Queens to Check, Dragon to Mate

by dracone

Early Morning: Luna

Author's Note:

Felt Luna needed some more screen time, I also really wanted to show something that really hasn't been seen yet.

Some of this is an idea and concept I was kicking around since providing the concept of the Changeling Link.

As always, feel free to use the material I provided for your own works, just give me heads up so I can help or send me copy or link regarding the piece if it's art.

Luna was having a wonderful night, there were no overly dramatic problems she had to contend with. By far the best part of her night was Violet Emerald, through what might as well have well amounted to sheer happenstance, Luna had one of the most refreshingly innocent interactions she had ever had over her time. While the following morning threatened to ruin it all, Emerald’s presence on the dream plane was a bit surprising. At first, Luna didn’t recognize her, with the infant changeling actually emitting an aura similar to that of truly innocent pony foals. Emerald’s wide-eyed curiosity and genuine interest in everything said to her and in her environment really helped drive home how much of a true sense of individuality she had.

It seemed Chrysalis’s comment about Emerald being a chatterbox was a bit more accurate than she had been led to believe. Within the realm of dreams one’s limits were similar to those of the mind, she had also commented about how the memory spell Chrysalis had initially shared with Twilight had some similarities to her own spell for entering the dream realm and she had suspected the unique link changelings possessed could possibly allow one to cross into the dream realm if the right conditions were met. Emerald had managed to do so of her own accord, likely due to Luna’s own insistence on being in close proximity to her whenever possible had allowed the changeling filly to subconsciously find a way to piggyback her to the dream realm's nexus when Luna chose to enter that world. It was the only explanation Luna could come up with that made sense when you considered how they had learned the way the offspring of Chrysalis and Spike developed. The main problem was discerning if the type of changeling Emerald was had to have its axis be mental, physical or emotional; something made all the more difficult by her natural abilities. Her detection ability was clearly physical but required quite a bit of mental capability for proper execution, while her natural defense drew on several aspects of the emotional spectrum quite strongly, then when you took into account her personality as defined by Chrysalis along with the little nicknames she gave everyone she had decided to not know the name of for whatever reason it all boiled down to having strong notes of all three.

Nurses, like Satin Care, needed to be able to be more mature with their emotions due to the fact they were in charge of managing and distributing emotions gathered by the hive so they could give the appropriate shares of emotions necessary for changeling growth to all newly hatched members while also tending to the hatched and unhatched members. Physical type changelings, like Dusk Sentinel, needed their bodies to develop at a much more accelerated rate because of the need to interact with potential external threats to their home. And mental type changelings, like Light Novel, needed all a much more developed mind so as better work with the materials before them or newly presented to them in the most effective manner. But Emerald was the first of a new class of changeling, and apparently, the first to have all of the traits expressed individually by the other changeling classes in a bit more of an even distribution. The fact that all three of these traits had a near even rate of development with each other, or at least seemed to, almost seemed unnatural, to her knowledge no being in existence outside the realms of fantasy had such a distinctly odd maturation rate.

Every being has their physical, mental, social and emotional aspects mature at different rates, but so far they couldn’t find any ways to gauge how Violet’s aspects were progressing. Her physical maturation should have been the easiest to gauge, but at some rather erratic looking intervals she would experience something that could be best described as the Changeling equivalent of “growth spurts”, which was a rather inaccurate term seeing as about half the time her growth would actually reverse itself, Twilight had dubbed these “regression oozes” as a way to define what seemed to be happening. Of course, this only covered her physical development and did nothing to account for the developments that were harder to observe.

But Luna finally got to see how Violet Emerald was developing in the less observable ways, with said changeling filly appearing with her within the dream realm. Luna had spent a great deal of time learning to regulate her personal emotional and mental states to ensure she did not contaminate the dreams of others or was influenced by the dreams of others, Emerald had no such training. Changelings are exceedingly receptive to emotions, especially at very early stages in their development. Something that Twilight had worked with Chrysalis on learning more about, which was made very apparent after the first of the girls had hatched. So, a changeling as young as Emerald in place dramatically influenced by the mental state of those within it was a typically bad idea.

Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be any nightmares within Equestria’s subjects this night that required her attention. Since pulling Emerald out of the dream realm while Luna herself still remained within didn’t seem like a feasible option, seeing as Luna only had suspicions about how the filly had gotten there and yet to find anything to point her the right direction, Luna decided to create a space within the dream realm and use it for interacting with Emerald until said filly either left on her own somehow or it was time for Luna herself to leave and hopefully have minimal consequences. The fact that Violet was talking at a mile a minute with questions and wide-eyed wonder was actually rather amusing to Luna, it showed that said filly was curious and didn’t quite have the mental focus she seemed to show outwardly. If her dream self was a reflection of Emerald’s mind, which Luna highly suspected, then that would mean that her mind was only able to really focus with assistance from the link that is usually ever present in the changeling psyche.

It was only after Luna ventured to actually say something that Emerald’s mind managed magically focus, gone were the thousands about thousands of questions flying at high speed, with the changeling filly asking much slower and more deliberate questions directed at Luna. It was at that moment realized what she was seeing before was Emerald’s inquisitive thought process, what she got after directing attention on her was a highly intelligent mind that was interested in the formation and identification of connections and relations. Her mental growth was incredible, with her emotional growth being a bit slower due to her intellectual side trying to make sense of her very emotions. It was at this moment that Luna came to a realization, the reason Emerald subconsciously used her shifting abilities to physically regress just so she could physically mature again was due to her inability to understand the very ability that had managed to keep her safe anymore. She had no firm grasp of concepts at her young age, especially the concept of cute.

Luna used this time to form a better connection with Emerald, even going as far as to insist she be called “Auntie Luna” from that point onward, and explain some basic concepts to aid in said changeling’s development. The fact that Chrysalis could actually make sense of the almost jumbled series of thoughts that Emerald had was impressive in and of itself, more so to Luna now that she’d gotten a glimpse of what Emerald is like mentally. It still bugged her that Emerald had somehow followed her into the dream realm, even more so than she usually would let on due to the fact Emerald was too young to offer any theories of her own.

When it came time leave the dream realm, something Luna usually did a couple of hours before sunrise, she left the dream realm and hoped for the best. What she found was her first theory had been correct to some degree, when she had left the dream realm Emerald had come along as well. Almost as soon as they were out of the dream realm Violet fell asleep, it looked like she had nothing resembling rest while in the dream realm. Luna gave a light chuckle as she picked up the sleeping filly and headed down the stairs. The scent of coffee leading her way to the dining area.

The sight of meals already prepared and set on the table was a charming thing to see, not to mention the sight of Spike in the kitchen gave her some idea of why Chrysalis got a great deal of enjoyment out the kitchen. Chrysalis in the kitchen had been such a common sight over the years that Spike in the kitchen by himself almost felt off, much to the surprise of those watching.

Luna wasn’t sure if she should get Spike’s attention or let him come to the realization she and Emerald were there on his own. Hopefully, her time with Emerald in the dream realm had improved conditions for her, and everyone else. Of course, explaining how different forms of communication are viable was almost amusingly aggravating. Hopefully, Emerald would be more willing to communicate verbally, especially after Luna had explained a few things to her.

Comments

[GrimmWolfDragon]

Nice chapter

[Razzy]

Let's do the time warp again!

'Luna a wonderful night' - Luna was having a wonderful night

'through what might of have well amounted to sheer happenstance' - might as well have had

'understand her the very ability that had managed to keep her safe anymore' - understand the very ability that had managed to keep her safe

[dracone]

8583735
Thanks for pointing those out, I will get to fixing those when I can