“Hidden Tale! Release that changeling at once!”
The spy looked from the head chef in his grasp to Princess Luna. “But, my Queen, I need to kill all witnesses. Just give me a second.”
“There’s about twenty changelings here!”
Hidden Tale hesitated. “Okay, one minute then…”
He was levitated by Luna’s magic and set down next to her. “You’re not killing any—” she stopped and frowned. "...ling,” she finished lamely. “Look at them.”
And he did, all the changelings in the room had knelt down before Rarity, who was still looking at them in horror, cooked fruitbat in hoof. It was clear that they were awestruck by her presence.
“My Queen!” the head chef gasped, rubbing his neck. “How can this be?”
“I-is that Pupa?” another changeling asked, setting another string of rumors through the kitchen.
“It can’t be!”
“She’s dead!”
“No, she clearly isn’t!”
“Who’s Pupa?”
“You don’t remember?!”
“I suffer from short-term memory loss!”
“Who are you, anyway?”
“I don’t remember!”
Rarity stared at the gathered changelings, eyes wide, and slowly inched the cooked delicacy towards her mouth, but Luna’s stern look made her hoof quiver in place. Finally, she put down the much-missed morsel and cleared her throat, immediately gaining the attention of everyone in the room.
“Ahem, yes,” she she looked around. “I’m indeed Princess Pupa,” she said, nodding to the changeling that had recognized her. “And I am still alive. I’ve come to help my sister, Queen Chrysalis who seems to be having some problems with my nieces.”
The gathered changelings exchanged uneasy glances.
Seeing this, Luna stepped forth. “Listen well, fellow changelings. We are not asking for you to step forth into battle, but we do need your assistance in moving around silently and without raising suspicion. You all know our princ-Queen, Pupa. All she’s asking of you is to remain vigilant and silent about our presence here. Can you do this for her?”
Still clad in her illusion spell, she see didn’t seem any different than the average female changeling, but the fact that she was part of Rarity’s entourage, and the authority in her tone granted her the immediate attention of all present changelings, who quickly nodded and announced their support.
“Good,” Rarity said, smiling charmingly at her subjects. She made her way to the table and, levitating a piece of chocolate, summoned them all to gather ‘round. “Now, tell me how things usually work in the Hive now.”
“Like what?” one of the chocolatiers asked.
“Like, when do the guards change shifts?” Hidden Tale spoke up. “For example.”
o.0.o
“Stand guard and don’t let anyone in,” Arachne ordered the guard at the entrance of the Pod Room. She went in, closing the organic gates behind her and turning to see her objective.
Arachne paced in front of the suspended Twilight, glaring at the unicorn. “This is all your fault! You’re going to ruin our plans and let mother and Thysa win!”
Twilight, of course, didn’t answer, which only made the princess grit her teeth in frustration. “First, you kick her flank, and that was all well and good! We thought we were rid of her, and then, then you decide to send her back, healed!”
She stopped and looked at the unconscious unicorn in disbelief. “What. The. Hay!? Why would you do that!?”
She paced around some more, stealing dirty glances at Twilight from time to time. “Maybe… maybe we can just drop you off in the forest, cover you in rum, leave the bottle next to you and have them put two-and-two together. If what I read about you is correct surely you must be an alcoholic by now.”
There was no response from Twilight, and Arachne finally threw herself under the pod, pounding the floor with her hooves. “Why! Why don’t you have any answers!?” she wailed.
“Your highness, is everything okay?” a voice asked from outside the room.
Gathering her wits as quickly as possible, Arachne cleared her throat and called out. “It’s all fine!”
She heard the guard shuffle away and sighed, looking up at Twilight. “And this is why I hate leadership positions,” she admitted, placing a hoof softly on the translucent surface of the pod. “I don’t have the stomach for it.”
“Why Thysa went to you for help I’ll never know.”
o.0.o
Phasmi laid in her bed, staring at the wall across the room. Her mind had been working non-stop since they had imprisoned their mother, wondering if perhaps, there could have been another way from the beginning.
She sighed. “It’s not like we could have just explained,” she muttered. “For all her power and understanding of changeling transformations, mother cannot simply change. And neither can Thysa.”
She remained silent for a moment. “But mother did change, didn’t she?” she wondered aloud once more. “What’s going on with that filly? There must be something I’m missing… something we’re all missing…” she frowned, hugging her pillow against her chest. “I bet Thysa knows.” She growled. “After all, she met with mother just before she summoned us…”
Something was bugging her. And it wasn’t just that the situation was spiraling out of control. She had the nagging feeling it had been out of control a lot longer than she had anticipated. Phasmi blinked. “Wait… I did notice something… but, it can’t be.”
She slid out of bed, immediately missing the softness and comfort it provided, but valiantly fighting the urge to return to it. She trotted out of her room, and fixed her eyes on two guards. “You, both of you, come with me,” she ordered.
The pair didn’t even hesitate and matched her pace as she took them in the direction of her objective. ‘I just hope I’m wrong…’ she thought as she turned around the corner. ‘I really do hope I’m wrong.’
o.0.o
Acari studied her notes and grumbled. “This is just… stupid.” She shook her head and pushed away from her desk, rolling off of her seat and onto all fours, stretching her green gossamer wings and groaning while she worked the kinks on her shoulders.
She glanced at the desk again and all the notes, books and journals on it. “Phasmi’s calculations are flawless… except for the very basic factor that she assumed that little traitor would be on our side!”
She summoned a brand new roll of parchment big enough to cover the wall and began drawing diagrams and connections, her mind entering a familiar state of perfect memory of past interactions with her sisters and mother.
“This is all… there’s something wrong with this,” she muttered, levitating several notes and holding them up. She frowned. “Wait, there’s some missing!” Her eyes narrowed. “Didn’t one of the guards say that they saw Thysa burning something?” Her eyes widened when she remember her sister giggling and simply saying that ‘the flames were pretty’.
She smacked her face with her hoof, wincing at the sudden pain. “What is missing?” She babbled, eyes scanning each note as fast as she could. “Oh, no…”
A knock on the doors to her chamber interrupted her. “Is there something wrong, princess?” a changeling guard asked, peeking in.
Acari forced a smile. “N-nothing at all! Please, continue your guard, I’ll… remain studying!”
The guard frowned, but nodded, returning to his place.
Acari paced the room, casting a quick silencing spell. She liked talking to herself to solve riddles, and she didn’t want anyone listening in.
“She must have known we would catch on at some point… but how did she do this? What did she plan? Was it her, or mother?”
She stopped and looked at her mirror. “That’s the question… that’s the key to solving this. How much does mother know? How much of these are her orders?”
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, resolving in her mind to match wits with both Queen and princess. “If it's one, we can live to tell the tale… the other…” She let her thoughts fade for a second and shook her head. “I’d better alert Arachne and Phasmi.”
Her gaze turned to the door. “But how…”
o.0.o
Sweetie Belle’s ear twitched. She yawned and opened her eyes, trying to make sense of what was happening. There were two rows of changelings, all bowing before her. She blinked again and looked around, noticing that she was sitting on a stone throne.
“All hail the new Queen!” The changelings chanted.
“N-no! I can’t be your queen! I’m not a changeling!” Sweetie squeaked in horror, looking down at her now-chitinous hoof.
A bark of laughter made her stop and turn to stare at Chrysalis, who walked out from behind the throne. “That,” she wheezed between guffaws, “...was priceless!”
“Whaa…” Sweetie blinked as the world blurred and she snorted awake, still in prison with Chrysalis, who was rolling on the floor, laughing her lungs out of air. “A-a dream?!”
Chrysalis giggled. “All I needed to do was link to you and tweak a couple of fears and you made it all into one sweet moment of complete paranoia! Including the ‘I’ve discovered I’m not a pony anymore!’ classic!”
“That was mean!” Sweetie growled, rolling to her hooves and huffing away.
“Awww, come on, sis. Don’t be like that!” Chrysalis chuckled. “You have to admit it was funny.”
Sweetie gave her a considering look over her shoulder, then turned away again. “Uh-huh.”
Chrysalis chuckled and shook her head. “Fine, be a spoilsport. I think it’s about time we acted.”
Sweetie rolled her eyes and let out a long sigh. “At last! Why did we have to stay here so long?”
Chrysalis shrugged. “It’s roughly bed-time. My daughters feel secure that we’re trapped… they’re tired, stressed and most likely paranoid… the perfect time to act.”
“So… you planned all of this?”
“To an extent,” Chrysalis grinned. “Everything else was what they did on their own.”
Sweetie shook her head. “I don’t even know if you’re really that smart, or just going with the flow.”
Chrysalis shrugged, horn igniting and watching with barely suppressed smugness how the walls separated to allow them to step out. She glanced at Sweetie. “Well, are you coming?”
Sweetie looked from the damp prison to the relatively dry outside. “Yes. Yes, I am.”
“Good!” Chrysalis clapped her hooves together. “Let’s make sure this is a family reunion to remember!”
3580902 Except, there is.
3580909
I noticed. Apparently FiM sends out the notifications before it uploads the new chapter for viewing, so I ended up seeing the Table of Contents instead of the new chapter...
>Reading a Naruto fiction on fanfiction.net, notice new e-mail on the other monitor
>Wanderer D updated something
>DROP EVERYTHING AND READ
3580947 You should stop reading that anyway.
Bad writer! No posting without Editors' consent!
3580963
I'm sorry, did I ASK for your opinion?
3580976 No, but you needed it.
3580977
...I'm going to just ignore you and your flamebait now, since any other reaction will likely get me banned from the sheer amount of obscenities and death threats.
3580981 Something told me you would do that kind of stuff.
A bit short and mysterious. Now, to see how all this will end up.
Woo! Been a while since this updated! Great chapter, and I hope we get to see more soon!
chemaxon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/it-lives-academic.png
Hey this isn't dead.
Queen Chrysalis
Queen Purity
Cookie
.
.
.
Insta-Troll
Alive! You know this is the story in your repertoire everyone wants to see updated. That and the Sweetie Chronicles.
that about sums up my feelings when i saw the update
3581017 I can't wait until the inevitable crossover between the two...
It was a dark time. The Creator of Words had long forsaken the people of the land. For endless months they had waited, waiting for the Updates that they thought would come, that MUST come. But there was none. At first in indignation, then in sorrow, and finally despair they greeted the empty notification box. Some turned to lesser Works, some embraced a cold, numbing acceptance of the loss of what they had relied upon. But then, suddenly! Just as the Work was starting to pass into legend and fade from memory, an Update! And those that had remained faithfull and those that had forsworn the Creator all rushed forward together to gaze on his Work once more! It was less than 2000 words long. And yet. Though it was short compared to many other Works including the Creator's own, it was enough. And the people of the land rejoiced for the crumbs of Blessing the Creator had bestowed upon them, even as they knew it would be another age of waiting to come. All of the darkness and sorrow that would come would be worth just one more piece of His Work.
Oh My Goddess! I had given this up for dead long ago.
Could Sweetie have fallen for the 'it was all a dream' trick a second time?
mtfca.com/discus/messages/331880/359582.jpg
Gee whiz, a whole bunch of characters and scenarios that I remember absolutely nothing about. Yippee.
Normally when the dead start to rise from their graves I give them a sound thwacking on the head with a shovel. In this case however I think I'll extend a hand and help it up.
Trolling your younger sister in her dreams. I forgot how much I loved Three Sisters Chrysalis.
I'm so glad to see some life in this story again
*snicker* I see what you did there.
3581087...did you read the previous chapter?
YAY! UPDATE!
There are so many levels and plans it is fun to read over and over
Oh look, Wanderer D made a thing.
Am I the only one with the nagging feeling, that Thysa is really the evil one in all this? Also, yay, update!
3580909 The new format is taking some getting used to in any case. Checked box to unchecked box doesn't have same level of checked box to burning ball of fire.
Let’s make sure this is a family reunion to remember! i say as i hold a knife close to my face.
3581211
Well I didn't. Care to explain the reference?
3581483
In The Simpsons, Treehouse of Horror VII, Homer gets abducted by aliens and then they forget to get rid of him before talking about their evil plot for world domination.
What follows is this (Text Source):
...followed by Homer arriving home and trying to warn them but nobody believes him:
Jerk, not telling us that you updated this...
Wait, why am I mad? You NEVER TELL US when you're gonna update this story! >:[
Fine! No Ice Cream and Scotch for YOU tonight, Deleteh! I guess I'll just have to share with Fiftheh, Lammeh and Big Mac.
You're such a goddamned tease, I love it.
Hell... it's about time... but why so short dammit!
Still ooooh yes family reunion.
I really miss the awesome burning ball of fire that unread chapters had. Oh well.
FINALLY!
3581598
Ssme here, same here... it will be missed but eventually forgoten
3556188
Look again.
Ahhhhhh! Update!
Good update!
It's alive
Glad that you decided to continue it
Only one thing can be said at this update: YES YES YES YES YES!
...You catch the drift.
Eeeeee! New chapter! Whoo-hoo!
Yay update!
The problem with treachery is that it always suspects treachery in others, even allies. I strongly suspect that Chrissie and Sweetie will walk into the throne room to find the dear sisters trying to kill each other for the others' 'betrayal'. They'll probably beg her to take over again.
Changeling fight for control of the hive?
IT'S GO TIME.
Chrysalis shoulda just summoned Fluffle Puff from the start. The taco sacrifice would be worth it!
There are
One we can let (go) (a)live
That, my little pony, is the secret to it all.