Chapter Three: Appropriate Response
-GUILTY HORNET-
-CHAPTER THREE-
"APPROPRIATE RESPONSE"
I : THAT SINKING FEELING
I awoke, numb but still aching dully, before the light of dawn had brushed the shadows of night from the room. I remember supposing that either I had not been sleeping as long as I’d have liked, or Princess Luna had fulfilled her thousand-year-old promise and brought eternal night – I felt drained of energy, was struggling to raise my head off of the pillow, and so judged that it was probably the former.
I closed my eyes to return to sleep’s embrace, but it would not allow me to re-enter my peaceful, dreamless rest. Thankfully, I had not had another nightmare about Twilight Sparkle, but if the rumours about my good friend Luna were true, this would almost certainly be a short-lived affair: before long, I felt with a heavy sense of certainty, she would be causing me problems in the realm of dreams to match those she’d already conjured in reality.
Suspended there between consciousness and unconsciousness, my train of thought began along the morbid tracks which would take my mind close enough to all my problems that I could no longer pretend they were not real. What had I achieved, exactly… and at what cost?
Besides Twilight Sparkle and a few Canterlot citizens whose ill-planned, poorly executed escape attempts had ended especially badly, there had been no confirmed casualties sustained by either side in the invasion thus far. My army was under orders to use lethal spells only as a last resort, and with the main portion of the Equestrian army taken by surprise at Canterlot, along with nigh-all of their commanding officers, there was very little in the way of serious threat to my soldiers.
But the price paid had still left its mark upon my heart, no matter how much greater it could have been had some other changeling planned the attack, and it occurred to me whilst mulling this over that everyone who’d been hit worst by my invasion could be linked back to my biggest mistake. Twilight herself lay on the brink of death following her nightmarish fall; her brother’s mind might never recover from my meddling and her family had been injured in an attempt to outrun my forces. Her would-be sister-in-law and former foalsitter was imprisoned in a dank, forgotten cave; her friends lay in shackles, and her mentor lay drained of power, suspended in the very prison she’d designed as a Plan B for Discord’s capture.
One who did not know me might assume that I was doing this on purpose, and if I ever managed to save Twilight, she would likely never forgive me for all my transgressions against those she cared about. Now, everything was even worse and all these prices paid towards changeling control of Equestria would likely end up being in vain.
I already needed to set up some sort of government for the other settlements in the country, manage the now-barely-sufficient food supplies so that no one starved and make the ponies happy enough that the use of cocoons would not be a permanent fixture; and now fate had other means of ending my brief and stressful reign.
Princess Luna was threatening both to wield the heavens themselves against us and to lead an armed resistance against my thinly-spread troops, and an exponentially increasing number of ponies were going on strike. Additionally, I still had no idea how to save Twilight Sparkle and had had no time to even think of places to look, let alone find any answers.
Whilst I was staggering through these dark alleyways of thought, the sun had begun to filter through the curtains and the dragon, Spike, had started on his own slow path to consciousness. I ignored him as he rubbed his eyes with balled fists and stared forlornly at the dead mare in the mirror: she stared back and I held her gaze until something small and purple flashed in front of my eyes.
It took me a moment to realise the lavender blur in my vision was Spike waving his hand, and a moment longer to respond, in which time he’d resorted to snapping his fingers loudly and calling “Hey!” in my ear.
I looked into his eyes and sighed. “What do you want?” I muttered, speaking each word as emotionlessly as if I was reading them off of a sheet of paper whose contents didn’t interest me in the slightest, but which I had to read anyway.
“Why do you have all of Twilight’s letters? Oh, and who are you anyway? Is that a crown on your head?”
Taking another long moment to comprehend the stream of questions shot my way, I positioned myself more comfortably upon the bed and began, tiredly, to answer them.
“I have her letters because the leader of my military thought them tactically significant, his reasons for which are none of your concerns, dragon. To answer your other questions: I am Hive-Queen Chrysalis de Vespidae-Alveare, elected leader of the Western Changeling Hives and sole ruler of Equestria; and that is, indeed, my crown.”
“Oh,” he said, momentarily silenced as his mind worked through my answers and produced more questions to replace those I’d already dealt with. “Why are you in control? Where are Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Cadance? I’ve spent the last few days hiding in a closet, so an explanation would be really nice right now. While we’re on the subject of explanations, do you mind explaining what exactly you are, ‘cause I’m a dragon raised by ponies and even I think you’re strange.”
Apparently my rather impressive list of titles had not clued him into how to act around me, and he continued to make demands as if he were the one with the power. As loathe as I was to deal with this so early in the morning, his persistence was endearing in a way.
“I am in control, little drake, because I invaded the city and won. Celestia and Cadance are securely imprisoned until I can trust them to behave, and Princess Luna is stuck in whatever sanctuary she’s taken until she decides to come out of it. As for what I am, I don’t blame you for your ignorance in that respect. I am a changeling, specifically from the royal caste in which all of our leaders are born, and therefore most certainly able to deal with whatever foalish plans you might make to get rid of me.”
Spike drew back into himself, his eyes widening in fear as his brain finally caught up with what had been said. Ignoring his spluttering attempts to speak, I scooped up a hairbrush, a comb and my crown and made my way out of the room without another word. My energy had returned at long last, and with it a considerable deal of stir-craziness: I was going for a good long walk, and that was final. Exiting the room swiftly so as to be spared the dragon’s last loud objections, I turned to the guards outside it and proceeded to give them the orders which would deal with Spike for the time being.
“Legionaries! There is an intruder in my chambers – a juvenile dragon, no less – who was attempting to steal articles of strategic importance. Apprehend him at once and put him with our esteemed guests in the dungeons. Once you’ve done that, I want you to find out who was guarding this hallway yesterday evening and have them permanently removed from the guard roster for this area: if a baby dragon with no combat training can sneak by them undetected, then they can most certainly not be trusted to defend me from highly-trained assassins. Their commanding officer may choose their further punishment, but inform them that I find such ineptitude to be unacceptable in the highest degree.”
The Legionaries saluted, and with a cry in unison of “Understood, my Queen!” proceeded to follow their orders to the letter: one remained watchful outside in order to catch Spike if he attempted to slip past his comrade, who slinked predatorily into the room, horn lit and ready to fire. As the sound of a single spellshot rang out, followed by a silence which told me that the job had been done, I turned away from my chambers and began my meandering walk to wherever my hooves decided to take me.
II : MORNING HAS BROKEN
With every step, I felt the frustration and stir-craziness and dread slip away into a rising sea of calm and assuredness, leaving me far more at peace than I had been after my fitful, miserable sleep. My body was on automatic, and I let my mind slip free of the restraints of ordered thought and spill out across the wide expanse of the world I was drifting through, providing a lightness to my heart that I had rarely had the pleasure of experiencing before that morning. Such was my detachment from the world at large that I did not immediately notice when my name was called, instead continuing on my aimless trajectory at the same high speed as before and forcing the caller to break into a jog to catch up with me.
“Queen Chrysalis!” called the voice, one last time, finally managing to hammer the fact that someone was trying to get my attention – and even that there was anyone there but me – into my skull and force a response. I reeled my lazily sprawling mind back into my skull with great haste and turned to face the speaker, finding with a small pang of guilt – although I didn’t know then why I should feel guilty – that it was my pony assistant, Starlit Scrolls.
“Oh, I’m sorry-“ …why was I apologising again? “-I was off in another world altogether. What was it, Starlit?”
She’d managed to match my stride in the moments between her calling my name and my reply, and wasn’t even out of breath when she gave her nervous, apologetic reply.
“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about last night, and that I’ll try and keep my opinion out of state affairs in future. From the way you reacted, there’s clearly much more to it than I thought, and it was foalish of me to assume I had all the facts. Please, my Queen, forgive me.”
So this was what she wanted to talk about so desperately... Sighing, I turned to her and tried to think up an adequate answer. It was unlikely to the extreme she was actually worried about anything besides having offended me and landed herself a job doing the ‘more unpleasant tasks’ I had threatened earlier, in which case I merely had to reassure her of her continued employment; but on the off chance that she was also attempting to salvage whatever pseudo-friendship we’d fallen into yesterday, I would have to be a little kinder than that.
I found to my mild surprise that I, too, did not want that camaraderie to vanish into the ether, and that I no longer cared particularly about why I felt that way. So be it, I thought, I had bigger problems than not knowing why I was falling into friendship with ponies to contend with.
“What’s to forgive? Yes, perhaps you didn’t understand the full extent of things, but I have to admit I wasn’t seeing the whole picture either. All I could see was the worst case scenario, and all you were doing was trying to open my eyes… I’ve thought it over and it still doesn’t look good, but there’s at least a small chance we can pull through. Luna is still a problem, though… I can’t think of anything, so if you’ve got even the most infantile, naïve idea, I want to hear it. Heavens know I could use some hope right now.”
It took her a moment to actually reply, in which time I decided to do something about my mane and drew the comb I had taken with me through the tangled hair in rhythmic, regular strokes: the familiar action doing a surprising amount to comfort me.
“I-I… you’re not angry at me?” Starlit eventually sputtered out, seemingly incapable of grasping the simple fact I had lain down for her – was my explanation not simple enough? I tried not to let the irritation show in my voice as I replied, although I still sounded extremely tired and accordingly grumpy.
“No, Scrolls, I’m not angry at you... At a lot of things, certainly, but not you… count yourself lucky: there isn’t much that I’m not pissed off at right now. Any ideas about the sun and moon situation?”
She shrugged slightly, and glanced up at me with an apologetic look on her face. “Only two… and neither are very good.”
“Well, I’ve got none, so let’s hear them.”
“Um… the first one was that we could try and use the unicorns to move them. We should have the numbers to overpower Princess Luna, but the problem is that nopony has had to move the skies since the Two Sisters first showed up, and trying to learn from scratch whilst fighting against an expert probably wouldn’t end well.”
“It would be nice if we could do it, but as you say, the results would probably not be to our liking. Still, such an approach might work as a countermeasure: if she tries to fry us with the sun, we could conceivably push back so that she only burns the area she’s in, but doing it accurately would take a miracle to pull off. What was the other idea?”
She looked down at her hooves sheepishly and spent an awkward moment avoiding answering entirely before I cleared my throat expectantly and she was forced to speak.
“I… I was thinking that… maybe… you could talk to Princess Celestia…?” She suggested, immediately tucking her head down in anticipation of backlash, but continuing nervously when I did not immediately shoot her down: “It’s a long shot, but you might be able to convince her – I mean, she wouldn’t have to do it permanently, and besides, if Luna tried to get you with the sun or moon, she’d be endangering much more than just you: Celestia’s always been like a mother to Equestria, I can’t imagine she’d let her sister do something which could harm her ponies that badly.”
I took her words into consideration, and came to the conclusion that her plan might just be the best option we had. She looked up at me expectantly, and I smiled encouragingly back at her. “Alright, Scrolls, I’m listening… Now, convince me.”
“Well, you might not have so bad a chance of getting her somewhat on your side than you’d think. Your soldiers used non-lethal spells even when they could have won the battle in minutes if they’d tried to kill the Guard: I know you ordered them to do that. Everything you’ve done outside of fighting these last few days has been designed to keep Equestria together - even the bits which your changelings probably wouldn’t need - and the most you’ve done to punish the most proactive anti-changeling force besides the guard itself has been to lock them up and offer them their own section of the palace. All that’s going to look pretty good to her, especially with you asking for her help… and I can vouch for you myself if you’d like.”
She had put her proposal across better than I had been expecting, and thus my fate was sealed: there was no other plausible option, and she’d somehow convinced me this plan of hers might just work, so we would just have to roll with it. The sudden rumbling of my stomach reminded me that I had not yet eaten and that it would be time for breakfast in a moment or two, and I turned to my companion, an idea having just struck me.
“Scrolls?”
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“I was wondering if you would eat breakfast with me and my advisors this morning, rather than with the other servants. Quite frankly, it is about time I made some permanent eating arrangements for you, and what better than eating by my side to ensure we do not lose so much time? I had been meaning to formally introduce you to the advisors anyway, so this should kill two birds with one stone in that regard.”
She smiled, brows raised in pleased surprise, and promptly accepted my offer.
“It would be an honour, Your Highness.”
“Very well,” I said, changing course for the dining room, “Follow me.”
III : COFFEE AND CONFLICT
A wave of salutes and smartly spoken greetings hit me the moment I entered the opulent dining hall, its long, polished oak table shimmering softly under the morning sun, extending off to the far end of the chamber. When Starlit Scrolls came into view, however, the tone turned icy, with all present tensing up as if a cold wind had blown past them. A few of them – one of whom, unsurprisingly, was High Imperator Labium – looked downright affronted to be put in the presence of what they clearly considered an inferior being, although others present looked comparatively unconcerned by her arrival.
“Good day,” I greeted, my crown set straight and proud on my neatly combed hair and my face equal parts friendly and unforgiving,
“As you may have guessed, this morning will be a trifle different from those which preceded it. With me today is my Equestrian Liaison, Ms. Starlit Scrolls, and she will be joining us for all our morning meetings for the foreseeable future. Since you have all made it clear that General Advisor Proboscis has been less than competent in his duties, something which I have also been very much aware of, he will not be joining us.
“Until I can find a suitable replacement, Ms. Scrolls will be taking over his post in a probationary manner. She already reads the general reports as a part of her daily work, and she has shown a great deal more attention to detail and careful consideration than her predecessor ever did. I will say this now, and I want this to be taken in by all of you: should her performance in this task satisfy me, as with any other in a probationary position, she will take that post on permanently. Now, let us be seated; I am hungry and there is much to discuss.”
I took my seat at the table and began eating without another word, guiding Scrolls to her seat next to the changeling opposite me with one hoof as I telekinetically raised a forkful of my breakfast to my mouth, wanting to get the matter of eating over and done with as quickly as possible. Pleasingly, Scrolls noticed my haste to finish and likewise increased the rate of her own eating, which had already been faster than I’d expected: perhaps the mare was hungrier than I had anticipated, or maybe she was just a fast eater anyway, but regardless of the reasons, she emptied her plateful of honeyed roast hay and side of savoury pancakes a mere minute or two behind me, even beating the slower eaters of my advisory circle to finishing in her rush.
As the last of the room’s occupants set down their cutlery and looked up at me expectantly, I cleared my throat and addressed them for the second time that morning.
“First things first, let us get the necessary introductions out of the way so that Ms. Scrolls knows exactly who she will be working with.“
I pointed first at the grim, snub-nosed changeling mare opposite me, and Scrolls followed my gaze. “Lady Prisca Slate, Representative of the Drones’ Unions.“
I next guided Scrolls’ attention to a thin, withdrawn stallion with a slicked back blonde mane and his neighbours: a wary, calculating mare cloaked in imperial purple and a hairless elder changeling whose eyes were hidden from view by sunglasses.
“Lord Flavius Blackbottle, Representative of the Shifter Council; Lady Aquila Longtalon D’Otho, of House Otho, this week’s representative of the Elite Houses; and Lord Marbled Iris, respected Imperator Emeritus in the Legionary Council and Representative of the Royal Caste.”
Wasting no time in finishing the introductions, I turned to my left and gestured to the changeling sitting there: he was a huge, hulking monster of a stallion, but with a gentleness around his eyes which served to give him an aura of amicability and a curly, flowing mane which similarly did a lot to decrease the intimidating effect of being so heavily set.
“Duke Praegrandis Mollis, Economic Minister and, before his kingdom was sadly lost to desertification and raids, known as King Praegrandis Mollis De Rubinus-Alveare.’
He nodded at Scrolls, the faintest hint of a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth, and she nodded respectfully back at him before following my directions and looking at the armoured stallion to my right, his sail extending proud and straight from his scalp, not flattened as it had been under his helmet, which he had tucked smartly under his fetlock.
“Not the first time you have met him, but certainly the first true introduction: Praetorian Decanus Noble Mantle, Captain of the Praetorian Guard and one of the greatest warriors to grace the ranks of the changeling armies.”
To my surprise, Noble smiled earnestly and, smoothly removing the armoured boot from it, extended his hoof to shake Starlit’s. She took it nervously and without further ado they shook, my Captain gripping her hoof firmly in typical military fashion but not shaking any more strongly than he needed to; an action which was conducted in absolute silence and which ended in such, too, Noble Mantle having said all he’d wanted to through the simple gesture. The shake itself was his way of saying that he could see that I – for reasons unclear even to myself – trusted her, and that he would give her a chance to earn his: the firm grip and steely gaze were his reminders to her that if she betrayed that trust, he would not hesitate to immediately enact his duty.
Her expression after this was jointly pleased and wary, and I knew from the particular blend of emotional feedback vibrating in my horn that she was probably reliving last night’s aggressive response to Luna’s surprise reply and comparing the Noble Mantle of then to the Noble Mantle of now in mild bewilderment. Well aware of the time this had already taken, I hastened to introduce the last two occupants of the table: a ceremoniously-armoured, forbiddingly scowling, silver-maned stallion, and a regally composed, finely featured mare of the same royal caste as I, with a similar crown to my own perched atop her flowing, sunset-orange mane.
“Lastly: High Imperator Labium, head of my military-“ as I had expected, the moment Scrolls looked at him, he met her gaze with undisguised disdain, his scowl deepening by the second, “- And Her Royal Highness, Hive-Princess Maxilla D’Aelius-Alveare: the new ruler of our homelands and the second most powerful changeling in the country.”
Scroll bowed graciously the moment Maxilla’s royal status came to her attention, before performing a passable imitation of the changeling salute as an additional expression of her respect: encouraged by Maxilla’s serendipitous smile, she repeated the salute for all of the other occupants of the table and bowed again for Mollis and I.
The one changeling at the table who did not receive this gesture was Labium, who had snorted derisively the first time Scrolls had enacted it and made an additional sniff of displeasure when she proceeded to salute the rest of the table: instead, she made a show of saluting him the Equestrian way, mocking him as she returned his scowl with a pleasant smile whilst simultaneously intensifying her own sour feelings towards my military chief internally.
It was clear to me immediately that in these short minutes, Labium’s initially one-sided hatred for the mare, borne of prejudice and arrogance, had become mutual with Scrolls’s defiant refusal to bend to his will. This, I knew, had immense potential to turn out badly, but I couldn’t help feeling elated that she had not let his discriminatory nature crush her spirit: Labium was a great commander, but an awful equine being; and the last sort of pony I needed at my side was a weak-minded one, no matter how counter-intuitive one might think that sentiment is.
Introductions done, I proceeded to bring attention to the main purpose of the morning’s meeting: dealing with the Luna dilemma, along with the mass-strikes which had begun to spring up the prior afternoon. The situation was dire, and not even the mostly positive reception to my assistant’s involvement could shake the overwhelmingly pessimistic view I had of the chances of this discussion going well.
“Now,” I barked, “to press on with the issues at hoof: I received a response to my warning to Princess Luna yesterday evening; a response which contained not even a modicum of positivity and instead served as her way of establishing her status as – and I quote – my ‘destined destroyer’.”
A round of gasps and appreciative winces made its way round the table, a reaction mirrored by everyone except Scrolls, who had already read the letter and understood its significance, and Labium, who buzzed my horn with condescending amusement in regards to the princess’s claim. After letting them have their moment, I raised a solemn hoof and the room once more fell into silence, continuing my revelation of the situation without further ado.
“In her letter, the princess brought up the point that she, as of our invasion, is the only being continuing the celestial cycle and stated that the only reason she had not used her monopoly over said cycle against us is her fear of harming innocents. We cannot assume that this sentiment will last: may I remind everyone that this is the very same mare who attempted to plunge the world into eternal night in a fit of jealousy, and may I also make it clear that her letter revealed no less emotional tendencies. We have no guarantee whatsoever that this rare mood of rationality will remain around our enemy, and we therefore require another option with which we can control the cycle ourselves in the event of Princess Luna returning to her prior alias Nightmare Moon, or something altogether more sinister. Advisors – what say you on this matter?”
A long silence followed during which the only communication between any of us was from Scrolls to I, the mare asking with her eyes and her buzzing emotions whether now was an appropriate time for her to present her own ideas, to which my only response was a subtle shake of the head. It would not do well to perpetuate the quite possibly already forming sense that I was playing favourites with the pony, so her suggestions would wait until last.
Finally, a hesitant suggestion came from Maxilla, the princess straightening herself out and nervously clearing her throat in an attempt to prepare herself before she actually aired her idea.
“Ahem… As you all will know, my hive has long had a deep personal connection to the heavens – especially the sun – and I myself have spent a great deal of time practicing solar magics. I believe that, with assistance from a sizeable group of competent spellcasters, I may be able to exert some degree of control over the movements of the sun and moon. I cannot promise that this is a feasible course of action, or that I will be capable of any fine control of the aforementioned bodies, but I would certainly be willing to try, should the circumstances require such action be taken.”
“Thank you,” I replied, sending her a concentrated burst of gratitude for the suggestion: this might also prove a viable route, and if Scrolls’s Celestia idea worked out, the two sun-raisers in combination might be capable of overpowering any attempt by Luna to disrupt the cycle.
Mollis was the next to offer a suggestion, delivering it in his melodious, operatic voice without a trace of obvious nervousness, although the slight buzz of anxiety I received from his direction somewhat undermined that impression.
“What of the unicorns we have captured? Could they not be organised and used to move the heavens? I worry for the well-being of our dearest Princess Maxilla should she attempt to push back against Princess Luna, but if the alicorn is so concerned about harming her subjects, using Equestrians instead might convince her that diverging from the typical cycle is more trouble than it’s worth and remove the problem altogether.”
“Your concerns are certainly valid,” I conceded, “but it may similarly be ‘more trouble than it’s worth’ to attempt to organise such a large number of ponies into a group which can move the heavens. There is, also, the worry that any group of unicorns powerful enough to move the sun would pose a significant threat to our own regime, perhaps to match Luna’s own. Should this hypothetical group be corrupted by Luna, we may even end up dooming ourselves. Far be it from me to stifle your enthusiasm, Praegrandis, but, as with all ideas, your own carries some significant disadvantages.”
The last of the contributions came from none other than High Imperator Labium himself, and in his usual aggressive way of thinking his suggestion revolved around direct military action.
“With respect,” he began, sounding anything but respectful, “none of these suggestions would begin to be necessary if we simply removed the threat altogether. I strongly believe that if we crushed whatever pitiful militia the enemy has gathered, we would quite easily be able to… persuade… either the princess or her already-captured sister to continue the cycle. It really is that simple, and I’m astonished none of you have considered a military course of action… are we really getting so soft that we hesitate to strike down the most potentially lethal threat we have?”
Lady D’Otho clapped in agreement, backing the stallion before I could respond to his suggestion: anticipating further discussion, I lay back and let the situation play out.
“Precisely my thoughts: we have the numbers to crush an army twice what Luna is capable of, and we could do it within three months if we move now. Why is it that this circle of advisors has become so reluctant to take direct action? If we can invade a city, we can deal with Luna without a hitch, I say. For Phlogiston’s sake, where is your confidence in our nation’s military power?”
This sudden, impassioned reinforcement of Labium’s violent response concerned me greatly, and so it was with great relief that I watched the drones’ representative stand from the table and lean across it to send a furious riposte back at Labium and D'Otho.
“Where is our confidence in the military? Why, it is exactly where our confidence in High Imperator Labium is: sinking rapidly under the heavy weight of our concern for his – and, I might add, your – morals. As if our having to compromise with you both over the matter of keeping the drones’ minds intact was not enough, now you are suggesting deliberate, permanent rewriting of another sentient being’s mind following a no-doubt bloody and violent removal of her resistance forces.
“Was Labium suggesting we alter a changeling’s mind so fundamentally, he would already have been stripped of his position, yet because this is a pony, he is not only allowed to proceed without reprimand but is supported by deluded little imbeciles like you, Longtalon. The Code applies to all sentients, not just changelings... For the record, I strongly and on all possible terms object to this proposal and note my increasing concern for the moral integrity of both you and our High Imperator… I will have confidence in this nation’s military the very moment it is not being led by a dangerous psychopath and his elitist lapdog.”
Labium rose from his seat to lean dangerously close to Lady Slate, eyes narrowed and lips drawn back in a wolf’s animal snarl. Despite the rage pulsing from him, he somehow managed to remain his tone of condescending superiority and an air of terrifying calm. As I waited for his inevitable comeback, I prepared a twin-target stunning spell in my horn with which to break up whatever fighting would likely occur.
“You see, everyling, this is what happens when one spends all one’s time with drones: one starts to become a drone oneself; stupid and misconceiving, bitter and miserable, looking for any opportunity to make oneself something more than a cowardly little cockroach. Pathetic.”
He looked round as if expecting applause, but none came: even D’Otho was waiting with bated breath for Slate’s response. Some very serious lines had been crossed here, and the significance of that was lost on no one in the room.
“And this,” she began, contempt dripping from her every word like venom, “is what happens when we put changelings in positions of power for no other reason than their ability to maim and kill. This stallion belongs in an asylum, not in command: self-serving, heartless, sadistic and absolutely without morals – is this really the sort of changeling we want in charge of our armed forces? Are none of you the least bit afraid that one day he’ll decide that our lives, our minds, our families are not worth keeping and erase them from existence the way he has with everything he’s considered a threat? Have you forgotten Sanguis-Alveare already?!”
At the mention of the Hive of Blood, and the recollection of what had happened there, Labium seemed to physically grow, his sheer rage making him look bigger than ever.
“You have no right to mention that, no right at all! You weren’t there, you didn’t see-”
Staring coolly back into his gaze, Slate cut him off. “-I did see, actually. And I have every right to bring that up. You may have weaselled your way out of punishment, but the drones will never forget what you did that day, and neither will I… Has it occurred to you yet that you aren’t, in fact, invincible?”
“Are you threatening me, drone-rutter?” Labium growled, utterly lost to his fury and prepared to use everything he had against his verbal adversary. Whatever reply Slate had cooked up was lost, along with the inevitable spiral into fisticuffs, when Marbled Iris himself stepped in to break up the conflict, resting a hoof on each changeling’s shoulder and murmuring in that quiet yet powerful way of his.
“Enough, enough of this infighting. Have we no greater conflicts to deal with? Perhaps it was my old ears failing me, but I believe this meeting was for the discussion of solutions, not the creation of yet more problems. I fail to see how a sexual relationship with a drone – if that accusation even has basis in reality – would affect Lady Slate’s ability to contribute adequately to this discussion; nor do I consider the exploration of combat-free options to indicate any lack of confidence in our armed forces. I have had more than enough of petty arguments in my lifetime, do not make me suffer another because you are incapable of civility. Sit down, be quiet and grow up.”
Labium and Slate slumped back into their seats, rage still simmering within them, and the Imperator Emeritus released the pair, turning then to me.
“Now, My Queen, I do not have any contributions of my own, but I believe I sensed a question from our new General Advisor to you when this meeting began. Forgive my intrusion, but was she, by any chance, requesting permission to air her own suggestions? If so, I would like to hear them.”
Lord Flavius cleared his throat and all heads turned to him, causing to cough in embarrassment. “Ahem… I would like to second this motion.”
“…As would I,” interjected Noble Mantle, the first time he had spoken since his initial greeting. Looking around and seeing mostly faces in agreement with the suggestion, I decided that there would be no better time than now to have Scrolls bring her ideas to the table.
“Probationary General Advisor Scrolls does, indeed, have contributions of her own. We discussed the situation on our way here, so I felt it pertinent to allow the rest of the circle to similarly converse before having her present her suggestions. Advisor Scrolls, if you would…”
For the first time since her somewhat awkward introduction to the group, all eyes were on Starlit: to her credit, she hesitated only briefly under the weight of their gazes before answering swiftly and smartly.
“Of course, Your Highness. My first idea was very similar to Duke Mollis’s own contribution, although I must admit I did not consider the possibility that the unicorns might be used as a psychological means of defense against the princess as well as a physical one. I believe we have more than enough powerful spellcasters to overpower Luna, but the problem remains that nopony has practiced celestial magic since the alicorns arrived and learning may prove disastrous to the extreme.”
A hum of agreement greeted her from most of the listeners, with only D’Otho and Labium showing any significant displeasure at her words.
“The other idea I had may seem insane, but trust me when I say that it will likely appear more rational the more I explain it. My suggestion being that we attempt to convince Princess Celestia to move the sun and moon should Luna ever cease to carry that action out. At this moment in time, she is weak and disoriented, with no knowledge of the outside world besides what we choose to give her. Her subjects are like children to her, and I believe this attachment might be a viable route through which to influence her to our side. Princess Luna is threatening us with something which, in harming us, would likewise harm vast swathes of the population. Be it constant exposure to sun or deprivation of light, her means of attack would cause a great deal of damage to the country itself: crops would die, ecosystems would be disrupted, chaos would ensue and Equestria would be an easy target for an opportunistic invasion.
“Contrariwise, you have invaded the cultural and political capital of the country without a single Equestrian casualty, although I understand that a unit has gone MIA during the battle, with its status as yet unconfirmed. Everything Her Exalted Highness has done thus far has been to keep this country as stable and normal as possible, be it the encouragement of the ponies to continue their work, the admirable good treatment of her prisoners or the lack of the usual discriminatory measures taken by most successful invaders against the natives.
“She will not like us, but when faced with either helping a regime which has done no significant harm to her little ponies or aiding the sister who betrayed her once before in enacting an insane plan which would hurt the majority of the population for years to come, I believe we may have a chance of convincing her to make the right decision. Besides, the only time we would need to let her use magic would be in the event of Luna doing as she threatens, so it is not as if she would be a constant threat. What do you say?”
The moment she concluded her speech, an uproar of conversation burst into being, leaving her waiting with bated breath for a coherent response for several minutes. Finally, the hubbub lessened and finally fell away into the void of silence: one second passed, then another, then at long last a reply was given to her by none other than Princess Maxilla.
“You were right, Advisor Scrolls, that does sound insane… That being said, your logic is impressive and I, for one, would be willing to back an attempt. So long as we have a backup plan, I see no harm in at least speaking with the princess, and having her aid may prove a powerful tool from a propaganda perspective. At the very least, the revelation that their princess would aid us against her own sister might get the ponies to stop striking.”
Next to share their points of view were Mollis and Flavius, both of whom saying little more than that they agreed with Maxilla, followed by Marbled Iris, who had a significantly longer piece to say.
“I must say I am pleased that I requested your point of view, Advisor Scrolls, your input has been most enlightening. As Princess Maxilla said, your logic is indeed impressive, and whilst certainly unconventional, I believe your plan is far from insane: it may just be our best bet of sorting this out without bloodshed. I can see why Her Exalted Highness values your presence so greatly: you provide a fresh perspective on things which I daresay we are in dire need of, although I must question your motives for being so helpful.”
Scrolls half-opened her mouth as if to answer him, and he smiled graciously to let her know that she could, having clearly sensed the question in her emotions.
“To be honest, I help you because… well, I suppose it’s because I want to help her-“ she indicated with a twitch of her head that by ‘her’ she meant me, “-She ordered her invading army not to kill anypony; she healed my leg and my horn for nothing more in return than my sending a letter to Princess Luna; and instead of imprisoning me, she gave me a job... This may sound naïve, but I believe that Queen Chrysalis is a good person in her heart. Life these last few days hasn’t been all that bad, to be honest, just different. I truly think that changelings and ponies can work together, given the chance, and if aiding in stabilising the country helps me convince the other ponies of this, then I am more than happy to serve Her Exalted Highness for as long as she needs me.”
Marbled Iris looked at her for a long moment before saying, with an air of pleased surprise: “You actually mean that… fascinating.”
Scrolls shrugged in response. “Why would I say anything I didn’t mean? You said yourself that you can tell when I’m genuine, so what purpose would lying serve?”
“Fair point,” conceded Iris, who then reclined in his chair, content to let the rest of the meeting flow on without his intervention.
Growing tired of the wait between opinions, and seeing that Labium and D’Otho both had the coldly calculating look of people trying to come up with the most vicious insults they could muster, I raised a hoof to quell the talking and, once the room had fallen silent, requested the final vote.
“We run short on time, and I have important matters to attend to, so I’m afraid I must cut this a little shorter than I would have liked. Now, I still need your opinions on this matter, so we’ll have a vote: vote for as many options as you like so that I can decide on a backup plan, but if one is your preference above all others, please make that sentiment clear. Now, those in favour of Princess Maxilla’s suggestion, raise your hooves.”
Lady D’Otho and High Imperator Labium pointedly kept their hooves lowered, but everyone else raised theirs, Lord Flavius even going so far as to state it as his absolute preference.
“Seven votes, one preference. Alright, those in favour of Duke Mollis’s amendment to the aforementioned suggestion…”
Again, seven hooves went up, and another preference was called, this time by Lady Prisca Slate.
“Same as before… Now, those in favour of High Imperator Labium’s plan…”
Two hooves rose, their owners receiving a mixture of looks ranging from tired to condescending to downright hateful, and both stated it as their preference.
“Two votes, two preferences. Finally: Probationary General Advisor Scrolls’s contribution…”
As with both of the suggestions before Labium’s, seven hooves rose, but this time there was an overwhelming wave of statements of preference: Maxilla, Mollis, Mantle, Iris and Scrolls herself all voting in absolute favour.
“Seven votes, five preferences: that settles it, then. I will talk to Celestia about raising the sun and moon in the event of an attack by Luna, and we will have another meeting to discuss which variation or combination of variations of Princess Maxilla’s plan will be our backup. I must leave you now – Advisor Scrolls, you can return to the throne room and read the morning’s reports for me, when I return from my business I expect a detailed overview of the current situation.”
With that, I stood from the table and trotted out into the hall, making sure I was near nothing especially breakable before teleporting to the prison of crystal beneath the city. It was time I visited an old friend.
END OF CHAPTER THREE
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That was good even if you did go a bit overboard on the council meeting. I feel like you probably could have trimmed a body or two off the council if you wanted to by combining rolls which would have shortened that part a bit, although it does work well as is and should continue to work if you do not go through too many more full meetings in the future. That said, I get the feeling the conversation with Cadence will not be trivial either so you probably could not have fit it into this chapter even with a shortened meeting so it is not a big deal either way.
The one big hanging question I had from this chapter was what you are doing with the castes and what the term "drone" means in the context of this story. The way this chapter is written it could easily be anything from historical human caste systems where the castes were a culturally enforced economic system, sometimes with room for mobility between castes, to the stupid hive mind bullshit which you already said you are not using so I was hoping you would be willing to provide some clarification on what you are doing with changeling society in this story.
Better get started on that dream warding magic then.
Wonder what's happened with Cadance. Hope to see some more of her next chapter.
Well think about it. Conquer the ponies and rule them. They may not feel much love for changelings, but they'll certainly draw closer to each other...
Why do I have a bad, bad feeling about Starlit? She can't be planning anything, Chrysalis's emotion sensors would pick up the emotions. Anyling's emotion sensors would, but I still can't shake that feeling.
Isn't it a part of her? Meh, I suppose it comes down to a matter of headcanon.
It's canon that the changelings feed off love though.
Chryssy's daughter or just another member of the Royal Caste I wonder?
Yeah, Luna has a history of being less than stable. She felt unloved and unwanted, so in return she tried to destroy all life on the planet.
The Code? Color me intrigued. Also, technically it would be sapient. I argue that you can't have one without the other, but this is a largely unpopular opinion.
Chrysalis, at least, has shown herself to be a master of mind magic. Even not using that itself, those insights into consciousness combined with her natural changeling abilities would make her an expert at convincing people to do what she wants them.
He can feel that you mean it, Starlit. SMILIE
IKR?!
Excellent chapter, awaiting the next one three weeks from now.
5330136
That does not mean they do not need solid food as well. After all, we need to take in a lot of different things in order to survive so it is reasonable to assume that changelings do as well.
Also, the source of that statement is Cadence who is probably not an expert on changelings so it is entirely possible that she is misinformed in some way, either through simplification of a complex subject or outright lies (although I really hate using this explanation in anything serious if I can possibly avoid it). I personally think that what they actually require is raw magic because they cannot acquire/produce it naturally for some reason sort of like how we (and many other predators) cannot produce all the proteins our bodies require. The way they get around this is by using love to lower a pony's natural barriers to let them steal the magic their bodies need to function (it seems likely that magic is involved in the fundamental biology of most life in MLP given its prevalence) in addition to more active uses like flight and magic. This can be easily simplified down to what Cadence said because they are still using love to acquire energy to operate critical biological functions in their own bodies which is essentially what eating is so there is no contradiction there, but the nuts and bolts work better with the rest of the universe given that every other application of love seems to be an cooperative/amplified version of normal magic which fits with love lowering barriers to better share magic or increase flow.
5330319
I always chalked that up to there being different kinds of love. Adoration, hero worship, romantic love, etc. But yeah, makes sense for the rest of that.
5329861
Yeah, I agree that I could probably have trimmed off a little of the council meeting, but I wasn't sure of the best way to go about that, so I left it as it was for fear of messing things up. With a scene that big, taking things out can have a pretty big effect on the rest of it, and that really wasn't something I wanted to risk doing, what with the possible confusion which would follow if I didn't edit it well enough.
Full meetings will be happening in future, but they should never get this long again without good reason. Chrysalis has some very big problems right now, but there aren't that many of them overall, so I don't see us having this sort of thing happen every time since most of their meetings would just be progress reports rather than full-scale debates.
I actually wrote the scene with Cadance as the fourth part of the chapter, but took it out prior to upload. It was about 500 words long, lacked far too much detail and didn't cover half the points I realised that it probably should, so I removed it in order to begin next chapter with Cadance, followed by our other cave-dwelling friend.
As for the castes, I have been writing a codex chapter about changeling society, but I had to put it on the back burner back when chapter two got corrupted. I'll give you a quick explanation now, though the codex version is bound to be more detailed by merit of being written as if it were an excerpt from a book on changelings.
The castes are both biological (mostly) and cultural (partly): the actual birth of changelings into individual castes is down to genetics, but the differences between the castes wouldn't be so noticeable if the upper castes weren't so against interbreeding with the lower.
There are four main castes: Drones, Shifters, Elites and Royals; with drones being the most common and royals being least common. Each successive caste is generally more intelligent, more magically capable (especially with mind magic) and physically stronger, but other than that there isn't much real difference (they all look the same, for one).
Drones are slightly less intelligent than the typical pony, having roughly equivalent brainpower, magical aptitude and strength to teenage pony. They aren't dumb, but they aren't quite as mentally developed as a pony would be. To make up for their individual low intelligence, they have strong tendencies to work in groups (i.e. their Drone Unions). They can only transform into what they see, and can't alter anything about their appearance past that.
Shifters are about pony-equivalent and live fairly similarly to ponies, excluding their obvious lack of a cutie-mark-based education system.The section of their brain which deals with mental magic, emotion sensing and shapeshifting isn't large enough to deal with all three, so their minds are specialised to make them great at transforming, at the cost of most of their ability with mental magic.
Elites are equivalent to ponies on all fronts besides changeling abilities, which they are adept at in the same way that unicorns are with magic or pegasi at flight. All of the representatives are of the Elite Caste in order to avoid any one caste having the upper hand when it comes to be represented. Most of them are part of houses, like Lady D'Otho, although some, like Lady Slate, live outside of that world of backstabbing and power play.
Royals are essentially the changeling equivalent of alicorns, without the immortality but with very advanced capabilities in all changeling abilities.
I hope that answers some of your questions, and hopefully I'll have the actual codex chapter on changeling society out soon. Sorry for the text dump.
5330136
Cadance was going to be in this chapter, but I didn't leave enough room for her scene and it ended up being 500 words long and terrible, so I cut it out and decided to write a much longer scene as the start of next chapter. I really wanted to have Cadance show up by now (heck, I wanted her in the last chapter, too) but it would have been awful if I'd forced it in this one.
Why do you have a bad feeling about Starlit? I'm honestly curious, because I can't think of much so far which would arouse suspicion. Maybe she's just too nice to be believable, in which case I should probably deal with that before she starts becoming the personality-Mary-Sue of the story.
Yeah, in my headcanon it is a crown, rather than a part of her, although it is made of biological material. The idea being that the previous queen grows the crown as an easily-detachable extra appendage, which is then cut off and given to the successor. The crown is made of nothing but hardened chitin, though, which is why it doesn't really rot and how the creator can just cut it off without feeling any pain. Weird, I know.
In the canon of this story, changelings need love (or, more precisely, any positive emotion, although love is usually the strongest) but not as food. Their cell growth is entirely powered by magic, which is how they're able to transform into other beings so quickly, but it has the downside that without a supply of positive emotion they can't replace the cells which naturally die. A love-starved changeling will literally decompose alive. Love doesn't provide nutrients, though, so food is still required for normal bodily functions, just as with any other being.
Maxilla is unrelated to Chrysalis, and was the queen of a smaller hive before they all unified under Chrysalis. Whilst her title is now Princess and not Queen, she's in control of a lot more than she used to be. To explain the "D'Aelius-Alveare" part of her name, 'Aelius' was a Roman family name, derived from the Greek 'Helios', meaning sun. Her name is essentially 'of the Hive of the Sun', albeit massively simplified; Chrysalis's means 'of the Hive of the Wasps (or hornets)' in case you were wondering.
The Code is a pretty big part of changeling culture, which I'm going to expand on later either through a main chapter or a codex entry. Essentially, it's a set of rules meant to govern what is right and wrong when it comes to changelings using their powerful mind magic. Lady Slate was angry because Labium, like a lot of higher-caste changelings, does not take the code as seriously when he applies it to non-changelings, using it more as a general guideline to be departed from when he feels like it, whereas she is something of a zealot about The Code. Basically, to a changeling, what he's suggested is the mental equivalent of GBH and rape, which is why she's so outraged that no one called him out on it.
Anyhow, I really hope I can find the time to get some of this codex stuff out soon, since there isn't any way to discuss it in detail in main chapters without a big, ugly exposition dump and some of it is quite important to the understanding of this particular changeling headcanon.
See you in three weeks!
5330481 For the meeting, the best way to do that would have been in planning. You probably could have folded some of the characters together or split up their rolls and distributed each part among the remaining characters to cut things down a little bit, but there was a lot that needed to happen in that meeting so it would not have shortened it much, although fewer character would make keeping track of things down the line a bit easier.
As for Cadence, I can tell just by the word count that what you had could not possibly have worked. I cannot see that conversation being any less than 2000 words and I would expect it to be significantly longer. I would also expect Celestia's conversation to be at least as long because it is going to take some doing for Celestia to worm out what is bothering Chrysalis, she is going to refuse to give a real answer to keep Chrysalis around until she figures it out, and once she does the Twilight situation is going to take a lot of time as well.
As for the caste thing, that is interesting and it is sounding like the difference is more the environment they are raised in than anything else to me. They are all sounding like they are very close in most ways with the differences in size, strength, effective intelligence, and magic being more the result of malnourishment and education than any real biological difference.
5330607 I think you are right on the money there with Starlit. Now that I think about it, she is coming off as a bit too perfect here with the way she rolled over for Chrysalis with no problems and then stood up to her general. On the plus side, she is used to serving Celestia in a similar roll if memory serves so that part is believable, but it might be a good idea to give her a meaningful negative quirk or two.
Also, the code stuff is interesting and I am curious to see what it actually says whenever you get around to writing it up. You could have Starlit ask Chrysalis for a believable info dump if you wanted to, but I think the codex idea is probably easier. It might also be a good idea to go for a middle ground with a brief explanation in the story and a full discussion in the codex to make reading the codex optional, but that is more work and still adds a lump of exposition to the middle of the narrative.
5330911
Thanks for the feedback!
All of the characters in the meeting are going to be recurring ones, some of them being quite significant to the plot later on, so I couldn't have reduced the number of characters by combining roles. That said, I probably could've introduced some of them later on: the caste representatives, for example, could have been brought in later on in a more senate-type setup. Alas, what's done is done, and there's just too much I've done here to make such a big change now. In hindsight, I could've planned that a lot better.
Cadance's scene is definitely going to take a lot of the next chapter up, that's for sure, but I'm not sure how much of what needs to be dealt with in regards to her I should put into it. It may be better if I have Chrysalis meet with her more than once, and slowly build things up rather than have it all happen in one chapter. Either way, it's going to be a big scene, the only real question is how big.
Whilst malnourishment would certainly have come into things, there would still be noticeable differences between the castes had they all been brought up in the lap of luxury. Changeling DNA by nature is more easily mutated, and ancient 'lings with similar mutations tended to stick together, forming more distinct groups of changelings which after several thousand years became what we have now. Availability of food is by no means a minor factor in the present changelings' differences, but genetics and culture would have made something similar happen on its own.
Starlit's niceness is something I've been concerned about for a little while, so I'm going to have to sort that out somewhere in later chapters. I have a few ideas for negative personality traits along with explanations as for why she's been so nice, but I'm not sure which to go with. On the one hand, I could take steps immediately to rectify Starlit's personality, but on the other hand I could keep it as it is in order to use it in a plot element later on, the problem with that being that the result of that would be at least three or four chapters from now. I guess the real question is: do we want immediate improvement of her character, or do we want something which has the potential to be better somewhere further down the line? I suppose I could make her a little more believable whilst still leaving enough of the important personality elements in place, but whether or not you'd want that is another thing entirely.
As for The Code, that was what I've been planning on doing with it. Small, believable piece of exposition to introduce the topic; in-depth, detailed explanation for those that care: really, this was why I wanted to do the codex pieces in the first place: to expand on things in the main chapter without having to worry about exposition dumping on the readers. With a bit of luck, I might be able to upload one of them before we're all in our eighties. (Why is there no Granny Smith emoticon?)
5331143 I still feel like you probably could have planned things out to condense rolls into fewer characters and streamline things. This is actually the reason a lot of movie/tv characters only have one parent. In a lot of cases the parents do not really need to be separate characters in order to fulfill their roll so they combine them into a single character to streamline things. MLP actually takes this a step further with the Apples by taking the parental rolls and splitting them between Granny Smith, Big Mac, and AJ which is why she has no parents (and where the jokes about Apple Bloom being Big Mac and AJ's kid come from
). I do not know what you have planned, but odds are you could have split up and folded at least one of the characters duties into the others without trouble. Of course, it is done now and changing it would basically require a full rewrite of the chapter so changing it would be more work than it is worth at this point. Just make sure you give serious thought to folding the roll of any future characters you are thinking of making into the existing cast because there is plenty of room for that at this point.
For Cadence I think you are going to have to play that one by ear, although the last few confrontations with the canon characters felt like they cut off a bit early so you should probably err on the long side for the conversations with her and Celestia.
Moving on to the genetics, I think you are seriously overestimating how quickly things actually diverge. As a species, we started dividing at least 75,000 years ago with no interbreeding between geographically dispersed populations and the only divergence we got was some minor changes in facial structures and melanin production. Even with a less stable genome (which is going to have very severe consequences in terms of cancer rates), a few thousand years is not going to be enough to get any genetic divergence, especially with the occasional interbreeding between members of different castes.
As for Starlit, I say hold it back for a plot point. Trying to fix it now would feel a bit forced, but leaving it as a hanging issue makes her feel just a tiny bit off which serves to foreshadow the plot point you have brewing as demonstrated by the fact that Europa is getting a bad feeling about her for no discernible reason. It is definitely not perfect, but it is the best you can do without rewriting the whole story and she is not going to play a huge roll in the next chapter which helps some.
Finally, it sounds like we are on the same page with the codex so I am very much looking forwards to seeing what you have come up with because I am a huge fan of in depth world building. I love pulling apart all the little nuts and bolts and seeing how to make every little detail work together without breaking continuity or physics which is why I put together the nuts and bolts of changeling physiology in excessive detail.
I greatly enjoyed this chapter, but this line puzzled me a bit:
Is there something about changeling teleportation that makes it prone to breaking things that I've forgotten?
5331143
On the subject of caste differences, you can always say that magic enhanced the rate of divergence, since it is unnaturally fast.
5337361
Changeling teleportation, excluding the swirling green fire instead of the typical bright flash, is pretty much identical to unicorn teleportation (at least in this story). The reason Chrysalis was watching for breakables is that the caves under the city are made of rock which reflects magic slightly, meaning she needs to use a far larger amount of magic and open a much bigger space-time rift to ensure all of her makes it to the destination intact. The downside of using so much magic and opening a bigger rift is that both the potency of the magical explosion and its area of effect are greater, which is why she's careful to avoid breakables.
I probably should've added a line or two to explain that, and I might still do that next chapter when she arrives in the caves just so that everyone has an explanation.
And as for the castes, what you say about magic causing such high a high rate of divergence was indeed what I meant with the mutation thing, which, in hindsight, I did an awful job of explaining my meaning behind. Thanks for providing me with a more succinct way of describing the process than the one I've been using so far.