Carrion
“So that’s where we stand, huh? I knew a bit of it, but not this much.” Commented Spine after I summed up the entire situation for him. To be honest I was just glad he did not attack me as I feared.
“Yes, that is essentially our situation.” We were holed up in a small cave outside of the castle. The Queen will probably suspect us, but the last Spine saw her she was lost in her own mind again.
“So, you were just going to blow up the throne? What even gave you the idea that was a good plan in the first place?” Spine started pacing back and forth with his wings creating a weak buzz.
“I will admit, it is not my best idea, but… well… Let’s be honest up until today, I thought I was alone in this,” I shrugged slowly while making myself more comfortable. “What do we do now?”
Spine was still pacing, and I could see the gears in his head turn. My own head was full of ideas, but most of them were rather lacking.
“We need to confirm the suspicions first,” Spine spoke up and I looked at him, shocked he even suggested that.
“I think we have all the proof we already need, it’s unnecessary to put ourselves in danger like that.” I shook my head.
“I know, I know, but I still need to know that we are actually up against a parasite, or whatever is possessing the Queen.”
I shook my head, but I could see from his face that his mind was made up.
“How do you even suppose we do that in the first place? You know yourself that she does not react kindly to ‘lings sensing her in the first place.”
“With how distracted she is I doubt she would notice it anyway,” Spine shrugged and got up to leave.
“Wait!” I raised my voice, and Spine looked at me, “What if we, say, don’t confirm that Chrysalis is possessed?”
He had a thoughtful expression for a moment, then shrugged.
“Then we just assume that she has lost her mind. In either case, we need to do what is best for the hive, possessed or not, and right now, she isn’t the best for the hive.”
“You intend to challenge her?” I asked worriedly.
“What would that accomplish?” He turned to me, “I am a capable combatant, but I do not hold a candle to her in any capacity. However,” He looked up with a frown, “If the pieces I put together are correct, then there is an ascended changeling out there that could challenge her for us.”
This time I frowned, “So you intend to use this changeling?”
“Maybe. To be honest, we may be able to do something against her, but it will cost us heavily in both ling-power, and materials. And until I know what I’m dealing with and without the ascended, I do not wish to endanger our soldiers.” He turned around after that and left the cave.
Shaking my head, I slowly got up myself and made my way out. Spine was waiting for me at the entrance and my gut dropped for a moment, but he just snorted and made his way to the castle.
Chrysalis?
I was a bit mentally exhausted from constant attacks in the last couple of days, but my ‘barrier’ held true. That parasite gave me plenty of practice in getting it up to snuff over the centuries.
She was lost in her own little world again, and while I could get a sense of some of her thoughts I couldn’t risk being found out outside my fortress. Still, a little peep wouldn’t hurt.
Focusing myself I took a gander and spread my consciousness just a tiny bit, touching on the surface thoughts. I had to immediately pull my sense back at the overflow of hatred that radiated from them, but at least I knew what she was thinking about.
Battle plans. She was making large-scale battle plans and planting dormant hatred crystals around the castle in preparation for the battle that was inevitably going to happen. Whether it was going to be on her terms or not is a different matter altogether.
I frowned at the current crystal she was planting, and another swift excursion into her mind told me the location of a few of them, as well as that she was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice me… or if she did she did not care.
A wicked plan started hatching in my mind the moment I heard someling approaching. It would probably cause her to attack me the second she senses my activity, but I had to risk it.
Forcing myself into the driver seat I tilted my head slightly to the right, spotting Spine and Carrion out of the very corner of my eye. The parasite twitched slightly at the movement but did not react to my presence yet.
I could see the two lings whisper to one another, but it was quiet enough that I couldn’t hear it. I did feel their own senses gingerly touch mine and I just about jumped for joy at my first genuine contact in centuries. I almost giggled when their jaws hit the floor.
Frowning with new determination I threw myself at the task I have taken focusing a bit of magic on it.
Summoning a piece of parchment and an inked quill, I immediately started noting the locations of the hatred crystals as well as what the parasite was currently doing.
I could feel her slowly ‘waking up’ and after hastily writing down my own feelings towards the two ‘lings I dropped the parchment as close to them as I could.
Worried that it will draw the attention of the parasite I then focused my mind on my own attack and viciously twisted the magic she used into making the crystal. The small crystal detonated with a decent force shaking the parasite out of her stupor and I took that moment to hide into my own partition, reinforcing the ‘barrier’ with everything I had.
The attack was terrifying and I almost lost a piece of myself but I held true, and the elation that I felt when I noticed that the parchment was gone (along with the lings) made it all worth it.
Celestia
The door to my bedroom slammed shut with a loud ‘bang’ and my ears were twitching from the grumbling coming from my wife.
Looking over to make sure that she didn’t damage the door, I returned to my romance novel. The latest ‘Love and Joy’ came out yesterday and I managed to snag the very first copy, autographed of course.
“Anything happened in the academy?” I asked flipping to the next page causing me to gasp at the twist. ‘Miracle how could you?’
“I argued with Impulse Strike,” She growled out, slamming the bathroom door closed behind her.
I raised my head from the novel frowning. Shield doesn’t fire ponies without a reason; she is even less prone to slamming doors.
Getting up from my bed I made my way to the bathroom silently opening the door. Entering the bathroom, I spotted Shield next to the mirror vigorously rubbing her nose with a towel that was quickly becoming red.
“What happened?” I took the towel in my magic and tossed it to the side. Taking a new one and damping it, I gently turned my wife towards me with a wing tip and softly started cleaning her muzzle.
“I haven’t been to the academy in a while, did most of the work from here,” she fidgeted for a moment, “So I wanted to check up on a few things while I was there.”
“Mhm,” I tilted my head left then right checking for any damage and spotting a small cut on the right of her muzzle.
“Anyway, long story short, I found out that he has intercepted a letter from bug-colt to us, and apparently he really disagrees about Patch not training at the academy. And a few other things... Like trying to turn the professors against him,” she grumbled.
“How did you find out about the letter?” I magicked some magicless ointment from my alchemy drawer and gingerly applied a bit of it to the cut. Strike hissed but hasn’t moved.
“The ponies there came to talk to me the moment I came there, asking me questions… Honestly, I had to yell to them as well. Why didn’t they send me a report the moment he started this bucking crap?!” She slammed a hoof on the floor cracking the tiles and I immediately fixed it with some magic.
“What did they say about that?” I magicked the ointment away satisfied with my hoofwork.
“That the bucker told them that I know about it,” came some more growls.
“Sounds to me that he has been lying quite a bit,” I turned around and started walking out of the bathroom, with Shield following behind me.
“Yep.”
“So, you argued and then he attacked you?” I hopped back onto my bed, opening the book where I left off.
“Something like that,” Strike hopped up and squeezed herself under my wing.
“Mhm, and where is he now?”
“In the hospital,” Shield shrugged and I stopped reading.
“What?”
“Speaking of, I need ya ta fork over some bits.”
“Why?” I could feel my eyelid twitching.
“Let’s just say, ah made a new hole in tha academy.”
…
“A notice before termination?”
“Yes, Parchment, please deliver it to Impulse Strike in the Canterlot Primary,” I spoke without lifting my head from the parchmentwork.
Straight Parchment sighed, but picked up the scroll in his magic, “What has he done?”
“On top of illegally going through personal letters, he has been going around lying, discriminating against, and trying to remove a student from the academy without any proof other than the student not being a pony. And a few other things…” ‘Like going behind my back and spreading info he shouldn’t have,’ At least he hasn’t mentioned changelings yet.
“This is about lord Patch, isn’t it?”
I raised my head and an eyebrow at the ‘lord’ part, “It doesn’t matter who it is about, I built this country and its laws on equality of species, love, kindness, and tolerance. I will not let him cause such bigotry regardless of who the target is.”
“What about all the others that are going through the same thing?” Parchment turned around and made his way to the door.
“If you know some pony that is doing something like this, I would be very happy to deal with them. If there is proof of it.” I put another parchment into the ‘done’ pile.
“Very well, your Highness, I’ll keep that in mind,” The door closed and I sighed putting the quill down.
‘Can’t deal with everycreature, no matter how hard I try,’ I dragged my hooves down my muzzle in exasperation and twisted my neck from side to side stretching my sore muscles and getting a few satisfying pops.
A knock on the door made me twitch, “Yes?”
One of my guards (Standing Brace), entered the office with a crisp salute, “Ma’am, Mantis asks to speak to you. He says that it’s urgent and for your eyes only.”
Taking a parchment from the ‘to do’ pile I nodded my head and the door closed, opening a moment later.
Mantis entered without a disguise and looking at him I noted a few differences from when we first met.
He is a bit taller now, without any holes to speak of. His body had a healthy shine to it, and I noticed that he put on some bulk that fit him better than the scrawny appearance he had from starvation.
“Your Highness, I just got this and thought you should see it,” He used his magic to hoof me over a rolled-up, worn-looking scroll.
Unrolling it I took a moment to decipher the mess that was scrawled all over it, only to see that the message was decoded on the bottom by Mantis saving me the trouble.
~Mantis, Chrysalis has managed to find an ascended changeling among ponies and I think it’s connected to the last message you sent me.
I don’t know what she will do to them once she confirms it, but it cannot be good with all the muttering I managed to pick up from her. Mantis she has lost it, and I went through the diary you told me about. I can only hope that it is all a lie, but something tells me it’s not.
What is going on Mantis, I need something to work with. ~
“You sent them a message?” I was worried that he was spying on us.
“Yes, here is a copy of what I sent,” He gave me a second scroll and after a quick read I sighed. Looking at him I didn’t notice any dishonesty.
Giving him back the scroll I picked up an empty parchment and started writing a letter. Mantis just stood there waiting until I finished without moving a muscle. The letter was a quick summary of Patchwork and what the plan is without any significant detail.
“Is there any way for this to reach Spine without Chrysalis finding out?” I rolled up the scroll after making sure that the ink was dry.
“Yes Ma’am, if addressed to Spine with my seal there is no way that any ‘ling would read it.”
“Even Chrysalis?” I raised an eyebrow but gave him the scroll anyway.
“There isn’t a single message that goes to Chrysalis directly. Spine has to check it for security reasons,” He took the scroll and stuffed it under his open elytra closing it gingerly.
I frowned and opened my mouth but he intercepted me.
“Your Highness, I understand your worry, but I am one hundred percent certain that Spine will get the message without issues. I will even encode it just to be sure.”
Taking a deep breath I nodded my head, “Very well then, make it so.” Mantis gave me an equestrian salute, which surprised me, and turned around to leave. “Oh, Mantis.”
“Yes, Princess?” He stood at the door reaching with his magic to open it.
“Please don’t go behind my back with messages like this in the future. I understand that you trust this Spine, but you placed us all at significant risk with it. Please be more careful.” I crossed my hooves on the desk in front of me looking him directly in the eyes; he didn’t even flinch.
“Yes, Ma’am.” Nodding his head, he left my office and I went back to my work.