I had a strong sense of deja vu.
Chrysalis glared across the table at Cadance, Shining Armor and Midnight.
Cadance, Shining Armor and Midnight glared at Chrysalis.
Very few words that weren't veiled or not so veiled insults had been said so far and we had been here for almost two hours, the sun was long down outside.
I felt a headache coming on.
I slowly felt my head sink down until my forehead rested against the crystal table, my horn doing a small click, click, click sound as I slowly thumped against it.
Oh just kiss already and be done with it.
"Excuse me!?"
That was Cadance. Wait, did I say that out loud?
I raised my head and looked at her tiredly, "We have three or so hours to hammer this down in principle at least," I said, "So if you don't mind, I want to get this over with. Chrysalis, apologize."
The Changeling Queen glared at me.
I looked at her levely until she looked away over at Cadance and Shining Armor,
"...I apologize for what I did," she said after another long moment, "It was for my hive."
"I don't give a buck abo-"
I stood up and my hoof on the table, "Princess Cadance," I said as I cut her off, "You may not ever forgive Queen Chrysalis, but would you condemn every changeling in the hive for it? For not wanting to starve, for following their Queen. Their mother?"
She stared at me, "I..." she started and looked at the drone next to Chrysalis. Skitter had the good timing to look back at her and I would have sworn used some changeling transformation to make her eyes bigger, "...No," she admitted and rubbed her forehead.
"Because if you refuse to negotiate here, it's what you do," I told her before turning my gaze back to Chrysalis, "And you could at least pretend to want to cooperate. Everypony out of here, take a ten minute breather and think, really think about what you can accept when it comes to this. Then we continue."
"I-" Chrysalis started to say and I cut her off, slamming my hoof against the table,
"Out!"
She closed her mouth with a small click of teeth. She glared at me for several moments before she got up and turned, walking out through one of the doors, the two changelings in the room following along closely.
"Page, I-" Cadance started to say.
"Out!"
She flinched back but then turned and walked out the other direction, Shining Armor following behind her.
I let my head drop down against the table.
"Going to yell at me too?" Midnight asked and walked around it to sit next to me.
"Would you vaporize me if I did?" I grumbled before I sighed and raised my head again, rubbing the side of it, "...I thought I was done with this. Seriously, I did this once before. It sucked then and it sucks now."
Midnight nodded and smiled a bit wryly at me, "You are pretty good at it. But I'm not sure treating them like naughty foals is the best idea."
"Well, if they act like it," I sighed and then shrugged my wings and rubbed my head again, "...Headache," I admitted, "not helping."
"I have no idea how you do it," Midnight admitted, "I'm the princess of friendship and... I have no idea how you deal with changelings like that."
"Can't treat them like ponies," I said and cracked my neck, ignoring Midnight's shudder of disgust, "They're not ponies. In some way they are a lot more straightforward, just in a way that's a lot different from the usual pony mindset. But I have practice."
"I suppose you do," Midnight said and then stood up, "I'll go talk to Talon, see if we can get some refreshment in here."
"Oh, good idea. Let's get them drunk. Either they end up in bed or kill each other and either way, problem solved."
Midnight rolled her eyes, "There are times I question Twilight's taste," she said and headed towards the third door.
I looked after her in amusement for a second before I looked at the table again.
Three hours.
Three hours to make Cadance and Chrysalis not want to outright kill each other at first chance they got.
I want to go home.
Ah, Changeling peace negotiations, Round
2.At least you have practice, and a much better grasp on Chrissy's character.
(Round 3 actually, although the first one went pretty easy.)
Only "times" then eh?
Can anypony find some Zap Apple Whiskey for those three? I'm sure that with that strong liquor as Page said will either get into a three way of quality proportions or quickly kill each other. Any way that problem would be solved.
poor page he just wants to go home
At this rate, the royal guard is going to show up and have to fight an angry Page, as opposed to angry changelings.
Also, I'm curious, Hiver. Do you write these chapters in advance, having most of the book ready to go before you start, or do you write each chapter as it comes up?
Page strongarmed both ladies like a champ, beware Shining, as Cadance may take liking in such treatment. Beware, because you never will be able for doing so.
11317359
I write the entire thing in advance.
11317359
He writes them on Spacebattles.net until complete, then doles them out here. Maybe after editing?
11317376
Nope, post at both at the same time.
Beware, he is Prince Page, bearer of the Mark of the Hive, Speaker to Food.
11317374
That explains how you keep such a consistent schedule.
I feel bad for Page having to tough-love his way through a negotiation speedrun, though. Give the poor guy a mango for me.
11317383
When I started writing back in... what, 2014? I used to write the same day as I posted, but my job back then turned out to be so boring and easy that I ended up writing like four or five parts a day at work and I never really slipped enough not to have a backlog. The next story I'm going to post(not ponies) is already finished and going through editing right now and I'm a quarter to half way down with two more.
11317379
And the only pony to talk back to the princesses. Considering despite offering ideas nobody ever tells Celestia that she might be making a mistake on a decision. Not even her sister. He on the hand doesn't care who they are and knows they can mess up but he wants them to actually learn from it and be better. Ponies tend to follow the leaders to point of being blind sheep.
After the next night, Shinning Armor wakes up, he doesn't wake up the usuall way. While his bed is as soft as ever, the rest doesn't fit. The morning light comes in from the wrong side, he isn't alone with his wife, and there in the corner is a small stack of ten round things. After a closer inspection, he comes to the conclusion that those are eggs. But whoes eggs, and why are they in his room?
Unsure if he wnts to find out what's going on he is at first surprissed to see two Cadences cuddled close together, but his surprise quickly grows into horror when he notice some green liquid leaking out of the backside of one of those two mares. He screams in panic when realization hits home, waking the two "ponies" that had been with him.
"Whats wrong honey, you always told me that you want to be bedded by two mares at the same time. Didn't you enjoy it," Cadence one asks before cadence two says "That's right honey, those are our eggs," in a perfect imitation of Cadence ones voice.
"What happened last night?"
"We got drunk, somepoy locked us into this room and your wife got frisky," Cadence two explains before being engulfed in green flames, turning into the powerfull Changling Queen.
Having his worst fears confirmed, Shinning Armor does the most reasonable thing by dropping to the ground, curling up into a fetal position, beging for Princess Luna to end this horrible Nightmare.
11317359
"WE ARE NOT! DONE! NEGOTIATING!"
11317461
Angry sun horse: "Chrysalis, I am here to end your reign of-"
Page: "SIT YOUR ASS DOWN, TIA!"
" is missing at start and end...
Twilight has a problem, it is that she treats everyone like ponys. Bending the foundation to her culture from the start.
Page accepts the foundation but changes elements of it to his advantage.
Also the 'her side is always' right is a mistake...
Nice
Thanks for chapter!
Have a good day!
..CHRYSALIS TALKS TO HER CHANGELINGS..
Chrysalis: Ok. As much as I'm afraid to ask..do any of you have any ideas?
Thorax: Don't worry! I have everything ready!
Chrysalis: ..Thorax. Why are you and four other changelings wearing tattered pony clothes?
Thorax: We are going to sing a song about us starving in the Badlands *cue sad piano music* and how a small donation a day will change our lives for the bett--
Chrysalis: ..Proposal denied.
Thorax: Aw nuts...I bet the ponies are gonna sing..
Chrysalis: We are going back in that meeting and staying serious. No songs during the meeting!
..MEANWHILE ON THE PONY SIDE..
Shining: ♬Stop that Queen! Stop that Queen! Chase out that hive until they scream!♬
Page: STOP WITH THE SINGING! You're not helping!
11317556
I repeat, Twilight and Spike were missing for the rest of Season 6. Thorax has probably been murdered by Shining Armor offscreen.
11317486
Yeah that was always a problem with twilight she never took the time to learn about other cultures. Even after getting a school for friendship she still didn't learn anything about their cultures.
11317556
*Chrysalis, Skitter, Shining, and Cadance file back into the negotiation room while Midnight is channel surfing on the TV*
TV: "....just a small donation will help a small pony in need..."
Chrysalis: " ... HEY! I thought I told you that that advert campaign was denied! "
TV: "...Please, save an empire! Send your bits to the Sombra Relief Fund now!"
Chrysalis, Shining, Page, Midnight, Cadance: "Wai--what!? SOMBRA!!!??? "
Chrysalis: "Okay--this meeting's on hold! As of this moment--"
11317602
By the power of me, that is a NO.
As much as I love playing with the idea of Shining Armor being a little #$@^ in the canonverse..I refuse to let Thorax get hurt.
THE ANSWER IS NO! I have spoken!
11317649
11317649
So say we all...
So say we all...
So say we all.
So say we all!
So say we all!!! ...
11317556
Page when Celestia arrives:
Somewhere a suppose to be a dark lord of he
rings, sings his heart out after having be robbed of his foalhood, his Empire, his only friend... Worst of all-No more icecream with Radiant Hope to remind him of the light in his heart and the only one ever believing in him!
11317386
he works best with the creatures that are more anathema to ponies like the griffons, changelings, and whatever the Storm King is. Strength equaling power isn't an overall healthy road to go down but you'd better know how to navagate it or you'll get run down. best to know how to get off it and back to a healthier path
11317742
But expecting a different culture to just do everything your way is not a good route to take. Despite having students of different cultures in her school she never thought about learning about their cultures most of the time. She the princess of friendship but she always chooses the pony culture and never bothers to even respect culture differences between them. Americans still have work on that even though we used to be worse about. Twilight has let each culture be themselves and that includes how they handled friendship.
11317763
To be fair, both Twilights havn't done the whole school thing in their universes yet.
11317804
True this time around she hasn't gotten a chance to do it but I mean she lived with a dragon how many years yet seems to nothing about stuff like don't let them get greedy. She should have been on top of that before it happened
11317763
tbf the writing went kind of down hill by that point instead of genuinely exploring what the wider world was about. Yaks were basically klingons without the murder, dragons were chads, friendship morphs into this tangable thing everyone talks about as a force onstead of a concep, and the villains are implausably successful.
11317865
Yeah but spike is at least close to the cmcs ages and yet twilight doesn't know anything about his species beyond they eat gems. And the whole rarity thing should have been nipped in the bud considering she is too old for him and doesn't like him like that.
Possibly
The first option would be hilarious
11317481
Actually in this case you dont want to put " at the front or back otherwise you mess with the next two lines:
"Excuse me!?"
That was Cadance. Wait, did I say that out loud?
11317872
spike is problematic for other reasons. he's significantly older than the cmc, twilight is only like 4-5 years older than him. assuming she's 20-22 in the show, spike's like 15-16, hanging around with elementry students and mentally his character was written all over the place. he's just a baby for a dragon, hiver even pointed this out in his chapter where talon wanted to go into the guard. If twilight is in her late 20s it makes things even weirder though that's probably just overthinking
11318126
True I guessed he was about their age because despite the birthday party they never actually said how he was in the show and most of the time he seems a lot more mature than the girls and so do the cmcs. It was a little hard to guess how old anyone with no numbers to their birthdays. But as soon twilight became 100% responsibility then she should have made sure to find out everything about his species so she could give him good care. Will there be some things she might not know probably but most people when they are responsible for a child try to learn a few things.
Three hours to hash out a deal similar to one that if I recall correctly took over a week the first time around. At least this time, Page has actual authority of his own to exert.
11317742
The Storm King is a Yeti.
No grammar jackboots today, at least ignoring localisation problems
11318326
What authority? He's a Prince sure but not from that world. The Nobles would flip there shit if/when they find out what he is and his title's.
11549879
He's got authority in the same way that say, the Chancellor of Germany has authority during a visit to the UK. He can't order people around, but there's still a lot of weight backing his words because he's important elsewhere. Especially since in this case, his titles ultimately derive from the alteregos of half the table he's trying to convince. Understandable to dismiss such judgement if he were from 'villain world' where everyone's morality is flipped on its head, but they know the circumstances.