Chrysalis, and a teacher, Fluttershy. It was almost like—

Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia. Chrysalis’s jaw wanted to hit the table, but she covered that by taking a huge gulp of tea. That was what Fluttershy was doing. She was teaching Chrysalis just like Princess Celestia had once taught Twilight Sparkle. Except that in this case, the lessons weren’t all about friendship, but about kindness, with friendship as the side dish. And it wasn’t an alicorn princess teaching a unicorn, it was a pegasus teaching a changeling queen.

That sneaky rat with wings. Chrysalis had never admired a pony, but she admired Fluttershy now. That kind of sneaky deception was changeling-style trickery. But now she knew about what Fluttershy was trying to do, she could manipulate the situation to her advantage. If she pretended to accept Fluttershy’s words, she could trick the pegasus and gain leverage—

Chrysalis’s mind slowed as she examined what she had just thought. That had been her instinctual reaction. She could do all that of course. Or…she could learn what Fluttershy was teaching.

“Chrysalis?” Fluttershy glanced over at her with a slight frown. “Are you alright?”

Chrysalis realized she was staring at Fluttershy with bulging cheeks full of tea. She hastily swallowed her mouthful of tea. It didn’t taste that bad, actually.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“You seem tired.” Fluttershy peered at her face. She had such a calm face on, all the time. It seemed unreal, probably because it was unreal. It too was an act. She was pretending to be in control, so that Chrysalis wouldn’t doubt her. But she didn’t doubt her even though she knew.

“You should sleep,” Fluttershy said. “Rest. We can discuss the details of how you want to live here or do next later – it’s up to you.”

Chrysalis doubted that. Fluttershy had an agenda, and she’d manipulate or trick Chrysalis until she got her way. Chrysalis felt inclined to let her.

“Let me just say this,” Fluttershy said. “I know you still hate me, and probably most ponies Chrysalis. But you’ve changed a lot since I first met you back in Canterlot. You may resent us for so much, and me in particular, but even if you think I’m wrong, even if you dislike it – would you try to live here in peace for a while?”

Her eyes were on Chrysalis. Fluttershy’s face appeared calm, but for the first time Chrysalis saw the tiniest fluttering in her wings. She looked into Fluttershy’s eyes, and saw the eyes of a killer, a saint, a general, a healer. And there was only one thing she could say.

“I’ll…try.”

----

Bon Bon spotted the Canterlot Royal Guard the instant he walked past her table in Ponyville. Oh, he was doing his best to pretend he was an ordinary pony, but his stature – that of a stallion nearly as big as Big Mac, and his military posture were dead giveaways. The Cutie Mark of a sword and mace on his flank did not help either.

She sighed inwardly, but ever since the monster hunting bureau had closed, the quality and quantity of Celestia’s secret agents had decreased considerably. Still, she knew her mission.

Bon Bon or rather, Agent Sweetie Drops pretended to order a cup of coffee and waited as the Royal Guard rather unimaginatively did the same. He could have at least ordered a meal. But she suspected his orders were to report back to the capital once he had made contact.

As the waiter bustled away the guard stood and as he went to the lavatory brushed by Bon Bon’s table. She studied the note he had slipped her, read it, ate it with a sip of coffee to wash it down, and was idly watching the passersby when he returned.

“This is agent Bon Bon,” she muttered, pretending to be looking into her cup of coffee. “Commencing observation of target Fluttershy as ordered.”

“Understood.” The other pony stood up and politely waved Savoir Fare over to pay his bill. He left without a backwards glance.

Bon Bon sat back and sighed inwardly while pretending to enjoy her coffee. Priorities. Observation of Fluttershy would be difficult given the pegasus’s seclusion and the animals around her. She had an appointment with Twilight Sparkle to clean her animals today – start with that.

The unicorn agent got to her feet, paid, and left. No pony looked twice at her as she made her way out of Ponyville and stealthily moved off the road as she approached Twilight’s cottage. No pony would have heard her stealthy hoofsteps, seen her ghostly form, or pierced her cunning camouflage as she blended with a bush. No pony.

Chrysalis sat on a cloud and scowled down at Bon Bon as the unicorn wriggled her way closer to the cottage.

“Amateur,” she said to herself.

So. Celestia had made her move. It was sad that after exchanging stratagem and cunning ploy after ploy with Fluttershy, Chrysalis’s only real threat now came from Celestia. Sending a secret agent to observe Fluttershy was only surprising in that Chrysalis hadn’t known Celestia had any secret agents. She supposed it beat using the royal guards, but only just.

Bon Bon stealthily crawled through the forest and Chrysalis wondered whether she should warn Fluttershy. That was what a friend would do.

But Chrysalis wasn’t Fluttershy’s friend, and Bon Bon had already been spotted by at least ten birds and three squirrels. Rather, she was just…annoyed.

Given her druthers, Chrysalis would have normally fallen from the sky and squashed Bon Bon before assassinating a few ponies in Ponyville and retiring to the forest to hear the lamentations of her victims. Normally.

But she was a student now, a student to Fluttershy. She couldn’t do anything violent to Bon Bon that would expose her cover, and she
couldn’t do more than pretend to be a pony. There was no war to be had, no grand enemy to face. There was Celestia of course, but she wasn’t a danger. There was no threat.

And was that a bad thing? Chrysalis had to think hard. She felt annoyed. Because she wasn’t in danger? Well, yes. Odd. Her Swarm was alive, she had no enemies worth noting, and all she had to do was learn about kindness and friendship. Which was annoying.

Why?

It was because she was a warrior at heart. It was because she had been defeated, and resented taking orders from anypony else. It was because Discord was annoying he kept throwing lobsters at her when she wasn’t looking.

But really, it was just because Chrysalis didn’t want to admit that Fluttershy was right. She didn’t want a friend, and she didn’t want to be kind. But she had to try. Because…because she was tired of being alone.

But friend? Chrysalis made an unhappy face and spat over the side of her cloud. It sounded so…ponyish. It sounded like the kind of propaganda Celestia spouted. It sounded weak.

It sounded nice. And Chrysalis wasn’t sure she could do nice.

No. That wasn’t exactly it. Chrysalis closed her eyes. In her mind she could admit the truth. She wasn’t sure that she deserved nice. And though she wanted it, she couldn’t imagine making a friend. How wonderful it would be. How terrible.

What would it be like? Chrysalis was afraid, that was the truth. She had never feared anything until Fluttershy, but now she was afraid of making a friend. What a joke.

Below her Bon Bon was trying to wriggle over a rock. Chrysalis sighed. Friendship. She’d rather just have the magic, thanks. But even if that never came, even if she was friendless for the rest of her life…

She was no longer alone.

Fluttershy was sitting in her cottage. Chrysalis could see her from here. As if she had noticed her – and indeed she might have – Fluttershy looked through the window and smiled. Maybe she was just admiring the weather, but it made Chrysalis feel better.

Friendship. Kindness. She’d give it a shot. It wasn’t like she had to change who she was if she didn’t feel like it.

“You know what?” She said softly to herself. “This might not be so bad after all.”

Then she tossed a rock at the beehive over Bon Bon’s head and flew away. She’d practice being kind, but hey, one step at a time, right?

And in the light of the day she saw Twilight hurrying to Fluttershy’s cottage. The Princess of Friendship looked tired for some reason. And why was she in such a hurry to help Fluttershy clean her animals?

It was a mystery, but rather than scoff or ignore the petty actions of inferior species as she would have normally done, Chrysalis flew after Twilight and sat in the trees above Fluttershy’s house.

The air was peaceful. The sun was bright. Bon Bon was trying to fight off bees and not scream in agony a little ways away, and Fluttershy and Twilight were scrubbing animals. Ponies. Such a mystery. But Chrysalis watched and waited.

It was time to learn.

Author's Notes:

Thus ends How to Be Kind. I'd like to start by thanking everyone who got this far, and apologize because this story is ending at the start of where I wanted to begin.

My initial plan for How to be Kind was to have it depict Fluttershy's progressive defeat of every major Equestrian villain over the last few seasons. I immediately abandoned that idea when I thought of having Chrysalis redeeming herself at Fluttershy and becoming a force of quasi-sorta-good.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

PaulAsaran just posted a review of How to Be Cruel on his blog, and I think it sums up nicely the problems I have with my writing style in general. First and foremost I need to get an editor or at least a proofreader, and stop posting chapters the day I write them. Secondly, I write way too much. Brevity is key, and I can't even be brief in explaining why brevity is key in the stories I write.

Third, I really should have realized how long this story was going to be. There is no real way to make Chrysalis a good protagonist easily in my mind -- also, given how many events I needed to cover, this story was bound to be hideously long.

Fourthly and finally, I really didn't want to write all about Fluttershy (or rather, Chrysalis) fighting Equestria's villains. My goal was to get to this point where Chrysalis and Fluttershy have entered into the tenuous truce, and depict them working behind the scenes from Season 5 onwards. It would have been a Teen rated story with a lot more humor and slice of life moments, as opposed to hideous combat.

This story was plagued from issues from Chapter 1, and getting a job and graduating did not help matters. But it's done. It's over. And though there's potential for the sequel to come out, I'm just going to say that it's at the bottom of my list. I need to teach myself how to write a bit better, and work on writing actual novels now.

Anyways, again, thanks for reading and hope this text doesn't sound to much like whining. I really just wanted to let you all know why I ended the story here and where things are going next. On that note: if anyone with experience would like to help me edit some of my future or past works, I'd love to chat. But until then, hope you enjoyed reading How to Be Kind.

--Erisn