Carapace of Lavender

by Dark0592


12: Ups and Downs

Once again, Twilight found herself in the forests of their minds. She was overjoyed to notice that on her side was more than just dust and dirt, a few patches of green were sprouting through the ash.

“While I could stand here with you all day, there is something I wished to discuss.” Chrysalis said, ripping Twilight’s attention from her own forest to her Queen. She looked almost… sad.

“The reason I am here is that Celestia wished to speak to me about our agreement, the agreement being that you are to stay and learn with me while you recover from… well everything. I worry that she may change the agreement… I recognize that this may be selfish of me, but I just wanted to have a bit of time alone with you just in case.” The Queen explained. Twilight was a little confused and quickly went to picking apart the explanation in pieces. The silence was almost palpable before she figured out what she wanted to say.

“For starters, even if she wanted to Celestia could not rip me from my home in the hive. I don’t think even she has the power to change what I am now, and I’ve come to enjoy my time there. My home in Ponyville, and with Celestia, are still there and they are still my home as well… Even if a war with the changelings started again I would still visit both of my homes.” Twilight started.

“I don’t know this agreement, not entirely, but I doubt she would rescind it just because I got hurt in ponyville. I’m interested in what she wants to tell you now.” She continued, then she adopted a bit of an embarrassed demeanor. She looks at the ground, put her hands behind her back and all of that. “And I could use some alone time.” She finished with a smile. Chrysalis smiled back, happy with what Twilight said. Her smile turned into a frown again, though.

“That is… unfortunately not the only reason I wished to spend time with you… I’m growing worried it may be harder and harder for you to maintain this… double life… If things get worse, I may have to bar you from our lands.” The Queen said, ending in almost a whisper. This dumbfounded Twilight, and honestly made her heart sink. Chrysalis explained before she could ask, though.

“Changelings are… not a normal race. We are parasites ,feeding on the emotions of other creatures - Primarily love. It was only through generations of plentiful food did we evolve to be so… I don’t know the word for it… So… normal. Unfortunately, the generations of plentiful food is also the thing that is wrong.” She started, turning away from Twilight and walking through her own forest. Twilight followed silently, worried.

“When we are able to feed until we are satiated completely, the hunger intensifies. It grows, becomes more voracious… You can’t feel it now, since you are a bit of a special case, but the hunger is starting to crack through all of the progress we’ve made these short months. I will bring this to Celestia’s attention, I will not allow another invasion to happen… but at this rate it will only be a few more months until all of the progress you’ve helped make is dashed. Weeks after that we will begin the process of complete degeneration, starting with conscious thought and individuality. The strain on my own consciousness will drive me insane and I will be the horrible monster I was when we first met.” The Queen continued in a somber tone. Twilight stopped. Chrysalis stopped to look at her, but was only a little surprised when the girl nearly crashed into her in an embrace.

“But… But that can’t happen...Take what I’ve gathered, Take it all. I’ll find other Harvesters, like Vinyl! We can stop it… we can…” Twilight started, her voice cracking, but she trailed off. Chrysalis slowly returned the embrace, feeling the love being given. It really was quite a lot, more than enough to abate the ravenous ticks in the back of all of their minds for a small bit. But she knew it wouldn’t last long.

Twilight could feel it too.

“I’m sorry…” Chrysalis could only say, softly. “Do not waste your time and effort… More will only expedite the process…” She said, putting the girl at arms length.

“Now come on then, compose yourself. Celestia has returned, Nictus is trying to get our attention. We don’t want to ruin the event with such terrible news.” The Queen said, putting a hand on the girl’s face to look at her. Twilight just nodded, stifled a sob and took a deep breath. She wiped the tears that had formed from her eyes and took another deep breath before nodding. Chrysalis nodded and they both opened their eyes.

“Now now, Chrysalis, I must say your progress with bonding as a student and her mentor is impressive. You’re almost making me jealous.” Celestia chuckled, Twilight had leaned into Chrysalis’ shoulder in their unconscious state. They both smiled, but Celestia’s fell. She could read Twilight like a book. Something was definitely wrong. Twilight gave her a look. ‘Now isn’t the time’. The princess quickly recomposed herself- understanding quickly that it was something that could wait.

“You almost missed the opening ceremony, Rainbow Dash insisted and I felt I did not have the authority to deny her.” Nictus said, she was the only other changeling left in the box. There were a few other people in there, though most of them were keeping their distance from the Changeling Queen. Dash’s wheelchair was empty, but still there.

“Oh boy, this’ll be interesting…” Twilight said in an exasperated tone. The opening ceremony comprised of a series of simple but flashy maneuvers by the hopefuls, followed by a magnificent display by the wonderbolts themselves. Twilight kept her eyes out for the familiar head of rainbow hair, and wasn’t disappointed to see the crippled Valkyrie at the front of the pack. While she couldn’t pull her normal death defying stunts, she was able to pull off the flashy basics like a spiraling corkscrew around her improvised formation without any problems.

To put icing on the cake, that’s basically what the followup from the Wonderbolts turned out to be. Just as the last group cleared the area, there was an almost deafening noise as the crowd exploded in noise. The 9 valkyrie formation came in so quickly it was obvious where they got their names from. There seemed to be an almost trail behind them, the coloration of their flight suits making it look as if they were a lightning bolt, with the individual colors of their hair or other personalizations mixed in for effect.

Just as they were about to smash into the ground at the center of the field, they split off in perfect unison. The fliers then spiraled around the leader -who instead of splitting off had come to a dead stop and used the ground to rebound upwards again - and the effect turned into almost a drill of fliers before they met at the top. There was another blast of noise from the crowds as they all met around the leader and fanned outwards again, forming up quickly and landing to bow. The leader then ‘offered’ the field with a motion and a bow as the announcer basically screamed to life in the loud speakers.

“Man that was awesome!” Dash’s familiar voice came from the door of the box. Nel was helping her over, almost carrying the girl, and the changeling left with a high five to Dash as she settled back in her wheelchair.

“Agreed, It always fascinated how they combine theatrics and aerial agility for their stunts. It’s never just one or the other.” Celestia said with a nod.

“I’ll never forget that day you asked Soarin for his autograph and he about fainted.” Dash snorted.

“You saw that? That was a long time ago, I don’t think you had even met Twilight by then.” Celestia replied, a little curious at how the Valkyrie knew about that.

“Oh dude it was all over the news in our academy at Cloudsdale. Fluttershy thought it was so sweet, was convinced that you were dating for a year after that.” The valkyrie said, laughing at the memory. Celestia laughed with her. Twilight giggled at the idea and Chrysalis couldn’t help but grin.

There was a bit of an increase in noise just outside of the VIP box before long, and Twilight noticed that Celestia’s expression had immediately gone into the face that can only be described as the pure joy of knowing one of her little pranks or tricks are about to happen. They all looked curiously as someone entered the box. Except for Dash. She looked like she might explode. That person was a Valkyrie, wearing the Wonderbolts flight suit with burning red hair. It was Spitfire, the current leader of the Wonderbolts. Dash couldn’t even say anything as the woman walked over.


“While I personally prefer watching my team from the sidelines, I could never say no to sitting in the VIP box. Especially on my princess’ request.” The woman said with a smile, bowing to Celestia.

So that was it, Celestia had personally asked Spitfire to join her so she can meet Dash. Twilight almost burst out laughing, the look of satisfaction on Celestia’s face was priceless, but not quite as priceless as how far Dash’s jaw had dropped.

“Let’s see, work with me here memory… Ah! Right! Rainbow hair and all that, you’ve gotta be Rainbow Dash.” The woman said, sitting down in the empty seat closest to where Dash was situated. Upon hearing her name Dash snapped out of it. Almost.

“Y-Y-You know my n-name?” The girl asked, practically shivering with excitement.

“I do, I hand pick the hopefuls. I was disappointed when our recruiters said you had to cancel last minute, but seeing you in that intro and right now I can see why. I had someone get me the story.” The woman replied. Dash’s face fell a little bit.

“Yeah… I was supposed to blow the competition out of the water, get everything all spiced up with the opening ceremony and really do something special for my turn, but all I could do was the ‘little twister’ and sit here and watch everyone else…” Dash explained. She sighed, but immediately shot back up with a grin.

“But hey, the fact that you’re even talking to me right now is probably the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me!” She beamed. Spitfire laughed.

“I like you, Kid. If you’re this happy about me being here then you probably already know my stake in this tournament. I’ve personally trained all of the current Wonderbolts, and they have spirit. But after all these years I was starting to get a little bored of it, almost put up the suit once or twice.” Spitfire started, reclining and crossing a leg. Dash was enraptured already.

“What?! Pff, naw! You can’t put up the suit, you’re still the best flier in Equestria!” Dash retorted, to which Spitfire laughed.

“People keep telling me that. I used to think so, but now I’m not so sure. I mean yeah, I can fly fast and do fancy things in the air, but it’s all just a performance. The wonderbolts needed some new blood, and I realized that if I’m going to keep in the business then I need something with spirit. More spirit than I knew what to do with. I was hoping to find it here. If the story I was told is true, I think you’ve got what it takes to make me love flying again.” The Wonderbolt continued. Dash just kinda froze. Her face registered surprise, then astonishment, then joy, then a mixture of all three. But then there was a tint of something else as she kinda looked at the ground.

“It’s ok, I know the Princess asked you to say that… You can’t even see me fly at my best, you couldn’t really judge my spirit or my flying ability yet…” Dash started softly. She looked up, though, and her face was filled with determination. “But I’ll be damned if next time I don’t make true of that promise to blow the competition out of the water!” She finished. Spitfire was a little taken aback by the first part, but grinned wide as the girl finished.

“Ok kid. For starters, I think hell yeah I found a girl with spirit. But seriously, even if Princess Celestia asked me to take you under my wing I wouldn’t have done it. A Mentor and their student is supposed to be special, something that means a lot. I would refuse on the base that if it was not my choice, I couldn’t put up my end of that bargain. And seriously, you DROP KICKED an URSA MAJOR with enough speed to break the SOUND BARRIER. I’ve flown in the worst of hurricanes with the weather teams, but I wouldn’t have the guts to even go NEAR one of those things, and you did the equivalent of bitch slapping it to death. If that isn’t worth anything then I don’t want to live in this world anymore.” Spitfire went on. By the end she was almost as giddy as Dash was.

“After the show, you HAVE to tell me the whole story.” She finished, leaning back. Dash just looked really embarrassed at that. She never thought she’d see the day even just a Wonderbolt, let alone SPITFIRE, would be giddy like a fangirl about something she did.

“It was very impressive, she saved a few lives in doing so.” Chrysalis chimed in. Spitfire looked over and was surprised to see the Queen of the changelings sitting there with Celestia and Twilight.

“Really now? Double awesome then. Man, I have to wonder what I did to not only be invited to watch my show with not only Princess Celestia, but the queen of the changelings…” She said, a little humbled. Celestia giggled.

“Honestly I invited you here as a surprise to Rainbow Dash here, I suppose it was the right thing to do all things considered. Chrysalis is here to observe your flying techniques, I believe. Something about becoming better fliers?” Celestia replied. That sparked a long winded conversation about flying, and then changelings, and then just the going-ons of everything in general. It lasted throughout most of the event, off and on between the excitement, and before long they were wrapping up. Spitfire had excused herself to go back to her team to finish up with their last bit, but had promised to come see Rainbow Dash to get everything set up.

Almost the second the Wonderbolt had left, you would have thought Dash turned into Twilight for a second as she latched onto Celestia in a hug. She just as quickly backed off ,realising what she had done.

“Sorry! I’m just so thankful! This is the best day of my life!” The girl almost squealed. Celestia just laughed.

“Of course, I’ve come to call you and all of the other elements as friends alongside Twilight.” The Princess said.

“Now, unfortunately, we must get to Business. I believe Nel said she would take you back to the Hospital earlier, correct?” Celestia asked. Dash nodded. She wheeled herself out to the changeling that was indeed there. Celestia’s expression fell again with a heavy sigh as the last of the other VIPs filed out. She took a seat and looked at Twilight and Chrysalis.

“So, something was wrong earlier. I have my own thing I need to discuss, but I’d like to hear this first.” She requested. Chrysalis nodded and explained what she had explained to Twilight. It wasn’t a particular long explanation, but it felt like an eternity to watch Celestia’s expression show things like horror, or to see her seem like she was nearly on the verge of tears.

“Only your harvesters would be safe… you say?” Celestia finally asked, recomposing herself. Chrysalis nodded.

“Luckily… Twilight has the traits of a harvester and will also be safe from the degeneration… but not from the mental strain. I am afraid I must make a selfish request, to not sever her connection to the Hive until it becomes too dangerous…” Chrysalis replied. Celestia gave an almost frustrated sigh.

“Sorry… I’m just… I want this to happen about as much as you do… We were so close…” She said, the frustration turning to a bit of sadness before she once again recomposed herself. “I’ll leave that decision to the two of you… Until then, I will send people to begin research and experimentation. We may not exactly be experts on your kind, but we have some of the brightest minds in history thirsting for knowledge.” The Princess continued.

“This leads into my topic, though it is for different reasons now… I was going to request that Twilight stays with you whenever she could even after she recovers. She was heading the team that tasked themselves with figuring your kind out… I’ll return that research to you, Twilight, it should help the efforts. In the meantime, I want you to research the hive mind and see if you can find out anything helpful from that.” She continued, finishing with a nod to Twilight. Chrysalis was almost astonished. She was terrified that Celestia would immediately take Twilight away, put up safeguards and blockades or something. Prepare for another invasion. Chrysalis was actually planning on helping the princess do it.

“I… you… Why?” Chrysalis asked, still confused. Celestia was about to ask her what she meant, but she seemed to understand before she could get the words out.

“Why am I trying to help you? We’re allies, of course. Both politically and personally, you are a friend to Equestria and its people now. I do not want a second invasion to destroy the peace we’ve worked so hard for, and I don’t want this to turn into a violent cycle of peace and war. And I certainly don’t want to eradicate the Changelings.” Celestia explained. She took a deep breath, stopping there to avoid going too far into her thoughts. Chrysalis had a weak smile, though.

“I am glad I tried to amend things… My people will work with your people wholeheartedly. If the worst comes to pass, I will personally get your people out of harm’s way. That isn’t for a while now, though.” Chrysalis said, standing.

“I’ve stolen enough of your time now. Twilight, when you wish to return there will always be a place for you. I will make my last collection run through Equestria through the next week, but this will be the last so as not to accelerate the degeneration.” She continued. She took another deep breath. Twilight grabbed her hand, standing as well.

“I’ll see you in a few days, I’m due back soon anyways.” She said. Chrysalis smiled and squeezed the hand before leaving the VIP box. There was a long silence before Celestia stood and put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder.

“You’ll figure this out... “ She just said softly. Twilight nodded and they walked out together.