The Greatest Show of Kindness
Chapter Eighteen: A Severed Family
The night passed to morning, and two royal changelings were laying down on hard stone floor. Rain smashed into the castle walls as it fell from the sky, making a clamorous commotion that rung in their ears. The cell was poorly lit, the only light coming from the gloomy outside.
Chryssy was upset at the fact that she was in this ice-cold prison, not having done anything. Taken from her home, without a trace of evil deeds on her hooves. She had a suppressor over her horn, and her wings were pressed and held down against her carapace with strong bindings. Shackles pinned her to the ground, giving very little range of motion. Her mother was in the same imprisoned position.
“Chryssy? Are you awake?” Chrysalis asked in a tiny whisper, observing her daughter, who laid on her side, facing away from her.
Chryssy’s very sensitive ears picked it up, but she didn’t respond. She sighed, looking through a tiny, barred window on the left wall of the dungeon cell. The rain was peering in through the window, creeping onto her mane and chitin. Rolling over, she gave a glance to her mother, but said nothing.
In her daughter's eyes, Chrysalis could see a deep lamenting sadness, singing a song of misery. Ever since she banished Bumble from the hive, Chryssy had a difficult time even thinking of her mother without getting upset, and now, they were stuck in a tiny, uncomfortable cell together. Chryssy felt that all of the blame was on her mother.
“Chryssy, please speak to me,” Chrysalis requested, putting a hoof over her daughter’s carapace. Chryssy growled lightly, tucking her head into her fore hooves.
“Why should I?” she shot, voice muffled. “I-I h-hate you,” she said. Chrysalis frowned deeply as she heard her daughter’s voice breaking.
“Chryssy, you’re still angry about that? You need to get over it! The past is in the past!”
“I don’t c-care! You kn-know they were innocent, but you sent them to their deaths anyway! I’ll never f-forgive you!”
“I didn’t know that they was innocent! Nevertheless, I had three eyewitnesses that claim they saw them committing treason!”
“How can you know that they weren’t lying!? You didn’t see it yourself!”
“It doesn’t matter! You weren’t even there!”
“Mother, those three tormented and beat Bumble up so many times! They hated him so much, and I don’t know why! They blamed Bumble and Flutter just to get rid of them, and you just don’t get it!”
By this point, Chryssy’s voice had risen to a shout, and tears rose to her eyes. She shook under her mother’s hoof, putting her mane over her eyes to block out her mother’s face from her eyes.
“Chryssy, they have been my court advisors-in-training for their entire lives! They’ve never once lied to me, and I don’t understand why you’re so insistent on believing so!”
“But, they hated him-“
“It doesn’t matter! Everyone has others who hate him or her. That’s a fact of life, and you must learn that!”
“Mother-“
“Silence! Your impudence has gone on long enough!”
With that phrase, Chryssy finally broke down. She slammed a fore hoof into the ground, letting out a loud, labored lament. She sobbed, tears streaming down her face and wetting her mane.
“Y-You just d-don’t understand a-anything about me…”
“What are you on about now?”
“You d-don’t g-get it, m-mother! Th-Th-They were my only f-friends, and they're gone now! All of the high in power changelings that you want me to be intimate with are all either jerks, uptight or unpleasant to be around! I just… I hate being a princess…”
“What are you saying to me, young lady?”
“I wish that I could’ve been hatched into a different family! One without you!”
When Chrysalis heard these words from Chryssy’s daughter’s mouth, see was fully speechless. All that she could do was gasp at those words. Her heart became a stormy sea, tossing and turning with every passing moment.
To hear such foolishness, such disrespect, such ignorance from her own daughter enraged her to no end. She was a princess, and she was completely lessening her role as the monarch-to-be.
The other feeling she had was much worse. Her heart was like a priceless antique passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years, and it was now broken, shattered all over. Tears filled her eyes, threatening to be released. For the countless arguments that she and her daughter had over the past months, never once did she say that she did not want to include herself within the royal family. These words tore her from the inside out.
For a couple of weeks after Bumble’s banishment, Chryssy completely shut out her mother from her life. Once she did begin talking to Chrysalis again, there were no friendly words exchanged, and the level of anger rose and rose every single day it continued. Every word had a tone of hostility to it. It was like they were two different warring countries, and they were launching countless missiles at each other, causing immense damage to the landscapes of their emotions. It only got worse as time went on.
“Ch-Chryssy… How could you say such a thing!? You are a princess, and you are unappreciative of the wonderful things that you have been given in life!”
By this point, Chryssy’s anger was sprouting outward. It leeched off of her, surrounding her entire being. She scrunched her face and bared her fangs behind her unkempt make; staggered breathing ensued. She stood up and faced her mother, letting her see the light glisten from her fangs. Full rage boiled over.
“Yes, I am unappreciative, because I never wanted anything that I have! No amount of money or physical possessions can change the fact that I am completely miserable living as a princess with a mother who doesn’t care about my feelings, who doesn’t care about anybody other than herself or anything other than her own possessions!”
“Chryssy-“
“Never mind the fact that she is completely content with mindlessly killing her own subjects without any reason other than her juvenile court advisers claim that they saw them committing treachery! Nor does she care about the fact that two of the fully innocent changelings she killed were her daughter’s only friends in the vague existence she lives in, one of them being the boy she loved most!”
“I would rather live and die in poverty’s cold embrace than under the collapsed roof of royalty, where I would have to survive every single day living under the rubble of responsibility! I will tolerate you no longer!”
Chrysalis stared at her daughter, unable to comprehend her words. Was it the inability to comprehend her talk, or the sinking feeling in her stomach telling her that what she thought was going to happen was going to happen? She blinked a couple of times.
“Princess Chrysalis II of the Obsidian changeling hive, what are you saying to me?”
“I hereby, from this day forward, abdicate my role as Princess to the heir of the Obsidian throne. As my final act of royalty, I formally emancipate from the royal family, and, therefore, revoke my title as Princess of the throne.”
"You cannot do that! You may not do that! I will not let you commit such… such… travesties!”
“Oh? I already have."
With that, Chryssy turned herself around and plopped herself back down to a laying position. A hearty “hmph!” sound bounced off the walls of the cell, hitting Chrysalis’ ears with the emotional force of an atomic bomb.
“Chryssy-“
“Enough from you two!” a loud voice shouted. A wall of sound slammed into the wall in front of their cell, surprising Chrysalis and barely phasing Chryssy.
“Huh?” Chryssy murmured, turning her head.
From around the door leading into the dungeon came Princess Luna, sparkling mane and tail flowing in the nonexistent wind. Chryssy didn’t respond, and Chrysalis tried to put on her best poker face, but found that Chryssy’s words were too bearing on her emotions. The tears that had collected in her eyes started to leak onto her cheeks. She shut her eyes as tightly as she possibly could to stop the tears, but couldn’t.
“You two have clashed thine tongues much too long!” Luna voiced, walking to the front of their cell. “Especially you, young one,” she said, her voice softening.
“I was just speaking my mind. I-“ Chryssy started.
“Silence! Thy tongue is too sharp for thy own ability to speak!” Luna interrupted, clearly frustrated. Chryssy shut up after that. “You two hath speech unfathomable for family! We listened to thine verbal warfare from within the hallway, but could not understand everything thou said. What is it that troubles the both of thine hearts so?”
“I-I refuse to speak to you,” Chrysalis responded with a break in her voice.
“Very well. Dost thou have anything to say to us, child?”
“Will you listen to what my answer is?”
“I asked thee not of a question in response. I asked thee what it is that troubles thy heart.”
“My mother doesn’t believe or understand anything that I say to her.”
“What dost thee mean?”
“A few months ago, right after the invasion, she summoned my only two friends to the court to be tried for treason. No matter how many times I told her that they were being falsely accused, she didn’t listen to a word I said and executed both of them, right in front of me! They were my only friends, and she doesn’t understand how lonely I am! I don’t have any incentive to continue living like this, and I certainly don’t want to live with a mother who just doesn’t care about anything but herself and her possessions!”
Luna laid down to Chryssy’s level and gave her a gentle stare. Chryssy turned her head to see a deep frown on the lunar goddess’ face. Tears were once again on the verge of falling, so Luna got close to the jail cell and put a hoof on Chryssy's head as softly as she could.
“We fully understand thee, child. We know the feeling of having dismay towards thy family, a sense that We regrettably have had experience with. Hast thou heard of the tale of 'Nightmare Moon?'”
“Of course.”
“We were Nightmare Moon. We allowed the hatred and envy towards my sister to consume ourselves, and it cost us everything – our possessions, our friends, and our very own sister. We can relate to the feeling of thine, and it pains us so that a child as young as theeself feels this way towards thy mother. How old art thee?”
“I’m nine-years-old.”
“Thou art much younger than We were when We were banished to the moon, and thus, We can’t fathom the difficulty of thy position. We imagine it to be a terrible pain in the heart.”
“You wouldn’t be able to understand the intensity.”
“Most likely not.We do understand one thing, though: You two must figure out a way to fix thine relationship, lest thou become polluted with hatred like We were all those years ago.”
Luna stood up from her laying position, giving a small, hopeful smile to the two changelings. She eyed both of them individually before speaking.
“A pair of royal guards will return in three hours to bring thee into the court. I suggest thou calmeth thineselves before then.”
With that, Luna exited the dungeon block. Chryssy rolled to her side and put her hooves under her head in a pillow-like fashion in order to fall asleep. She closed her eyes in wait of going in front of the court.
In the small cottage just outside Ponyville, Fluttershy was packing a saddlebag with small bags of bits and rabbit food in preparation for her trip to Canterlot. After finishing, she slung the saddlebag over her side and opened her front door. After exiting the abode, she found Angel, her white bunny friend gnawing on a carrot from a small garden on the side.
“Angel Bunny?” she asked softly.
The rabbit looked up at her with an eyebrow raised. She almost always told him in advance if she was taking a trip, so he knew that she had a request. He raised one eyebrow and gave a soft chitter.
“I want you to come with me to Canterlot. I have an important job for you.”
Angel gave a soft nod, finishing off the carrot he was holding. Discarding the root of the carrot, he hopped over to her and into her mane, peering over the top of her head.
“Good boy, Angel.”
With newfound courage and determination in her heart that she never felt before, she began her trek to the Ponyville train station.
“I’m going to save my baby boy!”
Oh yeah!!! Fluttershy is on the mission to save her son!
4619965 At last!
4619972 now the guards have to deal with the rage of not only Fluttershy but of a mother out to save her son!
4619972 CRUSH. KILL. DESTROY. YAY.
GO FLUTTERSHY GO
RESIST BUMBLE SHE GOING SAVE YOU
and for the prisons guard
4620142 Really? I thought that it fit just fine reading over it myself. It's rooted in her speech, and I find that it fits that it would be a habit for her to slip back into the ancient speak if she isn't thinking about it.
Have a fitting quote
It is anything that Chrysalis is making no effort with Chryssy, even as stuck up as she is and could at least pretend.
Chryssy's little stunt means she's technically free to start her own hive now. Any bets she'll start with Bumble? ;)
Keep going! ;)
A bit disappointed there wasn't a chapter filled with Twilight and Fluttershy arguing or such. It would've been emotionally satisfying to see Fluttershy grow angry and slam the door in her face.
But this chapter was pretty much my saving grace because of Chryssy and Chrysalis having a bit of a fallout.
That was a smart move of Chryssy. Now her Mother can't warp her sad life even more so.
Fluttershy ready to go maternal rage with her fuzzy white secret weapon in tow. This should be epic XD
Glad to see this story continuing again! If u do a revision of this, I suggest toning down Luna's old world speech a bit, maybe when she has that heart to heart to Chryssy. Just an opinion. ;)
just out of curiosity are we gonna see if anything went down between Flutters and her friends? you'd think they'd be all over her butt after Bumble was taken away... unless this is all a conspiracy? Hmmm.
It's good to see that whatever is happening to the ponies of Equestria isn't affecting the princesses, and it was nice to see Chryssy tell her mother how she felt.
Seeing Fluttershy, finally, set out to save Bumble was awesome, and she's bringing Angel. Things should get interesting.
Though we didn't see any of her "friends", I'm hoping that at least one will see her leave and cause the others to try and stop her. That should be very intense and emotional scene.
4620265 That's actually the quote that inspired the idea.
4620461 Well, to each their own.
4620790 Okay. Whenever I get down to revising the little bits and pieces of every chapter, I'll make sure to look at that a bit more.
4620880 Yes. It is all a government conspiracy. Well done.
4620938 A quote from NintendoCapriSun:
P.S. The friends are coming next time, don't you worry.
4621276 Trust me, I have that all ready to be explained in the upcoming chapters. Otherwise, I'm glad you're enjoying the story!
More of the pieces have stumbled into the game! It is all becoming clearer now, Chrysalis is simply a Cersei, thinking she is clveer in her games and simply wanting power to prove herself, but in fact not as competent a ruler as she thinks and trusting advisors who have it in for her and her heir, perhaps planning to eventually usurp her. Perhaps seeking Equestria out as a foe to undermine Chrysalis with a major defeat.
Plus Princess Luna's more conciliatory remarks as compared to the guards remarks seems to indicate their may be a faction in the Royal Guard that's exploiting the wedding incident to find an excuse to expand Equestria's military power after many years of a peace that saw them receive little power. They could also have access to whatever substance/magic seems to be making otherwise competent protagonists (Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor) carry the idiot ball (though in Shining Armor's Case, it's probably more Ahab syndrome [Moby Dick reference] than anything else), but this needs some more solid confirmation before I say such a factor is in play. They may be even working with the Changeling advisors ala Star Trek VI the Undiscovered Country...
This leaves a few more options on the table for resolution if their is now the possibility that if Chryssy reclaims her right to the throne Chrysalis can simply abdicate and go into exile rather than have to die as it's clear incompetence rather than conspiracy on her part is what did her in... but both sides will need to clean out any conspirators...
The pieces are coming together again... now just to figure out whose at the top of these chains of misery...
In any case here's to Fluttershy's success, without it jeopardizing any attempt at peace that a jail break might cause of course.
4621457 What is a "Cersei?"
4621488 Cersei Lannister, a character in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, made more famous by the HBO hit series, Game of Thrones
4621507 Ah. I have not read A Song of Fire and Ice, nor have I seen Game of Thrones. So, yeah. Have not heard of this.
4621534 If your willing to handle spoilers, here's a link to her wiki page admittedly Chrysalis doesn't seem to have all the features of Cersei, just those bits I already mentioned desiring power but never thinking of the consequences and a failure to understand how other people think and unable to handle it when things don't go her way.
4621548 I see.
4612189 I dont exactly know how to reply to comments but heres the link to my channel I haven't done it yet but I will soon https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCHWZIOhf17klrH01AY_X1Q.
I couldn't find my channel anywhere for some reason but anyways I will do the reading for your video soon.
This calls for ADVENTURE!
It's all going on, isn't it?
The only thing is that I should say is in Luna's Shakespeare/Canterlot accent a "You" is "Thou"
Sleek new cover!
Ah...this is a story that I've found enjoyable. While I've caught quite the number of grammatical errors, they did not lessen the pleasure of this excellent tale! Continue your good work, sir, I beg of you!
4622912 What kinds of grammatical errors have you seen? I thought that I did really good on grammar.
4621427 I can't wait for the next part. This is going to be awesome.
4622921 You did, which means that said errors are rather difficult to spot if you don't care for it as much as I do. Even so, I myself may be mistaking some proper grammar for errors; I do that occasionally, to my embarrassment. One that stuck out very distinctly to me, however, were the first two sentences in the second-to-last paragraph in Chapter 1. I would advise revising at least one of them to remove the repetitiveness. But as I said, they were relatively insignificant so they won't matter to the majority of readers. Once again, great story! I eagerly await more.
Ouch *sheds a tear for them*
4627082 loloops. Changed.
Sorry, chrysalis, but I can't feel sorry for you. your daughter has every right to say what she did and is well justified in it.
go Fluttershy! Save bumble from the jerks!
4635711
Chapter 8: They smashed through the wall.
Chapter 10: It struck their home, not them. The sound is what scared Bumble.
Sonik is the next chapter for this story going to be out soon
4643216 At this moment, I'm working on a chapter for another story I'm writing at this time, so it'll probably be a week before the next chapter on this story.
4643223 ok and i can't wait for the next chapter for this story when it comes out
And that dear friends, is why Luna is best princess. She doesn't have stupid blind hatred of the changelings, all that time she kept a perfectly level head.. Also I'm glad Chryssie is alright, fingers crossed for her reunion with Bumble though. Also Fluttershy is going to be wonderful at sneaking into Canterlot to take back her son. Well see y'all at the nexxt chapter... Bye!
4654922 Who's Firefly?
4649999
That help ya?
i am just this story. keep up the great work
4665252 I'm glad that you're enjoying this story!
Wow bro, you REALLY need to get a feel for how olden-times folks spoke. Like the chapter, hate the dialogue.
4671424 Well, since nobody actually speaks old-timey anymore in real life, I had to resort to Luna's style of speech in the show, as well as grammar points that I found on the internet. It's the best I've got for that kind of speech. Sorry!
i cried wen i read about Chryssys break out from the royal trone, she whas just so brave
Chrysalis crossed a line with an action that cannot be undone, and now she must suffer the consequences. It is FAR too late for any sort of reasonable reconciliation between the Changeling Princess and her mother. To do so at this point would feel EXTREMELY forced and unrealistic. Also, GEEZE with the metaphores! Maybe ease off those a bit. Much love bro.
I can't wait till the next chapter.
4688531
Me either. I really wanna see Mamarage and general Angel Bunny kick some guards flanks. XD
4649999 There is a button that is ".
That is quote. Abuse it.
Status???
4696058 I'm on a short break, looking for a job right now. I'm not sure when I'll get back to this, so please be patient.
Fucking worthless guards. Threatening, and probably carrying out the threat, of beating a child is... beyond any words I could say. And as for Fluttershy's friends thinking she's mind controlled... she had every right to kick them out, deaf as they were.
I would have continued speaking after Luna told her to shut up, no matter the consequences.
And I deny the royal sisters (or anyone or anything else in the series) is a deity.
You have my attention.
4722300 Looks like you figured out where I got the name "Bumble" from.