Ugggh... my head.
 
It felt like someone was pounding my brain with a brick... Ugh, what happened? How did I get here? The last thing I remember was... was it Trixie? She was talking about her show... when was the last time she even performed? I grimaced as a fresh wave of pain shot through my skull. Thinking hurt. But I needed to think right now. Ugh. We, we were coming back from visiting Thorax and his hive, and there was a pony... except it wasn't really a pony. It was a... wait, no. NonononononoNONONONO.
 
My eyes shot open, the deep green light sending fresh waves of pain through my head. My eyes stung as green goop rushed in to meet them. The ooze ended a few hooflengths in front of me, wrapped in a hardened green shell. I tried to reach out and touch it, but my hooves wouldn't move! I tried turning my head, but it refused to obey. A scream died in my throat as my mouth stayed clamped shut.
 
"Glad to see you're awake... Starlight Glimmer," A voice echoed out. It resonated throughout the small chamber outside my coccoon. In the darkness I spotted a set of turqoise-green eyes glaring back at me. Please Celestia no, don't let it be...
 
Chrysalis stepped out of the shadows and into the faint green glow. She looked rough and ragged, her chitin scratched and marred in more then a few places. Her exoskeleton had shrunken since the last time I'd seen her; and yet, bruised and beaten down, she still looked as dangerous as ever. She swayed her hips subtly as she strolled forward, a feline smirk on her face. Her eyes looked down on me through the hardened shell as she slowly inched forward, closer and closer to the edge of the shell.
 
"Ohh, you have no idea how long I've been waiting for this moment Starlight." She reared her head, her sharp horn ready to strike, and slashed. I closed my eyes, only to jerk them open in surprise when my head hit the cold, hard floor. I looked back at the shell and spotted a slice the size of a small pony in the carapace. The green gunk flowed out onto the floor around me, coating the area in the sticky substance. I tried to lunge at her, tried to teleport, tried to scream out for help, but nothing. My hooves twitched after straining to make them do anything. Chrysalis laughed.
 
"Oh, it's so satisfying to see you so helpless and pathetic. After what you did to me, you deserve every moment of it." Her eyes hardened. "You were just there weren't you? At /my/ hive with /my/ children? You know exactly what you've done to them. You took my hive away from me, and now, I'll take you away from your friends!"
 
Chrysalis's horn glowed a sickly green, the aura slowly building around the spire and feeding into the point. I struggled again, finding that I could flex my hooves a touch. I just need to stall her for time while this wears off. I felt something in my throat, but I could feel my throat again, and it came up. Green ooze splattered onto the floor in front of me, splashing onto Chrysalis' hooves and breaking her concentration. She jerked back on reflex, the magic dissipating, then looked at me with disdain.
 
My mouth still felt numb, but I forced the words out. "Stop! It doesn't have to be like this!"
 
"Oh please, save the speech for when I send you to the stars!"
 
I hacked up a little bit more goop as Chrysalis started charging her spell again. There has to be something I can do!
 
"Wait, listen for a second!" The sickly green aura faded. It didn't fade away completely, lingering on the edge of my vision like a miasma. "I know what you're going through right now. I was once the leader of my home town, and they were all taken away from me by somepony else." Chrysalis looked like she was getting bored. "I remember the loneliness and emptiness and the need to make things right again. I know that you're hurting right now, and that I'm to blame, but revenge won't fix everything!" I rolled my hoof and tried to channel magic to my horn, but it dissapated like a candle in a strong breeze. Just a little bit longer. "You can't make things go back to the way things were, but you can change the way things are! You don't have to be alone anymore!" Chrysalis looked at me like a hungry wolf as I stretched a hoof towards her.
 
"All you have to do is let someone into your life a little. Let someone get past that hard shell of yours, let someone be your friend."
 
Chrysalis looked at my hoof, then back at me, then back to my hoof.
 
Then, hesitantly, she reached out and took it.