//------------------------------// // Cutie Mark Feeders! (Own Rev I) // Story: All I really need's a smile, smile, smile! // by Lightening_Zing //------------------------------// At the same moment when Pinkie was checking out state of her account, Chrysalis was cursing herself for listening her sister. She knew nothing good will came from this. She decided to do simple reconnaissance in Ponyville, made mental map for herself of city, and try to behave like normal pony. Simple scouting mission and training as Chrysalis was reassuring herself. Her problems began when she spotted this blasted mint colored unicorn with lyre as her cutie mark. Lyra Heartstrings was eating sandwich at restaurant with a friend, earth mare with curly two-colored mane and three candies as cutie mark. Lyra was one of few ponies kidnapped to make Invasion possible. When Chrysalis recognized her she tried to keep it cool and ignore her. Unfortunately this mare kept staring at Chrysalis who started to losing it. What if this unicorn recognized her somehow? What if Celestia's guards developed some kind of changeling seeker spell? What if she somehow screwed up her disguise? What if... Chrysalis heartbeat went crazy. Chrysalis started to sweat and turned her pace up to pass this danger as fast is possible without raising suspicions. Her trot started to get shaky. Maybe a bit faster, maybe slow gallop... "Hey, you!" Lyra shouted, waving her hoof toward Charming Stories. She sounded rather happy... ...but in Chrysalis ears it was accusing tone, tone used to gather angry mob. She lost it, jumped up, and broke into fastest gallop possible. Her long legs allowed her to reach high speeds, and in her panicked state of mind, she powered them with magic. It was one of unique abilities of changelings, controlled internal magic. Changeling with usage of magic could became stronger, faster, sturdier, shorten reaction time, and other enhancements but it was quite magic expensive. When magic run dry, then next used source of power was undigested emotions, and then burning out body. This ability was only reason why changeling army was able to stop Griffin Kingdom raids. Griffins were stronger, could use some kinds of weather magic, had two agile hands and were able to fight bipedal. Even more, they used metal armors, barely pierceable with changelings fangs, swords, spears, bows, crossbows, all of them able to pierce through best armors of changelings. Statistically, for every killed griffin changelings lost two or three combatants. And it was getting worse and worse. Griffin army developed better tactics and weapons when changelings numbers were getting smaller and smaller and their technology was getting even worse. They were able to create some kind of organic armor, which was light and self-healing but it was giving very little protection against arrows and bolts. Griffin weapons were unusable for changelings, because changelings lacked claws to use them properly. Of course, changeling knew telekinesis. But to use sword with enough power to actually hurt you needed to use more power than to hit it effectively with magic-supported buck. It was basically nonviable action. To use crossbows or bows user needed very rare precision in multiple telekinesis, so in changeling army there were only few ranged soldiers. Only weapons what was barely usable without magic was spears, and heavy siege machinery, like ballista. All of this caused to creation new doctrine of fight in Swarm. It was named MAD. Mutual Assured Destruction. Wounded or doomed changeling was encouraged to burn out oneself magic and life power make oneself faster, stronger and more powerful by usage of internal magic. It was harsh strategy, but it worked. In beginnings of war this tactic was used very rarely, only when they were dead anyway, or decided to die with so many enemies possible, but nowadays it was common order. Stop enemy for all cost, use MAD. Now in Poyville one disguised Changeling Queen was very close to beat pony sprint record with usage of internal magic combustion. When she reached lake in the park, she stopped, exhausted. She looked around to made sure nopony is around, and when she was sure of her safeness, she collapsed on her side. She was breathing heavily, and keeping conscious with only hard will. She knew if she'll black out, her disguise will break down, and It would compromise her mission. Her mission... Her mission was to keep her subjects safe. Her Mother ordered young Chrysalis and Morpha that on her deathbed. Chrysalis tried, tried so hard. She recognized every danger, she saw every problem her country struggled with. Problem? Metamorphosis, her idea of peace talks with Equestria, hostile zebras tribes... It was dangerous, and Chrysalis was afraid it'll create only new enemy, and will compromise lives of few changeling scouts in Equestria and in zebras tribes. Solution? Exile her, and strip her of Queen title, call her traitor. Consequences? Changelings in Equestria broke down their mindlinks. Few riots in major hives across Swarm. Loss of public support. Griffin raids under cover of chaos. Loss of few hundreds citizens... Two broken hearts. Problem? Griffin Kingdoms. As always. New king and his advisers were planning new invasion. Solution? Assassination of said king and commanders. Mission carried without problems. Consequences? Outrage through Griffin Kingdoms. Many volunteers joining their army. New kings plans to vengeance through another invasion backed up with wide public support. Massive hunts on changelings agents. Another campaign lasting few years. Dozens thousands of her subjects dead, crippled or missing. Many crucial agents in Griffin Kingdoms dead. One of older Mothers Palace burned down with all eggs and changelings inside. Opinions in Swarm about new ruler mixed and radicalized. Problem? Suspicion of conspiracy in army. Solution? Send agents to investigate this and allow to kill traitors. Consequences? Few experienced commanders lost. Few killed by agents, more decided to prove their loyalty through suicide. Real conspiracy begins. Problem? Conspiracy. Solution? Kill them. Consequences? Loss of support in army. Riots. Assassination attempt on Queen. She could go like that forever. She tried. She really tried to do best for her country. But she couldn't. Everything she tried ended in bigger disaster. She should keep her subjects safe, but her actions only led to more deaths. She wished she could change that or go mad with power, become plainly evil Queen who should be killed by rightful mob. But no, something in her mind was still reminding that it was her responsibility to rule kingdom. To protect them. Oh, so often she wished that assassination attempt on her was successful. Her problems would end and probably her kingdom would go better without her... Oh, it would be so easy. No. One last try. Maybe Metamorphosis idea is right. Maybe it'll work out. Then, make her Queen again. And then Chrysalis will abdicate. And then, who knows... But for now she wanted to be alone and weep. About how bad Queen she is. About how much she was envious of ponies ability to eat fruits, vegetables, and other food. She hated them for that. She hated every other species for that. She hated that her species is, without sugarcoating, parasites. Maybe in older days, when mines were full of gems, and farms were able to support their growing numbers, maybe then they were something more. But now they were parasites, and she hated that. She hated that she needed to care for something she hated, more precisely, ponies, to get food. It was sick! But her sister told her that she don't care. She love her friends, they are loving her back, and they were feeding her by the way. She considered it a perfect situation. They were okay, she was okay, everypony was okay. Why should she complicate this? Why to hate them? Why to felt guilt? Why to hate yourself if you can't change yourself? Her advice was simple. Stop hating. Stop hating yourself, then stop hating others. Then love them and be loved. And don't feel bad about eating that love, as long you aren't hurting them. Even for Chrysalis it sounded solid... But she didn't know how she was supposed to change her mind. It was something where Pinkie was clueless. She said, "Silly, it's your mind. I'm not you, even if it would be funny at first, and boring at last... It's something you need to do by yourself." Chrysalis was deep in thoughts when she heard excited filly voice. It was obvious it belonged to some kind of tomboy. "Did you see how fast she run? Pony, she had to be fastest pony in Ponyville! ...except Rainbow Dash." She added after while with slight shame in her voice. "Scootaloo, we know." Second voice was more refined, trying to be "lady-like". "You kept talking about it for last five minutes." "I'm not sure if I could keep with her on my scooter. She was just like... cheetah!" Continued first excited voice. "What's cheetah?" Asked third voice. She had thick "farm" accent in her voice. "I don't know, she's making up words." Answered second voice. "I'm not!" First voice. "You do!" "I'm not!" "You do!" "Girls, stop it! Scootaloo, what's cheetah?" interrupted third voice. "It's the fastest cat in the world! And big one! It's faster than anything on the ground!" First voice answered. Her name had to be Scootaloo. "Are you a dictionary?" mocked second voice. Chrysalis knew they were closing to her but she was simply too exhausted to run again. She sat up. Worse, she was getting hungry. Maybe these fillies would pass by... "Hey, there she is!" ...so much for hopes, Chrysalis groaned. She looked at them. Orange pegasus with purple mane, yellow earth pony with red mane, and white unicorn with slightly pinkish and purple mane. All of them were still fillies. Good... And one of them was very excited. "Hey, you are this super fast mare!" exclaimed orange filly. "Maybe I am. What do you want?" answered Charming Stories, aka Chrysalis. She had bad habit hiding her insecurity behind rudeness. "I wanted to say that was cool! Running like that..." answered pegasus. She was slightly taken back with her excitement because of her harsh answer. Finally Chrysalis realized she was ruining opportunity; filly in front of her was impressed. 'It's positive feeling. Don't screw it up. You have their attention. You can try to make them to like you. ...no. To be liked by them. You remember what happened last time when you made someone love you. Okay... Just forget they are ponies. Try to be friendly. Forget you are changeling. Be real. You aren't imitating anyone. You are you... Okay.' "Sorry for my response... I'm just tired after this run." Chrysalis smiled apologetically. It may be not honest one but was good enough copy to fool fillies. "You are tall... And you have funny mane." Said unicorn. "Funny?" Asked Chrysalis using harsh tone of her voice. Did she made something wrong with her mane? Did she left her original mane? "I never saw anything like that. But I like it." unicorn smiled. Yes, she was interested. 'Good.' "Miss.... Ah'm sorry, Ah don't know your name yet... but what is this? Is this cutie mark? But one like Zecora's?" Earth pony pointed with her hoof at one of Charming Stories zebra tattoos. "My name is Charming Stories and it's tattoo. This one...." She wanted to explain meaning of said tattoo, but was interrupted by orange filly. "Tattoo?! Wow, like bad guys in books!" Okay, Chrysalis, keep it cool. She didn't mean it. She don't know who you are. And you aren't bad guy. Yeah... right.... You kidnapped Princess, threw her to abandoned caves, brainwashed few ponies, almost killed with emotion-exhausting spell captain of royal guard... My reasons were right, but methods, maybe not so... And why I'm talking about myself in second person?! "Little pony, I'm not evil." Charming Stories gave reserved smile. "It's mark of my journey. It reminds me where I have been." "Where you have been?" repeated unicorn with slight twist to side of her head. "Yes, filly. I'm travelling pony. It's zebra tattoos, this is griffin marks and this... Well, this is my cutie mark." "Travelling pony?! Like Daring Doo?!" squealed Scootaloo. ...Daring Doo?! Who the hell is Daring Doo?! Chrysalis started to panic again. Keep it safe, she reminded herself. Ask about her like you just simply forgotten. "Who is Daring Doo?" "She's awesome adventurer..." Started orange filly. So, Chrysalis just admitted she don't know some hero from Equestria. Great job, she thought, they had to know I'm not a pony now... "...and she's character from the book." Finished Apple Bloom. It was great relief for Chrysalis. "Well... maybe..." agreed pegasus with doubt in her voice. "I'm afraid I hadn't read that book, but you could say I'm some kind of adventurer. I'm searching for stories, legends and myths." "It's not so cool like Daring Doo. But you are still okay to me." "What's your names, fillies?" asked Charming Stories. She felt that they had positive feelings toward her... Well, only this earth pony had some doubts. Anyway, it's something to work with. "Apple Bloom!" "Sweetie Belle!" "Scootaloo! And we are..." Chrysalis noticed that they took gasp of air. She had bad feeling that they were about to call for help.... "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" Okay, that was not call for help but it made her deaf. "Cutie Mark... what...? she asked when she regained her hearing. "Cutie Mark Crusaders. We are tired of being blank flanks, so we are trying everything to make our cutie marks appear." explained Sweetie Belle. "What you cutie mark means Miss Charming Stories?" asked Apple Bloom. "My cutie mark makes me storyteller. I love to learn and share stories. That's why I decided to travel how far my hooves could carry me, and you can see I had been far from home." "But... You could just borrow the book from library..." expressed her doubts Sweetie Belle. "It's better to learn at source. And I'm sure I knew few stories which you couldn't find in books." Fillies looked at each other, and then sat on the ground. "Tell us one." they said as one. Chrysalis was at same time happy and angry. Happy - her interaction with these kids was going rather good. Angry - she wished she could regain some strength, take a few more moments for herself and way they ordered her... They are just kids, Chrysalis reminded herself, Was I so different from them when I was young?. "Well, young ones, I'll tell you story of first non-unicorn knight of Trotingham..."