//------------------------------// // CH 30 (first bit of practice) // Story: Accepting Change // by drFraud //------------------------------// Patchwork   I was standing in a flat location behind Celestia’s castle that we designated as our sparring area. The entire location was cleared of anything that was valuable, and the walls of the castle were enchanted to withstand anything we could carelessly throw at it… or at least, what I would throw at it. Celestia seems far too capable to just miss like I will. Speaking of Celestia she was standing several meters away from me, going through some last-minute paperwork and I was starting to question this decision. With everything that was piled onto me already and all the new stuff that was added, I hardly had any time for Velvet, but it seems that her college was piling just as much work onto her as well. Hopefully, we will have more time in the future. Celestia magicked her paperwork away and started stretching her wings. “All right, Patchwork. The rules will be simple, for now, use only magic in whatever manner you see fit to attack me,” I quirked an eyebrow. “We will stop when you get tired.” “You aren’t going to defend yourself?” I questioned. “I will, but, and I mean no offense, I will try to measure my strength so I do not hurt you too badly.” I frowned at that but made no comment. Stretching my own body, I ignited my horn and prepared myself by widening my stance. I wasn’t overly confident in my magical ability as I have unfortunately neglected some of its study in lieu of mastering my shapeshifting. I could probably hold my own though. “Begin when ready, my dear.” Celestia lowered her head and ignited her own horn. I took a few seconds to ready up my strategy, and to mentally prepare myself. Celestia made no move to attack me though, which made me slightly nervous. Lowering my head, I charged my horn and fired a decently sized fireball, immediately after I prepared a shield in case she attacks me. The fireball splashed harmlessly against a briefly flickering shield and in the next moment I felt a slight tug on my left claw. Raising my claw and shaking the feeling off without looking, I fired two more fireballs one after another only to throw myself on the ground when a decently sized mana blast broke through my fireballs and sailed over my head, barely missing me. I followed up then with a blast of my own, jumping back on my hooves and to the side giving me another angle to fire from. My magic blast was easily deflected to the side into the ground creating a small gash, and with a swish of her horn, a golden string of magic was thrown my way. Jumping into the air to dodge the string I fired a focused beam of magic at its middle, cutting it in half, and following up by throwing several large icicles at Celestia, only to engage my wings when another string was shot in my direction, cutting the icicles in half, and hitting like a whip crack next to me. Focusing my magic, I gently pulled on her mane causing it to cover her eyes giving me an opportunity to fire two more magic blasts. I dived to the side firing several more magical blasts in the process groaning as they just splashed harmlessly against her shield. Moving her hair to the side, Celestia zeroed in on me without hesitation and her horn glowed brighter. Seven golden spheres of magic appeared above her head followed by a tinkle of a bell that summoned a large glowing phoenix that started circling the area. She cast several more spells in rapid succession creating a few more spheres of fire and ice in various locations and I gulped loudly, rapidly making plans and ideas only to throw it all away once the phoenix divebombed me. The fire bird opened its beak spitting out a fireball that I dodged by jumping into the air and engaging my wings. Whipping my head from left to right and focusing my magic I threw out a thin but fairly powerful beam of magic that cut the bird in half as well as clipped an icicle that flew at me from one of the spheres causing it to veer to the side. Dodging a few more blasts of magic as well as a few fireballs I left some spheres of magical fire that were slowly getting smaller while I tried to avoid getting hit. When the spheres were ready, now looking like baseball-sized pulsing balls of anger, I landed behind Celestia and created a shield protecting me. Using a decent chunk of my current mana, my horn glowed brightly with turquoise light and the spheres started flying under my control. Celestia turned her head towards me with a raised eyebrow and raised her own shield just in time to block a beam of concentrated fire magic that started firing at her from one of the spheres. My other spheres focused on Celestia’s own orbs easily dispatching them and focusing their firepower on her in hopes of taking her shield down. This was the most powerful magic attack I could use and after the dust settled from the constant attacks I groaned loudly. Celestia was now turned towards me but without so much as a crack on the shield. She then summoned spheres similar to mine, but much larger. With a loud thump, the spheres of fire were crushed to half their size immediately firing at me with powerful red beams that shredded the land around me whenever I managed to dodge. I was feverishly dodging her attacks, but I could feel myself getting tired and my concentration slipping which proved dangerous when a beam of magic managed to clip my leg causing me to spin out of control with the force of the impact. Bouncing off the ground and forcing me to use even more mana to keep my shell from breaking, I landed a decent distance from her. With my mana reserves now being fairly low and my left leg shaking from the impact I slowly started getting up only to give up halfway. “Three minutes. Not bad for your first time.” Celestia chirped happily passing by me as I slowly got up on my legs. “Could be worse I guess,” I raised the leg she struck and made sure that there was no damage on the chitin. I was happy to find out that there was no visible damage and a small application of magic removed the phantom tingle that was leftover. “Don’t think like that my dear, in the last three years you have barely ever practiced magic like this. You should be proud of yourself,” Celestia’s praise did feel good but I was still rather upset that I didn’t even manage to move her. “If you say so,” Shaking my head I raised my head suddenly finding a full bottle of love in front of me, held in golden magic. Grabbing it, I opened the bottle and started chugging. “We will take a small break and then we will continue,” Celestia disappeared in a flash and I was left behind, slowly emptying the love bottle. I was hoping to at least scratch her.   Spine Holding my head firmly in my hooves I tried to get rid of this splitting headache while massaging my temples. In front of me, on my desk were two things that made me want to just toss everything in the nearest fire pit. One set of scrolls was the copied diary of Queen Chrysalis, or at least as much as I could copy anyway. I have read the blasted thing several times top to bottom and a part of me was dearly hoping that what I have read was a joke. But I doubt it. When I first read it I wanted to confront Chrysalis about this, but something told me that it was a horrendous idea. Talking to Carrion was also impossible as he has all but vanished in the last couple of days. All I know is that he is up to something as a few items have been removed from the storage by him. I have left a note on his desk letting him know that I wish to talk to him, and I hope he reads it. He never had a reason to doubt me before so I hope things work out on that end. The second thing that gave me a headache is that some infiltrators have managed to find the ‘traitor’ that has been feeding info to ponies. An unknown changeling that has been going by the pony name of Night Front. I have sent an encoded message to Mantis hoping to get an answer from him, but something tells me that this is the ‘ling Chrysalis is looking for. She has gone behind my back and ordered a bunch of infiltrators to look into Night Front and report anything they find as soon as possible. I managed to talk to one of the infiltrators and got him to agree to tell me what he finds first, but so far, if what I have read is correct I should consider Chrysalis an enemy to changelings. ‘I need to start working on a plan…’ I shook my head violently dispersing the thought before I could even solidify it. If what I have read is correct and if what Mantis pointed out is true then something needs to be done to remove the parasite from the rightful Queen of the Hive. But what to do about it?   Carrion ‘I want to talk to you about something.’ Incinerating Spine’s note, I continued my hobbling through the halls of the ever-shifting castle trying to avoid as many patrols as possible. Either he knows about the Queen's secret or he’s fully loyal to her and wants to remove me silently. Frowning I ended up taking a different turn and made for Spine’s office. Opening my elytra, I pulled out a clear, perfectly cut crystal. Finding a small alcove, I held the crystal in front of me and focused my magic further imprinting the crystal with the necessary information from my memory along with a message. I couldn’t take the chances with Spine as he might try to stop me or kill me if he’s loyal. If he’s not loyal to her anymore then I need someling close to her that she won’t doubt. ‘Such a mess. I don’t know who to trust anymore.’ Pushing myself away from the alcove I put the crystal back under the elytra. ‘Maybe I should talk to Spine. But what if he’s with her? I haven’t even spoken to him in days.’ Closing in on his office I nodded to the guards in front of it. “Soldiers, would you know if your Captain is present in his office?” “No sir. The captain left his station an hour ago,” One of them confirmed. I nodded my head stiffly, “Well then, you don’t mind if I leave a message for him on his desk?” I took a step forward igniting my horn with the proper spell to open the wall. When they didn’t stop me I proceeded forward through the opening making a beeline to the desk. Writing a short, encoded note on one of the empty parchments I left it on the desk, and then, using my resin, I stuck the memory crystal under it, away from sight. Nodding my head, I made to leave but spotting a burnt-up piece of parchment under the desk I picked it up to investigate. The piece was tiny and according to the smell of burnt parchment it was recently burned, but there was a word left over with only half of it still legible. I froze when I recognized the horn writing. ‘So, he has read the diary.’ I incinerated the piece and made my way out of the office. ‘But if he hasn’t contacted me that means that he might not know that I have read it as well. Or he does know and that message of his was an attempt of reaching me.’ Stopping and turning around I made my decision and scrapped the current plan I had; namely detonating the throne and making it so that the ponies can reach us. The red explosive crystal under my elytra was itching but I needed to confirm this before I make a mistake. Chrysalis won't assume that Spine is not loyal, she hasn’t even questioned my loyalty yet, but with her paranoia growing it’s only a matter of time before she starts throwing blame, or worse. ‘We don’t have anyling strong enough to challenge her, but maybe with Spine, I can work on a better plan. If I can trust him.’