//------------------------------// // 2: A Small Talk // Story: Alicorn Changeling Princesses // by RDDash //------------------------------// Chrysalis has been ready for this, right now the only thing that left to do is to cross the doors of that dreadful castle. For once the architecture had been clashing with the rest of the buildings in this town, and secondly, it was also served as the towns library, the only library in the whole town. From her previous reports Chrysalis would remember changelings mentioning Golden Oaks Library at least it wouldn't be as awkward to intrude into the library then it would be in the castle. Chrysalis shrugged, since when would that stop her. “Remind me to break the horns of that imbecile Tirek, if he ever decides to escape that hellhole again,” She addressed her companion. The pink fluffy pony nodded her head and then sounded an audible queue signaling an agreement, “pffffrt.” Chrysalis sighed, “You can't speak Ponish, can’t you. A side effect of the fur ball stuck in your throat?” “Pffffrt,” once again the fluffy pony replied to her companion. “Alright Chrysalis you can do this, it's only a stupid superstition made by ponies to annoy you.” She made a very deep breath and then crossed the doors of the castle. She only been here once before and only briefly, and for the very specific purpose. Now though she planned to spend a little bit more time here, and once again with very specific purpose. Hopefully, she won't be throughout of the castle like she usually would be. Thankfully she found that the navigation through the twisted corridors a lot easier to handle simply because of the very pleasant signs that had been plastered everywhere. Public Library - turn right, Friendship map - straight ahead, and the private bedchambers - turn left. The last one was slightly weird but still acceptable, for plans of world domination. “Having a little trouble?” The very familiar voice of a pony caused Chrysalis to turn her attention 180 degrees, the very same pony who destroyed everything a few months ago. Or, perhaps gave her the greatest gift she could have given her, freedom. Chrysalis put the most pleasant smile she could, she was a guest here after all. “Not at all, I guess you just caught me in some deep thought,” she tried to laugh the awkwardness off. Starlight Glimmer put her head slightly sideways, “I see, did I met you before? You.look strangely familiar.” You have no actual idea how right you are. The quick thought crossed Chrysalis mind, she then just as quickly shook her head. “No, I don't think we are. I am just a new, how do you say it, living person in this town with such a lovely name.” “Resident,” Starlight quickly offered, “Oh now I remember, you are that one pony who saved CMC from the forest, about a few months ago.” “Something like that yes, I do have a soft spot for foals, you see. Would you like to come with me to the castle library?” A pink fluffy pony didn't want to be left out and therefore made a few audible noises in the protest, “pffrt- pfffffrr-pffrt” Chrysalis blinked a few times, “Oh of course, how can I forget about you.” “Pffrt,” pink fluffy was satisfied that her master didn't forget about her. Starlight was slightly puzzled by the pink fluffy. “Oh, I never met, uh, creatures like that. What exactly is that?” Chrysalis once again smiled, “I can assure you that this is, in fact, a pony,” A weaponized cuteness in the shape of a pony but scientifically speaking it was still a Pony. “I have met poor thing starved and exhausted in the wilds, for reasons unknown to me I decided to help it, I mean help her.” At the very last moment, Chrysalis quickly corrected herself. “You must have been lonely?” Starlight once again offered a helping hoof, the whole thing became slightly awkward. “Yes, that… can’t leave the poor dear behind you know?” The trio casually moved through the corridors until they ended up in the library. . Chrysalis stepped closer to the shelves and then looked around looking at the books, “Not many visitors today, eh?” “Not as popular as a Canterlot library that’s for sure,” For some reason Starlight blushed, still Chrysalis pretended like she didn't notice.  “You probably don’t know that but Ponyville used to have a library, but it was destroyed in an attack by the angry Centaur. And just recently Princess Twilight remembered that fact.” “Centaur, also known as Kentauros or sometimes Centaurus in Pony Latin,” Chrysalis whispered to herself, she then noticed that Starlight noticed her whispering. “I am very educated you see, at least I had to be. Centaurs are very prideful creatures you know.” “I suppose,” Starlight lowered her head. “I never got a chance to meet them, so I don't know.” “They had a very high sense of honor, takes forever to actually piss them off, but if that happens it usually for a reason.” Starlight shrugged off, “Some sort of brood between the ponies and his brother, that's all I know about it.” “Uh, that. I believe I heard about that, his brother was a gargoyle, yes?” Chrysalis could sense that Starlight did, in fact, know very little about. Starlight nodded her head in agreement, “As far as I am aware.” “Perhaps it gave him a sense of amusement to have a gargoyle as a pet,” Once again Chrysalis reserved to whispering, but just like last time Starlight overheard her once again. “Excuse me?” “Chrysalis blinked a few times, “Oh it's nothing, please just ignore the rumblings of the foolish mare. “I do sometimes tend to get carried away.” She made a small pause, ” Did you said that Princess Twilight just remembered that the Ponyville used to have a library?” “Yeah, why did you ask?” Starlight feeling slightly bored of standing grabbed the book and trotted next to the reading table. “You know it was kind of weird in a way. I mean the city used to have a library but then they just forgot about that.” Chrysalis remained standing where she was still facing the books, like if she was still undecided which one to pick. “Oh, right that! I simply thought it was odd that the Alicorns would forget anything at all. They kind of can't forget even if they wanted to. Comes with the perks of having a perfect memory.” Chrysalis mentally sighed, right now she simply couldn't continue this farce, at least she had to grab some book, after all, so she did. “The Smooze for dummies? The extracurricular study for eggheads. Written by Rainbow Dash, edited by  A.K. Yearling and published by Canterlot Press.” She was so surprised by the book title she accidentally said it out loud. “Yeah, that's her very first book. Actually, it’s started out as a joke. I remember Rainbow Dash said to Twilight, I bet you twenty bits that I will submit this book into publishing.” Starlight made a small chuckle. “Imagine everypony's surprise when her book actually ended up getting published.” “So what happened next?” Chrysalis turned the page to the first chapter titled Smooze in the wild, a hypersexualization of a slime. “Oh, nothing much, Twilight just gave in and Rainbow Dash continued to write books this time as a second-hoofed career. Oh, let's not talk about that, I believe you started talking something about Alicorn’s memories. Isn't it right?” Chrysalis nodded her head,“That’s right, I did do that, didn't I?” All of this time Chrysalis had still been in her disguise. At first, shape-shifting was just a very useful skill she had learned, then it just became the force of habit due to reasons she herself tried to convince off. it's will be better this way. The relationship that is built on lies. Doesn't matter anyway. Yes, I do believe I am somewhat knowledgeable in Alicorn's biology.” Starlight couldn't help it but she had been paying full attention to the odd stranger that in front of her. Well, two very odd strangers, Starlight wasn't really sure that the pony could speak a proper language. Perhaps she just made those vocal noises on purpose, and her companion just could easily understand ber. Starlight quickly realized that she never asked for any of their names, so in order to fix her mistake, she decided to fix it by doing just that. “This might sound a little bit strange but I don't really know your name.” Chrysalis nodded, perfectly understanding the issue. While her persona had been known in town for several months now, Starlight only met her today, perhaps by the pure chance of probability of one third. Of course, she is not going to tell Starlight her real name. Doing that would ruin everything in her plans to completely erase her original self from existence. Chrysalis remembered about the walking lie detector in the pony form, perhaps that's why she had been carefully avoiding interacting with the farm pony. “My name is Dixie Dolittle,” Chrysalis smiled politely. “I hope this would clear up this little misconception of ours.” “Sure,” Starlight nodded, quickly feeling satisfied with the answer. “And what hers?” “Fluffy!” The same hopefully warm and slightly nervous smile remained on Dixie's face. “Right, ” Starlight thought that maybe Fluffy was just a cute nickname or something like that. On second thought Starlight heard a lot of strange names. “I guess I...Um...Yeah.” Deciding to move on from the previous topic Dixie decided to say something else, “Perhaps is there anything else you would like to know from me...” Dixie was about to finish her train of thought but she was interrupted by Starlight shouting in near excitement, “Alicorns?” As if realizing what she just did Starlight quickly apologized for her rude behavior, “I am really sorry, I don't know what came over me. I just, I am sorry.” Dixie raised her hoof, “That's quite alright. Believe me, I understand.” “I just...” Starlight abruptly stopped talking in the middle of the sentence thinking that she over excitement had been triggered by the idea of learning about Twilight's subspecies. “Like I was saying,” Dixie made a dramatic pause for the effect. “Hm...Let me see if I remember this correctly, you might have noticed that Alicorn's are a bit more enduring than the rest of the pony tribes.” “Tribes?” Starlight couldn't help it but she felt slightly puzzled by Dixie choice of words. “Of course. As you aware there are three tribes that we all know and love, and I suppose there is an extra hidden Alicorn tribe,” Starlight could hear an excitement in Dixie's voice. “Hidden? I am not sure I understand,” Once again Starlight was understandably confused. “Yes, well kind of. There are some of them in the position of power like our dearest,” Dixie said the next word with a slight barely noticeable disdain, “Princesses. There are others though, many many others. Unlike somepony’s famous they simply prefer to stay hidden outside of the public view. But occasionally they might slip up when they think nopony is watching. Occasionally they are just referred as errors, but I assure you they are completely genuine.” “You don’t like them much do you?” “I can respect them,” Dixie admitted more to herself than to her conversation partner. “That I can do with one hundred percent certainty.” “I see, sorry it's just something that you said right now was completely bizarre,” Starlight made her eyes wander a bit for a few seconds. Her attention switched to Fluffy, to her book, and then right back at Dixie. “So like you are saying that there are others who simply living a regular mundane life?” “Exactly,” Dixie nodded her head in confirmation. “But wouldn’t they...aren’t they like,” Starlight wanted to say But aren't they like a Princesses or something? but be couldn't, instead, Starlight was slightly at loss of words. Dixie made a small sigh, “Some are born into it, some are not. Some want fame and fortune, some are not. Some are made into it, and some are not. Some are the Princesses, and some are not. Some are Queens and some are not. And, some just wish to have a normal life, and some do not. “My dear, the Princess dream is just a pipe dream in some cases it's more or less unrealistic and unachievable, and in some cases it's unwanted.” “But why?” Dixie closed her book. At this point she just dropped the pretense of reading it, perhaps later she would be interested in it, but not for now. “Lack of political connections I would assume. You have few options, several of which you might already know. Option one, you might have an exceptional magical talent and get noticed by the Princess Sunbutt. Option two, you are fortunate enough to be at a right time to be a friend of the personal student of the Princess.” Dixie blinked a few times, “I am not saying that the friendships of those six are not genuine, perhaps they genuinely believe in it. “Okay...” Starlight said listening, “but surely you must have believed in friendship at some point?” Dixie sighed, “For many years I've been trying to understand what exactly is the thing that the ponies call friendship. At first, I really tried to be an optimist, but then I adopted a more practical point of view. ”Uh, where was I?, Uh right, option three and it would seem to be the most common one Hormonal Unicorn Syndrome.” While Dixie has been talking Starlight stood up and then quickly teleported a teacup to herself, she didn't want to feel rude so she offered a spare one to Dixie, Dixie refused it. It came to no surprise when eventually Starlight spilled the drink. “Excuse me, a Hormonal Unicorn Syndrome?” Starlight asked. “Of course, happens more often than it should be. For example...” Dixie made a dramatic pause and at the same time, she looked at the Starlight as if to make a point. “Alright, alright I get it you are talking about me,” Starlight quickly pointed out. Dixie nodded her head, “Yeah, something like that. You know, it really hard to find a unicorn villain this day.” Starlight tried to find an example of the non-unicorn villain, “Well, what about that time when Rainbow Dash destroyed a Weather factory?” “That's an example of a vandalism, it just shows an example of how ponies with the right connections can get away with anything.” Starlight frowned, “you are not letting this go are you?” “Nope,” Dixie shook her head.”Do you still think that everything that I said about Alicorns is  made up?” Starlight wanted to say no, but still, she couldn't do so. “Uh, no. Sorry. I mean I do want to believe you and all that but it just too fantastical.” “It's perfectly fine,” Dixie shrugged off and then stood up as if she was prepared to go away, “Very well, I suppose it's been, how would you say that, a really nice small talk.” Starlight stood up as well, “You are very weird sometimes.” Dixie just cracked a small smile, it almost felt extremely unnatural as if she was trying really hard to do something unnatural to her own personality. It took nearly forever before she and Fluffy cleared off the castle territory. Currently, Chrysalis had been standing right next to hospital building. Originally she didn't plan her own destination, it just so happened to be that way. “Oh, I am so glad this is finally ended. I don't know how much longer I would have to pull the nice act.” “Well, at least you tried,” Fluffy tried to be to comfort her. “We don't really need an accident, do we? ” “Like what?” former queen of changelings and the extremely awkward resident of the small town Ponyville was slightly curious what would her companion say. “Like ponies running around with pitchforks and torches trying to chase the bug queen.” “Chrysalis just giggled at that, I would really like to see them try, besides all I had to do is to make myself disappear, or should I say made Dixie Dolittle disappear.” Meanwhile at the Castle of Friendship Starlight still couldn't think of the most awkward moment that was once was. The mare was slightly weird, even when she pointed it out Dixie only confirmed it. Her ears picked up the faint noise of hooves knocking on the crystal floor. She looked up to see who it was "Oh hi, Twilight!"