//------------------------------// // 6- Chiron // Story: Changing Expectations // by KKSlider //------------------------------// Checking the journals had yielded no new additional information.  As far as Chrysalis could tell, this was a first. None of her offspring nor any from previous rulers had been fully sapient from hatching. Every single prince and princess only began talking and indeed cognitive functions greater than ‘feed’ and ‘regurgitate’ at the nymph stage of their lives. Chrysalis herself couldn’t recall any memories from when she was a larva, all those centuries ago. As she made her way back to her chambers, she considered the situation she found herself in. Since he was capable of learning now, she would teach him herself as well as feed him. Forming a close bond between them was, as she learned in the past, key.  These early weeks would be crucial for everything to go smoothly. I awoke to Chrysalis looming over me on the couch. I wanted to ask if she stared at me throughout the entire night but I had not figured out how to communicate my own sentences through the Weave. I was still limited to repeating information. ”Your lessons begin now.” What happened next would become the routine for the next three weeks: after waking me up, Queen Chrysalis fed me some of her personal stores of love. I later learned that this was extremely spoiling. The hive often suffered shortages of love, and all changelings except Chrysalis consumed diluted love. The pure-love diet mom had me on would accelerate my growth, apparently. I wasn’t exactly a pediatrician, and neither was bug-mom, but with a distinct lack of CPS, Changeling Protective Services, there was no one to oversee my health except mother dearest. Good thing she had literal centuries of being in charge of the health of the young. After feeding me the equivalent of a twelve course meal, Chrysalis would begin the lessons. For hours, until what I had guessed was mid-afternoon, she would drill concepts into my mind through speaking in the Weave. From mathematics, which I excelled at, to the history of Changelings, which I did not excel at. Strangely enough, my life as a human did not give me a headstart on memorizing a list of dead shapeshifting emotivore monarchs. Queen Canthari established the modern system of love harvesting. Queen Spheci rebuilt the main hive spire after a legendarily massive sandstorm tore away most of the outer layers of the hive. Queen Chrysalis presided over the greatest, longest-running near-starvation ration distribution system. That, I inferred from that context. Her actual lessons regarding herself were limited to the “50 reasons why Queen Chrysalis is awesome and why you owe your life to her” variety. Not that I didn’t pay lip service to the literal overlord of my new existence. I wasn’t that stupid. Changelings were not doing very well at the moment. Due to reasons Her Majesty couldn’t figure out, we were running out of food. Or rather, we ran out of food and are barely floating by with the current harvest of love coming from Equestria. Chrysalis briefly covered the changeling biology. Changelings subsisted on magic, and were optional omnivores. Eating other things could give us some sustenance, but it did not do more than stave off the side effects of starvation for a time. Emotions such as friendship, love, and sympathy were delicious. Emotions such as fear, anxiety, and anger tasted good and could be consumed like a fine wine, but like wine, they were not suitable for living on. We also had three stages of life: larva, nymph, adult drone. Changeling royalty caste members did not age, as it turned out. The lack of ability to ask original questions had caused me to shelve certain topics for later, such as why we didn’t try new methods of gaining food, or if Queen Chrysalis is nearly a millennia old, where are my siblings? If all changeling royalty did not age, how come I was the only prince I’ve seen so far? The lessons moved onto the world at large. Griffonstone. The land of griffons, a shadow of its former self. Apparently a string of weak kings brought it down straight down into the gutters. Never heard that one before. The Emberlands. The land of dragons, a completely decentralized, near-tribal nation. A land where might-makes-right, where internal feuds meant that the entire place was a conflict-strewn hellhole. The only fact that it still stands and hasn’t been conquered is because, ya know, dragons. Then there was our neighbor, Equestria. A massive, continent-spanning principality. Or rather, princesspality, as it was ruled by an immortal Princess Celestia. Equestria was home to the ponies: earth, pegasi, and unicorns. The ruler was a special case, a member of all three species at the same time. She was the big boogeyman to the changelings, and I think maybe Chrysalis doesn’t like her. It was at some point during the first thirty seven minute rant about Princess Celestia that I got the feeling that there was no love lost between them.  ‘Heh, love.’ Still, if Princess Celestia hated changelings, it would probably be best to guess she would not take kindly to my continued existence. Equestria was also our number one–and only– source of food, love. Changeling infiltrators siphoned it off unsuspecting ponies. This meant that everything combat and infiltration related was targeted towards the ponies. And advancing security and communication measures meant that our one source of sustenance was in danger. As it turns out, being a hyper-evolved species dedicated to one specific source of food meant that when our environment changed, we were in mortal danger. Wow. This is my shocked face. Princess Celestia was also reported to be responsible for the movement of the celestial bodies. With a name like that and an immortal lifespan, I chalked this up to a cult of personality spreading misinformation. The Changeling Hive was located roughly close to the center of the dry region known as the Badlands. To our north was the Duchy of Apple Loosa, ruled by Marquess Deep Pockets, part of the Totally-not-a-Kingdom of Equestria.  To our south, east, and west, was jungle. Ruled by the grand and majestic Count no one, who owes fealty to King nobody. Geography lessons turned into physics and Thaumaturgy. That really got me excited. No, not learning the changeling equivalent to Isaac Newton. Spells. Magic. The ability to change the fabric of reality to fit your wishes! Chrysalis stuck to the basics first, the concepts of mana, ley lines, the law of equivalent exchange (have I heard that before?), and the structure of spells. They were formulas, and more closer to chemical formulas than math formulas. It boiled down to channeling magic while envisioning concepts and their complex relationship with each other: the Strings of The Great Tapestry. But I wasn’t to learn how to cast yet, casting would have to wait until my Nymph stage. Finally, language lessons. I learned how to speak and write Equish as it was the Lingua Franca of this world. I also was being taught how to speak on my own in the Weave, but that was a difficult concept to grasp. Still, finally being able to communicate was useful. Once I started to get a good enough grasp on the language, the lessons slowly switched to verbal. Then, after all lessons were over, she would feed me more once again, and then I went to sleep. There were often quizzes and tests. All verbal, for the same reason there was no homework; paper was a valued commodity, and thus strictly used for the running of the hive. Even Queen Chrysalis, ruler of all the upholstery in the hive, obeyed this rule.  Everyday. For weeks. Any error had to be corrected immediately. Any failed test retaken and I “...had better get it right this time, dear Prince.” Slowly but surely, I was starting to become the target of her more aggressive side. I never saw hair nor hide– nor chitin?– of either Psocid or Lethocerus again. I had assumed they would watch over me when Chrysalis did her day job of being an overbearing ruler, but that never came to be.  I don’t think I ever saw any other changelings, apart from a royal guard occasionally interrupting to give Queen Chrysalis some important bit of news, causing her to put a lesson on hold to go deal with some goings-on in the hive. Her constant attention also meant that I couldn’t explore this wing, or even this room very much. The one time I tried doing something, that being pulling a book off the lowest shelf with my left hoof when she was out of the room, Chrysalis returned and put the book back using her magic and told me to not mess around. I had only just made out the title, Thermodynamics And Thaumaturgy, by Starswirl. Then came the second-strangest day of my new life. “High level casting spells, such as teleportation and transmutation are seldom mastered by any unicorn. And forget changeling drones, they haven’t a chance at grasping the higher concepts of thaumaturgy.” Queen Chrysalis was accentuating the magic lessons with knowledge from the Weave, to better teach Phasma Equish. After all, it was far more efficient for her little prince to learn two subjects at the same time. Phasma was nodding slowly. Very slowly. “Prince Phasma, you’d better be with me right now,” Chrysalis sternly chided and Phasma’s head shot up. “Yesh, mom!”  There was that annoying childish accent again. Chrysalis suspected it was due to the still-developing vocal chords and teeth. The fact that the larva could speak at all was a windfall she intended to make as much use of as possible but that did not excuse a lack of diligence. “Yes, mom,” Chrysalis corrected. “Now, the teleportation spell. As a prince, you will be expected to know this one. The core concept is the String of Location…” Phasma was nodding off again. ”Prince Phasmatodea.” That got his attention. ”If you continue to try to sleep through these lessons I am so generously giving you, then I will put you to work scrubbing my study clean. And I don’t care if you don’t have levitation yet. This room will be spotless.” “Sowwy, mom.”  “Sorry, mom.” For three weeks Chrysalis had- ‘Wait, three weeks? Could it be time already?’ “Very well. Since you have been working hard, I will give you this day off.” Chrysalis smiled. Either Prince Phasma was about to start his transition phase, or the day off will further endear him to Chrysalis. A win-win scenario for her! Chrysalis then left the room, closed the door behind her, and waited.