Celestia
“What’s got your tail in a knot, love?” I raised my head from my paperwork spotting my wife at the door to my private quarters.
“Have you spoken to the academy trainers?” I ignored her question opting to keep frowning at the parchments on the desk. Igniting my horn, I cast a few privacy spells on the door.
Shaking her head with a frown, Shield approached the desk, “Ye, I ‘ave. They will increase his training to account for the new strength. Now answer my question, hun.”
Sighing I fixed the mess on the desk with a burst of magic. Looking to my left the ‘to do’ pile was still too large for my liking, but in all honesty, even after centuries of ruling, I have never seen it empty.
“We need a plan to deal with Chrysalis.” I got up from the desk and threw myself on one of the nearby pillows; a yellow one.
“Isn’t that what you have been doing for the past month with Dicty? Scootch aside.” Shield laid down next to me making the pillow feel cramped… in a good way.
“We have been putting the pieces together, yes.” I huffed twisting my head so that I can place it on my wife’s back.
“And you said it would take a couple of months to set things up, right?”
“Yes, to scout out the best position for a trap, gather the necessary resources, train up Patchwork and prepare him for his prince duties and free up my time so I can be there when it happens, etc.”
“So, what’s the problem?”
“Patchwork does not wish to wait that long,” I snorted. Using my magic, I picked up the crown from my head and tossed it to the side on another pillow.
“Ah. So, you two have argued?” I couldn’t see it, but from the tone of her voice, she was frowning.
“It wasn’t much of an argument,” I rolled my eyes.
Shield was quiet for a few moments, “Do you want me to talk to him?”
“No need, my dear. With how much work is waiting for him, he won’t have much time to think about Chrysalis.” Freeing the wing that was stuck between me and my wife I hugged her with it.
“I just hope you are taking the colt's unpredictable nature into account,” Strike chuckled.
“There is nothing to take into account. If he gets it into his head to worry about Chrysalis again I will simply explain to him that these kinds of plans take time. He has listened to reason before, I do not see why he wouldn’t listen again.” I ran my nose through my wife’s mane nuzzling her in the process.
“Whatever you say, hun. I have a feeling this will blow up in your muzzle though.”
“It won’t.”
Mantis
“Do you think we should talk to him? He did leave in a huff.” I watched as Dicty took notes from a copy of Dr White Light’s report on Patchwork’s new body.
We were in a small room in the castle, with two beds that Princess Celestia graciously gave us while the whole Chrysalis/Patchwork situation is sorted out.
The room was very sparse, as per our request with only a singular desk sitting next to Dicty’s bed. She was currently hunched over it while I was lying on my side in my comfy bed.
“I don’t see why. Princess Celestia is right, a plan is being made and pieces are being put in place. All he needs is a bit of patience.” She didn’t even raise her head from the notebook.
Rolling over on my back I shifted a little to make myself more comfortable, “I kind of think we should have still told him about the plan.”
“It’s not much of a plan yet beyond the basics,” the scribbling has stopped and looking over I saw her rolling her head.
“We still should have told him. He is a big part of it, he should at least know we are not ignoring him.”
“You heard what the Princess told him; he has so much work waiting for him before he faces Chrysalis. He isn’t ready.”
“He isn’t a foal,” I frowned.
“Nopony… noling said that he is one, but he’s too impulsive. He just ascended; he is nowhere near ready yet to challenge Chrysalis.”
A knock on the door got us both to jump. I managed to recover first and after shouting ‘enter’ I rolled myself over on my stomach.
The door opened without so much as a squeak. Standing there is a light-blue pegasus mare in a maid outfit that gave a quick bow before turning to me “Mister Mantis, sir, Princess Celestia requested your presence.”
“Oh, what for?” I hopped off the bed and made my way to the door. I noticed Dicty shrugging from the corner of my eyes before ducking back to her notebook.
“I wasn’t told any specifics, only to bring you to her at your earliest convenience.”
“Okay then, lead the way miss.” I nodded my head, receiving a nod in return. Turning my head to my sister I was going to tell her that I’ll be back soon but I changed my mind. She wouldn’t care much for it in the first place.
Exiting the room, I sped up to catch up to the maid that waiting for me a bit further down the corridor.
…
After a few minutes of following the maid, we reached Celestia’s private quarters. After being announced and let in I entered an opulent room with lavishly decorated bookshelves.
I spotted Celestia slouched over a white desk with her sun emblazoned for all to see.
“Please take a seat, Mantis.” A blue pillow was placed in front of the desk and I sat down on it. “Just give me a moment please, I would like to finish this.” I nodded my head.
Only the scratching sound of the quill was heard and the occasional shuffling of parchments.
It took several minutes for the scratching to stop and Celestia’s sigh made me violently twitch from the suddenness of it, that’s how lost in thoughts I was.
“My apologies, that bit of parchmentwork needed taking care of.”
“It’s fine your Highness, I did not mind the wait.”
“Thank you,” Celestia smiled at me. “Now, as for the reason why you are here. This may sound as a… strange request, but I must insist on it.” Celestia got up from the desk and walked over to the lit fireplace and out of my eyesight. “I need you to spy on Patchwork.”
That got my ears to perk up and turn towards her with a raised eyebrow.
“Maybe spying is the wrong way of putting it,” She hummed to herself. “In either case, I need you to keep an eye on him. Discretely.”
For a moment I considered just nodding my head and getting on with my assignment, but this wasn’t Queen Chrysalis and I wasn’t the same changeling anymore.
“Why if I may ask?” I turned myself fully towards her but stayed on the pillow.
She spared a quick glance in my direction, “You may.” She did not provide anything else though.
“Um, why?”
Nodding her head, Celestia turned her head to me then back to the crackling fire, “After my argument with Patch, my wife made a point to tell me that if I don’t do something the situation will blow up in my muzzle.” Her shoulders slumped for a moment, “I do not wish for Patch to come to any harm, if it was up to me he would never face Chrysalis and would spend the rest of his new eternity living a happy and carefree life. But that is not to be.” She turned herself to me, “Patchwork is not like other ponies, he’s a bit unpredictable at times and I have a feeling that if he gets it into his head that he will try to challenge Chrysalis on his own. And I can’t have that,” She punctuated the statement with a firm stomp with her foreleg.
“You want me to make sure he doesn’t do that?”
“Yes,” Closing her eyes she nodded her head, “You will keep him occupied and a thestral guard already following him will notify me if he tries something foolish like leaving Canterlot on his own.” Opening her eyes, she focused on me.
“Would he even do something like that in the first place?” I tilted my head to the side.
“I do not know, and I do not wish to find out. In this case, I believe it is better to be safe than sorry.” Getting up and walking over to her desk again she sat down, “That is your assignment if you will have it.”
I gave it some thought. It’s true that Patch may be ill-prepared to challenge Chrysalis at this point in time but he also made a good point: the Queen will be looking for him. He is running out of time and while a few months may not be that much it’s still months of worry.
At the same time thought a plan is being made from what Dicty explained to me, and it will put Patch in a much more favourable position.
“Sure, I'm in.” I nodded my head and shrugged.
“Thank you,”
Spine
“Carrion,” entering the room that housed Chrysalis’s advisor, or vizir as she calls him, I spotted him hunched over the small resin desk. The old ling raised his head along with an eyebrow. He didn’t look that old at one hundred and twenty, but his time will be coming soon.
“Spine, what happened?” He asked in a gravelly voice.
“The Queen hasn’t shown up again. She is standing in the south main corridor and just muttering to herself.” I stomped my foreleg in frustration adding a buzz of my wings for good measure.
“Again,” He shook his head before using his magic to shuffle some parchments on his desk.
“What are we going to do, Carrion? She is either losing her mind or she has already lost it. We almost lost several litres of love just a few days ago because she entered the storage just oozing hatred. We need to do something.” I sat down hard.
“What can we do, Spine?” Carrion got up and limped around his desk stopping in front of me.
Carrion’s carapace was chipped and cracked in too many places to count, along with starvation holes that marred the bodies of every changeling for as long as we could remember. The only colour on his body is his very dark-yellow elytra which was almost invisible unless hit with the light.
There was very little light in the small sparse room in the first place. Only a single enchanted resin crystal on the desk provided any illumination in the room.
“There has to be something. The hive cannot function like this for long. Tartarus, if the ponies have not been providing us with love for the last couple of months we… I don’t even know what we would do.” My shoulders slumped under the weight of the situation. “Chrysalis practically gave up on leading this hive.”
“Our Queen has not given up on us,” He placed a hoof on my shoulder, “Just yesterday she gave me a set of orders in order to keep the hive running. She had led us and kept us fed for centuries and I doubt she will stop now just because she has things troubling her.”
“But…”
“How about this my young friend, I will talk to her tomorrow when she is in the mood and we will come to a better solution.” Carrion smiled at me and I felt my own lips tug into a small smile. “In the meantime, you are doing a fantastic job keeping us safe and sound.” He dropped the hoof and limped back to his desk. “I suggest we do not dawdle around too much though, especially since our queen is indisposed at the moment.”
I nodded my head and made to leave, “You will let me know if you found a solution?”
“You have my word, Spine.”
Nodding my head left the room. He was right, there was work to be done, and with Queen Chrysalis busy at the moment we need to step up and do our job. I hope a solution is found all the same though.
Carrion
I watched as the captain of our guard left the room, with his head just a little bit higher than when he came in.
Sighing I sat down slowly, making sure that my old legs did not give out on me. Using my magic, I forced some more light into the resin crystal making the room just a bit brighter.
“What can we do, my friend?” I muttered lifting the last entry of Chrysalis’s diary I found while trying to look for a solution to the queen's troubles. “What can we do?”