The flight back to her room(and it had really become easy to think of it as "her room") didn't take very long, and soon Cadance was laying on the bed and holding the puzzle book in her telekinectic grip. However, it wasn't open, the Princess being more focused on thinking about what she had learned that day, specially in the discussion with Chrysalis.
Secrecy, love, survival... Every one of those concepts kept spinning around in her head and her thoughts weren't going anywhere. She was finally snapped out of her mental state by a knock on the door and the already familiar cry of "Delivery!"
Realizing she was actually pretty hungry, the Princess went to get the food and sat down for dinner.
It seemed to help, after she finished her meal, Cadance realized she didn't have to try and think of everything alone. And she went to get a scroll to write in.
Hello, Auntie
I am learning a lot about the Changeling society, and Chrysalis seems receptive to the possibility of peace at least, so that's the good news.
The bad news is that they take secrecy to a frankly startling degree. It doesn't seem easy to get them to reveal themselves to the wider world, which would be ncessary for diplomacy to even have a chance of working.
Do you have any ideas about dealing with this situation?
I will do my best anyway, and hope for the best.
Love for all of you again.
Cadance.
With that done, she felt a lot more relaxed and went back to the puzzle book, this time actually opening it and working at the puzzles. Time passed fast, and Cadance went to bed and had a nice, dreamless sleep.
The next day, after walking up, Cadance realized that she was already so used to that room she didn't even have the momentary 'where I am' pause upon waking up. She then saw that something had arrived while she was sleeping. It was a letter from Auntie Celestia. The answer to the message she had sent her the day before.
Dear Cadance
It seems like you are doing well.
Things are about the same back here, but you definitely don't need to hear anymore about Twilight foregoing sleep for study or me having to listen to a lot of pointless bickering from supposed adults at official meetings.
Your dilemma is indeed a complicated one, but at the heart of things exists the problem of trust. Changelings have hidden themselves for so long that they have lost the ability to easily trust.
It is not entirely unwarranted, considering their abilities and appearance, which only serves to make the situation harder to resolve. You would need to obtain a substantial amount of trust from them in order to get your plans to be taken seriously.
However, one thing you may not have realized is the fact that you don't need to go all in, all at once. Having an undisguised Changelling visiting Canterlot as a "mysterious but friendly stranger", could do a lot to show the hive that the possibility of cooperation exists, and to allow my ponies to get used to their "new" neighbours.
This is only an idea, but I hope that you can consider doing something similar.
Love from everyone here, and we all wait to see you again.
Princess Celestia.
Cadance smiled as she read the letter. Her auntie really was wise and made her feel at ease. She still had a lot to do, but having this kind of support made it much easier to believe that she would be sucessful. Her thoughts were interrupted by the delivery of her breakfast, and she thought about how best to bring up the idea to Chrysalis as she was eating.
It wouldn't do to mention that it came from Celestia, since the last time the two had met, Chrysalis ended up taking a mini-sun to the face.
Celestia wouldn't bring up good memories.
She was still thinking about it when Light Keeper came to take her to the next step in her schedule, the High Chief of the order of builders, Molder Mind. She was apparently the youngest of the high chiefs, which the Changeling guide told her as they were walking towards their destination.
They entered in a large room full of a large number of chrysalis of all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some Changelings were taking things and inserting them in the chrysalis, while others were ripping off pieces and carrying them away somewhere.
They stopped in front of the Changeling that was overseeing everything from the center of the room.
"Princess Cadance? This is Molder Mind, the high chief of the order of builders." Light Keeper introduced her, stepping to the side.
"Prin- er, your highness, er..." The Changeling mare stumbled over her own words, extending a hoof like she wasn't aware she was doing it.
Cadance shook her hoof firmly and said "You can just call me Cadance. What do you have to show me?" She tried to help Molder.
"Er- I mean, Princess... Cadance. I- I am going to tell you about the order of bluiders, I mean builders." She kept trembling and moving her head to all sides except towards Cadance.
The princess felt at ease, this behavior was pretty similar to Twilight when she was panicking, and it was pretty hard to remain wary while seeing something like that.
"That sounds great. Where do we start?" Cadance did another push.
"Well, right here..." She seemed confused for a moment "Oh! I mean we're talking about chrysalis. They are one of the most important parts of the functioning of the Changeling hive." Slowly, she was beginning to loosen up as an opportunity to discuss her job came up.
Cadance nodded and motioned for the Changeling to continue. Light Keeper had already left with his usual subtlety.
"Chrysalis are recycling tools. They can take in any kind of biomass and turn it into whatever we need." Molder Mind was getting into it, she seemed to have forgotten who she was talking to, and pointed at the biggest chrysalis "They can have virtually any size, and we builders specialize in turning parts of it into materials for our craft.
"Chrysalis pieces can be turned into armor and weapons, incredibly strong supports and links as well as anything you can build, really. You can even eat it as food in a pinch." She was nodding to herself, clearly reaffirming the value of her work.
"But our Builder order doesn't do just that." She was waving her hoof in a negative "We are also the ones who maintain the entire hive, fixing everything that's broken, excavating new tunnels, making sure all the piping works okay..." She then smiled widely "We also set up the rune configurations so that all magical systems in the hive work correctly." She was getting more and more worked up "And when it comes to obtaining resources from outside the Hive, it's also our order who does it!" The other workers had stopped to look at their boss "It is a great honor to be a part of the Builder order, and it is something we all carry proudly!" She threw her hoof upwards.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW" The ovation from the workers was deafening, and seemed to snap Molder Mind out of it.
"Ah- I mean... That's pretty much what we do." She avoided meeting Cadance's eyes.
"This all seems pretty easy to understand. Do you have any particular problems?" Cadance asked.
"Not... as such... No-Nothing that isn't a common problem for the entire swarm anyway..." She then turned to one of the workers "Leader! You take care of things while I'm out!" The Changeling saluted "So..." She turned back to Cadance "I... I can show you some of- of the stuff I talked about."
Cadance gave her best smile "Then let's go."
And they went. Molder explained the various wards as well as useful things like the illusion walls, in fact she explained it in excruciating detail and most of it went over Cadance's head. The Princess decided that the Changeling should have been one of those prodigies, which really fit with her being the youngest high chief. She had never mentioned any titles, but the Alicorn wouldn't be surprised were she to get any in the future.
They had their lunch in a break room where many of the Changelings present came to greet Molder.
They went to see the many crates of resources that were brought over from the outside because the Changelings couldn't produce them, or couldn't do it in large enough numbers. They went to see one of the pillars of support that helped keep the hive whole, and the Changeling even did a small check up, just to show what it took to maintain them. They went to see the underground lake from where the hive got its water, and the mechanisms that were used to move it around.
Through all of this Molder Mind got more and more comfortable with Cadance's presence, to the point where she stopped stuttering entirely. But then, something else made the princess curious. It seemed like the Changeling kept looking at her and thinking hard about something. It eventually got too much for Cadance to keep waiting, and she asked about it:
"What are you thinking about?"
The Changeling seemed shocked by the question, but quickly recomposed herself "There's another place I could show you, but it is very secret... and Queen Chrysalis told me to judge by myself whether I should show it to you or not."
"Is it a cool thing?" Cadance asked, she had also become more relaxed around that young Changeling that reminded her of Twilight.
Molder Mind smiled warmly "Yeah. It's a really cool thing... You know what, let's do it. I think you should see it anyway."
They went. Cadance soon realized that this "secret" was definitely something well-protected. They had to go through many layers of wards and several illusionary walls. There was also a ridiculous amount of guards along the path. But eventually, they got to a room behind a heavy door and found... A kindergarten.
Suddenly, they were set upon by a pack of Changeling nymphs.
"Moldie!"
"You came to visit again!"
"Good thing I wasn't sleeping today!"
"Who is the pinkie?"
There was no way Cadance would lose an opportunity like that. She stepped forward and said:
"Hello, I am Princess Cadance. Moldie wanted to show me this place."
"Wow, a Princess! ... What's a princess?" A particularly excited one said that.
"Are you like Queen Chrysalis?" This one was smarter.
"I really like her mane." Said a Changeling touching Cadance's hair.
Most ponies would freeze in this situation, but the Alicorn Princess was an experienced foalsitter. She quickly answered "I guess I am indeed like Chrysalis. Thank you for the comparison!" She rubbed the head of the Changeling who had made the comment.
That made the floodgates open, and even the timid nymphs that hadn't come forward earlier approached Cadance. And then they started to play, and tell stories, and Cadance saw every single one of the many, many toys they had. Time passed in a blur, until Molder got a message to take Cadance to the Queen.
While they were walking to the meeting point, Molder talked:
"You are really good with children."
"That's because I worked a lot as a foalysitter." Cadance smiled again at the reminder.
"A princess serving as a foalsitter? That's cool." The Changeling imagined being taken care off by Queen Chrysalis as a Nymph. That seemed like something one would brag about constantly.
It didn't take that long before they were back in the familiar meeting room. Molder Mind gave her farewells and left Cadance for her meeting with the Queen.
"So..." Chrysalis said, when they were face to face again "I think we should start with me telling the story I promised you." She had a small smile on her face.
"I would like to hear it, yes." Cadance said in a pompous tone, figuring they weren't at the serious part of the meeting yet.
"Well, you've learned about chrysalis today. But what you don't know is that the most used biomass in the past consisted of dead Changelings." Chrysalis said without emotion.
Well, things had gotten serious rather suddenly.
"Changelings who were good at using chrysalis like me would encase themselves as their last act, to make it easier for the others." Chrysalis was talking with an old voice, like Celestia did once in a while "One day I did it, after giving away all of my love to save another Changeling." She seemed proud of that "But just as they were putting me along with the others, I actually awoke and burst out." She smiled without much strength "That was the first time I defied certain death. Twice more I did it, and on the third time, when I burst out I was different from the others." She looked at Cadance and put her hooves on her chest "I had became what you can see here. I was the first Changeling Queen in so long that they had become legends, and I felt like I was invincible." Her tone got prouder as she said those last words "And well, you know how that turned out." And then it went back to sad again.
There was only one thing Cadance could say in response to this story:
"It's no surprise that you became a Changeling Queen." The princess was completely confident.
"Why?" Chrysalis asked.
"You walked into death three times to save other Changelings, the love you felt for them, the desire to protect them, I feel like those were the requirements for you to ascend." Cadance said, with just as much confidence as before.
This had apparently managed to make Chrysalis lose her words. She stayed silent for a few seconds before dodging the topic:
"You were really good with the nymphs, you know that?" Still, her voice was sincere, so Cadance didn't tease her for it.
"You received a report?" Cadance was curious.
"More or less." Chrysalis entered lecture mode again "Every Changeling has a mental connection, it usually only allows one to sense position and a few strong feelings, but with some effort it is possible to send entire memories to other Changelings. And since I am the Queen, it is easiest to send them to me." She turned her hoof to the air "I just asked them to keep me informed about you."
"That explains some things" Cadance said "And it seem like a really convenient ability to have."
"It is certainly one of the advantages of being a Changeling. But we should really get going to the main part of the discussion." Chrysalis was suddenly all business.
"Sure. I have an idea to propose, but do you have any news first?" Cadance was still a trained diplomat, and could get in business mode just as fast.
"Nothing earth-shattering." She put her hoof in her chin "The other Changelings are still too wary to consider revealing themselves, but your influence on the High Chiefs is helping. If you keep it up, we may actually be able to work something out." She actually seemed rather surprised at that.
"Well," Cadance decided this was a good time to mention the plan "I actually had an idea that might help. Instead of doing a complete reveal all of a sudden, you could send a volunteer Changeling to show himself at the capital, which could help the ponies become more used to the idea of Changelings. Then things could be done one step at a time." This was the best she could do, presenting the idea at a proper time.
Chrysalis clearly struggled with the possibility of one of her Changelings showing themselves to the world while she wasn't there to help, but she still seemed to be seriously considering it "That could be a good idea, I'll have to float it with the other Changelings to see what they think."
"That would be perferct!" Cadance smiled brightly. Things were looking up again.
"Then I guess this discussion is over. I really hope things actually work right." She also smiled a little.
And that was that, Cadance was guided back to her room while Chrysalis went back to do her job of Queen, because the Hive never sleeps.