Accepting Change

by drFraud


CH 25 (the sister)

Chrysalis

 

“What do you mean ‘he’s missing’?” I hissed through grit teeth.

“He wasn’t at the standard meeting point, my Queen.” Bad news on top of bad news, “He wasn’t there the next day either, or the next after that.” The infiltrator swallowed hard, shaking at my presence.

“Are you insinuating he was captured?” I growled. One of my top infiltrators… captured? Impossible.

“It is a possibility, my Queen.” The infiltrator drone dared to make such suggestions and I roared with rage.

“Then find him!” I picked up the infiltrator and screeched in his face before tossing him to the side. I did not see where he landed, all that mattered is to find Mantis. He was looking for the traitor in Canterlot and if ponies have been diligent in their behavior he should have returned by now or at least sent a message.

Before I managed to sit down, my commander, Spine, cleared his throat. He did say that something happened, but I was still livid at this latest failure. He almost didn’t flinch when I turned to look at him.

“I am sorry, my Queen, but this needs to be addressed.”

“I will decide it’s import but speak.” I sat down on the throne and took a deep breath to calm myself down.

“We have found a cache of several bottles of love not far from the throne’s influence.” I could feel my head starting to pound, “We are assuming that the delivery has been made by the ponies based on the note that was left.”

“A note?” Curious. I waved my commander over with a hoof, massaging my temple with the other in order to stave off the headache.

My commander approached me with the note being held in his green magic, his black armor gleaming in the light streaming from the window behind the throne.

Taking the note, I read it and immediately felt my blood boil at the audacity.

‘We wish for peace between us,’ read the note.

I started laughing. It was a happy, gleeful laugh and I used my own hooves to clamp down my muzzle causing the other changelings in the room to raise their eyebrows and whisper to each other, while my heart hammered in my chest.

“Out!” I muttered between giggles, “Get, OUT!” I screamed with my magic sparking from my horn causing small bolts of electricity to spread. I still kept giggling. “And Spine make sure we catch the ponies next time!”

The room did not take long to empty out, with the laughter echoing and bouncing on the walls of the throne room.

It took several minutes for the laughter to subside, and every pang of pain from my wheezing lungs was terrifying. I haven’t lost control for such a long time, and I haven’t needed to push her down for so long…

There was no fight for control though. Pushing her down into the depths of our conscience took almost no effort, but I was still shaking after it was done.

But I still lost it.

For a moment I lost control of my body. For the first time in centuries, this wretched fool took the control of this body, and she has done it so easily. How? Why? When did I become so complacent that she could do it so effortlessly? So many questions.

The headache tripled in magnitude, and I spent the next five minutes screaming obscenities.

The ponies are having one success after another, new food is nearly impossible to acquire without drawing the eye of the populace, then one of my top infiltrators disappears, now this!

I need to be careful. There is still a fight in her… I should find someling to punish. That always works on her.

 

Patchwork

 

 I was looking at Velvet as she was studying. We were spending some time together by hanging out in the park, lying on a clear patch of grass Vel made in the snow, me going over some of the things from my class, and she from hers. There was a heating crystal between us making the whole thing rather cozy.

Ever since I revealed myself to her things have gotten better for us. Sure, it is sometimes annoying when she makes requests but, overall, I was able to be my own self around her, and that made me feel more comfortable with her, and she with me.

Something that has been bothering me though is that Velvet keeps asking me to be myself even outside of her room or the academy room. She just doesn’t understand that it is a delicate situation at the moment and I have been thinking about how to broach the subject over the week.

Another thing that has been bothering me is the lack of updates from Mantis about his sister.

Celestia keeps saying that everything is under control, but I am starting to suspect that things are being kept from me on purpose. I did not like it.

Velvet was looking at me, I probably zoned out.

“Yes, love?” I asked.

She just smiled a large toothy smile and shook her head, going back to her book. Reading her emotions, I got nothing worrisome or that needed my attention, so I got back to my thinking.

Her reaction to my story wasn’t what I expected as well, so that was also on my mind for the last week.

I expected some fear, Tartarus, she was more afraid of the transformation than myself, and her lack of reaction was unnerving.

Night Light barely reacted the first time… Maybe I’m just overreacting with these ponies.’

“I still don’t get why you have to be transformed at all times.” I heard Vel say, and I rolled my eyes.

“Like I told you, the current situation between changelings and ponies is tumultuous at best,” I flipped to the next page of ‘Rules and Regulations’.

“It isn’t fair towards you, you know?” She crossed her forelegs in front of her.

“A lotta things ain’t fair, but we got to grit and bear it.”

“I know,” she sighed and I frowned.

“Excuse me, Night Front, sir.”

Both I and Velvet raised our heads and looked around. Next to us was a guard pony and a unicorn stallion I recognized as Parchment, Celestia’s aide. “Princess Celestia requested your presence as soon as you are able.”

I nodded my head and got up, with Velvet following after me. Putting my books into my saddlebags I took a deep breath and turned toward her.

“Vel, I’m going with Parchment to see what is going on, when I get back, I want the two of us to talk about the whole changeling thing. Is that okay?”

“What, no, I’m coming with.” She protested.

I opened my mouth to deny her, but Parchment stepped in, “The Princess never said that you need to come alone, sir. Lady Velvet may join us, provided that she remembers that this is a matter of state, if she cannot keep such information a secret I would suggest, Lady Velvet, that you wait for our return.”

“I can keep a secret,” she nodded with a frown on her face.

I wanted to argue, but I knew that that was a lost cause. She made up her mind.

It took a while to get from one plate of Canterlot city to the other, but that gave me plenty of time to think about various things. Velvet was also quiet, and her emotions now read a mess of things, but there was still love, and plenty of it pointed at me.

Looking around us I took stock of other ponies and creatures milling around and enjoying their day. Occasionally a snowball would make it's way close to us, but all that got was a giggle or a chuckle respectively as we watched foals play under the watchful eyes of their parents.

I wanted to join in and have occasionally thrown a snowball when I thought no one was looking, but Velvet had this happy and pleased smile on her muzzle whenever I looked at her. Just an outpouring of love.

Finally arriving at the castle, I was getting a little chilly as has Velvet if her lightly shivering body under my wing was any indication. We haven’t prepared ourselves for this kind of trip so now we were suffering consequences.

Velvet gasped loudly as we drew closer to the gates and cold slowly got replaced with excitement.

Into the building and down several corridors we ended up in front of a similar room as last time for entertaining dignitaries. With a loud knock from Parchment, we entered.

“Your Highness, I have retrieved him and a plus one, if you don’t mind.”

“I do not, Parchment.” Celestia nodded her head and pulled him aside for a quiet chat.

“That’s him, just like I told you Dicty.” Mantis pointed a hoof at me.

“I see him, but I don’t see what’s so special about him,” commented a changeling mare next to him.

Dicty for all intents and purposes was just another changeling drone, but what stood out was her completely healthy carapace and dark-red elytra on her back. She had no scars from the holes either, unlike her brother who still had some scars visible, but those would go away after one more molt. Also, compared to her brother she was a bit larger.

Pulling my wing away from Velvet, who tasted a bit of fear I approached the mare transforming into myself in between steps. The closer I got to her the more her eyebrows hiked up, and the moment she saw how I looked as a changeling her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped.

“Name’s Patchwork, a pleasure to meet you, Miss Dicty.” I extended my claw for a shake.

“The pleasure is mine,” She spoke but she still had a bewildered look on her face. She turned to her brother with a scowl, “Why didn’t you tell me that he is an incomplete royal?”

“I’m a what now?” I asked, lowering my foreleg as her brother shrugged in my direction causing Dicty to facehoof.

“An incomplete royal is a changeling that is on the cusp of royalty, a changeling prince if you will.” Added Dicty after removing her hoof from her face.

“He’s a prince?” Whispered Vel behind me with an awed tone. I turned to look at her, and then back to Dicty.

“He isn’t a prince yet, pony. As I said, he is on the edge of becoming one.”

“And that explains quite a few things.” Celestia approached us and I saw Parchment quietly make his leave.

“What do you mean?”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Mantis suddenly got between us, then turned to Dicty, “Sister, I have been curious about your knowledge for a while now, how do you know he’s a royal? How do you know these things in the first place?”

“Does it matter?” Dicty shrugged.

There was a quiet knock on the door and Velvet went to open it. I saw her talk to somepony and then bring in a large tray in her magic. Turning my head back to Dicty and Mantis my ear twitched in Velvet's direction. The smell of sweets soon reached me.

“Yes it does,” Nodded Mantis and I silently agreed with him, “We need to know if this information is viable if we are to go on this ludicrous mission in the first place.”

I turned around the room looking for Velvet only to spot her and Celestia silently sipping on some tea. On the small table in the center of the room was a large tray of various sweets and a large pot that was still steaming. I walked over, nuzzled Vel, which she eagerly returned, and then grabbed a cup of tea for myself only to decide against it after the first sip. Dark teas aren’t my thing. I decided to go for the cake.

“It would be good to know that the information you possess did come from a viable source.” Celestia piped up.

Dicty sighed before going to a pair of saddlebags that were near one of the windows of the room.

“Chrysalis wasn’t always a paranoid tyrant, and while there aren’t many things written down about our kind there are a few things worth noting if you know where to look.” She opened up the saddlebags and grabbed a thick notebook that looked like it was scribbled on from end to end, “More specifically, if you know how to break in and copy various notes the lunatic keeps hidden in her vault. There are also other ways to know whether someling is a royal or not.” She looked at her brother pointedly.

“By the Queen, you stole from her vault,” whispered Mantis just loud enough for us to hear.

“I didn’t steal, I copied as much as I could. I couldn’t get everything in the first place, but I got most of her old diary as well as the diary of the first changeling prince, Endo. Not to mention all the digging I did while talking to older ‘lings.”

“Changelings had a prince?” I asked between bites of the cake.

“Emphasis on had,” Dicty approached Celestia and gave her the notes. Celestia took the notes and immediately began reading them. “The last entry of the late prince states that he was going to confront Chrysalis over her change in behavior. It is my firm belief that she killed him to prevent anyling from challenging the throne in the first place.”

“So how do you go from an incomplete prince to an actual one?” Asked Velvet from the side. We all turned to her making her squeak and try to make herself look as small as possible. I smiled and approached her running my claws through her mane.

“Hmm, there isn’t much written down about it for the most part.” Dicty approached Celestia and with a ‘please’ took the notes from her. Flipping through the pages for a few seconds she cleared her throat. “Day one hundred and four, Endo’s birth took far more out of our love stores that I would have liked, but my firstborn is finally ready to take the mantle. He is the first prince of our kind, and he will lead my children with wisdom and kindness. I truly hope the rest of my children accept him as he is as different from them as I am.” She closed the notes and gave them back to Celestia who put them on the table far from the crumbs and tea.

“It could be that the ritual is fairly simple,” Celestia had a thoughtful look on her muzzle, “We need a large amount of love and a unique individual on par with an alicorn.” This caused Mantis and Dicty to look at me and I started sweating.

“Must I?” I asked.

“Well, noling is forcing you, but you will probably become a full royal eventually, and if Chrysalis finds you she will see you as a challenger and, well, you will probably end up as Endo.” Dicty used a sledgehammer to smash my hopes about avoiding this whole scenario. I wanted to help the changelings, but if it would lead to me being in charge… I’m not ready for it.

“So, you either do it yourself and have the element of surprise or you will get to it eventually and the mad Queen will have your chitin… no pressure.” Added Mantis.

I gave it a good thought. What Mantis said has some truth to it, either I do it, or someone does it for me. Not literally in this case.

I looked at Velvet who would get dragged into this mess if I don’t act and made my decision. Looking at Celestia, then at Mantis and Dicty I nodded my head.