//------------------------------// // CH 48 (hiding, or lost) // Story: Accepting Change // by drFraud //------------------------------// Patchwork   Flying through the air above the changeling town, without a clear target and a passenger, allowed me to see something that caused my already elevated worries to spike even further; changelings, wherever I looked, worked with an almost fever pitch. There were plenty of lings that relaxed, but it became obvious that the entire town will look completely different by the end of the week. “Where are they getting the resources for this,” I wondered out loud, “why is she… who is even ordering them around like this?” Shaking my head and accepting that I won't be getting any answers until I find Chrysalis I continued my flight. I had no idea where she was, but flying without anyone or anything allowed me to set my thoughts straight. I couldn’t just start pointing claws at her, she just got her body and freedom back less than a week ago, but I also had to accept the fact that no ordinary amount of work like this could be done in just three days without working changelings to the bone. At least that was my understanding of it. The pod situation had to be dealt with though. Stopping to look around myself, I decided to quickly survey the area and the clouds of lings that were buzzing by me every once in a while. They didn’t look tired or bothered… some of them seemed to be even chatting happily amongst each other. Looking around, it looked like they enjoyed the work if their tails, lazily waging left to right, were any indication. ‘Was I doing something wrong when I tried to lead them?’ I scratched my head, ‘I need some answers, pronto.’ Opening my senses I started looking for something, an indication of where Chryssy could be. With Husk it was easy, just look for a well of hatred, but now… ‘Note to self, find out what happened to Husk,’ I should have thought of that sooner. Eventually, I just decided to ask where the Queen was. … I wasn’t in a hurry, still mulling over my thoughts, as I was strolling through the changed sections of the castle. Interestingly enough, after the initial shock of seeing flowers in the Badlands (especially on a castle like this), I had to say… it wasn’t half bad. When I actually looked at the place and ignored the patches of flowers, it became obvious that Chrysalis had a decent idea of what she was doing. Although, I had to ask why she wanted her castle to look like an overgrown mountain. The grey walls looked almost white in contrast to some areas that were still black… or almost black. It took almost thirty minutes for me to find her and Keratin, but by then, I had to admit that walking through the changed areas certainly made me feel more relaxed and calm (fewer shadows to jump at). ‘Maybe that’s what Husk was going for; paranoia?’ One thing that did keep me frowning during the whole trip was that, while the castle looked peaceful, the air was practically vibrating with sounds of work, magic discharge, and changelings chatting. I had to even take a detour because entire sections were absolutely swarming with lings, and I was in no mood to talk with them. Hearing them talk amongst each other did convince me that I was doing something wrong, as Chrysalis, in three days no less, managed to move several thousand changelings like a fine-oiled machine without so much as breaking stride. But, when I finally stood in front of her (with Keratin sitting slightly behind her writing something on a piece of parchment), I could immediately tell that things were clearly not okay with her. “Keratin?” He gave me a quick bow, moving the parchment to the side, “How long has she been like this?” Chrysalis was standing, in the middle of the old throne room, and if I didn’t see her chest moving I could be easily convinced that she was a statue. There was no twitching of the ears or tail. No buzzing of wings, moving, clacking of claws out of boredom… her breathing was slow, shallow, and long like her body fell into a coma. What was even creepier was that her eyes were facing forward, open wide, and teary, like she hasn’t blinked in a while. Why no one was panicking over this behavior was beyond me, and the only reason I wasn’t trying to immediately snap her out of this was that Keratin, and a few lings that were coming and going from the room, didn’t so much as acknowledge her stillness. Like everything was perfectly alright. A few of them did give me a quick bow (something that was starting to worry me as well, especially since they weren’t very trusting towards me in the first place), which meant they at least noticed that I was there… My eyes weren’t deceiving me. “Oh?” He looked surprised like her unmoving form was something natural, “A couple of minutes, perhaps? She has been doing this for a while now.” ‘Hello headache my old friend,’ I pinched between my eyes in exasperation, “Doing what, and for how long, exactly?” “Ah, right, details… Well, after you left for your forced molt three days ago she started going still like this every few hours. The flesh menders…” ‘Doctors’ I had to remind myself. Shell and chitin were repaired, but the flesh (and everything else)  was mended. “… Assured me that she is very much awake and healthy just… lost. A light bump on her muzzle snaps her out of it,” he shrugged without a care and I could feel my head starting to buzz with new worries and ideas. At this point, I wanted to strangle the clueless idiots (I kept that to myself though). I had an urge to just snap Chrysalis out of it and get the whole reason I came here out of the way, but I had to hold myself back. I had some experience with comatose patients in my years of working as a nurse, but this situation was a bit different than what I faced before. Granted, I did hear (and read) about cases where people would shut themselves from the outside world to such a similar degree, but that was, well… Trauma is trauma at the end of the day, but I worked with humans back then, not with changelings. Slowly walking around Chrysalis’s still form I tried to take a quick stock of the state of her body, while I tried to find a solution. “She is breathing but not blinking,” I muttered to myself and I could see from the corner of my eyes that Keratin took a step back, giving me space, “her legs are locked but her ears are fully perked…” I continued muttering. Using my limited knowledge of horn cast magic I prodded gently at the still queen’s body trying to gauge her vital signs and comparing them to my own. I trusted the flesh menders when it came to healing a changeling, but something told me that they didn’t have much experience when it came to this kind of situation. Not that I was better, but I at least treated this situation with the gravitas it obviously needed. After I finished the fourth circle (I noticed that there was a bit of a crowd around me now of about twenty confused lings), I had to conclude that physically she was, well, healthy. Poking her magically got me no reaction, on the outside, but I could feel that her own magic poked at mine at first sharply only to settle a moment later and almost ‘relax’ into the prodding. ‘Awake and aware, just pulled back into her own mind… Possibly a side effect of being locked in for so long.’ “Keratin?” I spoke up without removing my eyes from Chrysalis. I circled from her side and sat down in front of her. “Sir?” “Could you, every time she does this, wake her up in continuously shorter intervals? Gently?” I raised my left claw and scratched the side of my head. “How short are we talking about here sir?” “Um…” With a quick glance to the side, I spotted a ling with her right hoof raised up, like a child in a school. I let her know that she was free to speak with a quick nod, but I kept most of my attention on the still queen in front of me. “They told us that she isn’t being hurt by this, so what’s the harm in letting her do it from time to time?” I frowned, “Ever heard of trauma?” I buzzed my wings, raising myself slightly up until I was on eye level with Chrysalis and close enough to her muzzle that I could see the fine hairs on her chitin. I gently blew air at her eyes hoping for a reaction and I could feel myself smirk when her eyes fluttered closed for a second. They opened slowly though, too slowly. “What would she have trauma off anyway?” Asked one of the lings, but, before I could comment a decent smack echoed around the throne room. Turning to see what happened I saw one of the lings rubbing the back of his head, while his neighbor looked livid. “Buzzing idiot, you saw Husk and how she tried to kill us all barely a week ago. Imagine you were trapped with a jailer like her,” That statement caused a wave of murmurs to spread amongst the crowd. ‘Did she tell them about her entrapment?’ I felt my ears twitch and curiosity bubble. “Sir?” I turned to Keratin, “The intervals?” ‘He seems more confident as well…’ I tilted my head to the side, ‘Why do I suddenly have the urge to buy him glasses?’ “Hm… How long do you let this go on for before you wake her?” Raising my claws I started poking and prodding at her ears. They twitched at every touch making me smirk again. I could feel a grin forming on my muzzle when I saw her start to frown. It was like watching a snail crawl around. The slowness of it was amusing. “Roughly thirty minutes,” I could feel my grin turn into a frown again. “Originally she stayed like that for over an hour before we managed to get her to snap out of it. The menders told us that there is a good chance that she wouldn’t ‘come out’ on her own.” I was still poking at her ears, but I wasn’t paying attention to Chrysalis at all, so I was very much surprised when I glanced at her and noted that she was looking at me, and with a wide evil grin on her muzzle. I was even more surprised when she grabbed me out of the air with lightning speed, pushed me to the ground, and then promptly sat on me. “Keratin?” She asked while I was trying to figure out just what the fuck just happened. I wiggled around, trying to squeeze out of my current position, but, while she didn’t outright sit on me with her full weight, she did shift a bit making it almost impossible to get out without considerable effort on my part. “Yes, my Queen?” I was facing the opposite direction from Keratin so I couldn’t see his face, but I could hear his grin. I could, however, clearly see the faces of those twenty-or-so lings that looked like they couldn’t decide whether to be shocked or laugh. “Please, tell me, how long have I been out before my son decided to annoy me?” I did my utmost to look dignified and threatening while being sat on, as I could see a few of the lings in front of me shake with restrained laughter. “Roughly ten minutes, my Queen,” I heard a soft click prompting me to twist my neck to the side so I could see where it came from. I was pleasantly surprised to see a silver pocket watch held in Keratin’s green magic, although the pain from my neck being in an awkward position didn’t allow me to look for long so I couldn’t tell any details. Returning my head to a more natural position, I looked up only to see a grinning changeling queen looking at me like a cat that caught the canary, “Could you get off of me?” “I’ll have to think about it?” She hummed thoughtfully, rubbing at her chin for emphasis, which only made my annoyance flare up. “In case you haven’t noticed, we have company,” I ground the last part out between my teeth, and I could see that some of the lings looking at the spectacle had the decency to look embarrassed. “Well,” I could hear her huff in her own exasperation, “maybe you should have thought about it when you decided to poke at me like a fascinating experiment.” “Because you were a fascinating experiment,” I muttered. She seemed to have heard me though as she sniffed haughtily and the weight on my back suddenly increased. I yelped from the sudden pressure and tried to scramble away from the kooky queen. “Get off ‘a me ya’ fat bug!” I grunted making her giggle. She let me struggle under her for another few seconds before she stood up allowing me to slip away. “Keratin, my dear,” she walked away while I tried to stretch my entire lower section, including the wings and elytra, “please poke me awake next time my son decides to pick at my ears.” “Of course, your highness,” he kept himself composed, but I could see his lips twitching upwards. I decided to make some ‘changes’ to his notes later as punishment. Glancing around between stretches I saw the crowd from before slowly dispersing, and with Chrysalis awake now was a good time as any to talk about the pods. “Chrysalis?” “Yes, my dear?” I had a feeling she wanted me to call her something else, but I didn’t want to feed that beast. “About those pods in the… town center… You aren’t planning on just tossing them out?” The sheer look of disgust alleviated at least some of the worries. “Toss them out? Absolutely not!” Keratin had to gall to smile and nod as if he wasn’t one of the changelings that didn't care about their condition, “But all of these poor creatures need to be returned back to their homes.” She turned around to leave but I jumped in front of her, “That, may not be the best plan.” I was surprised when she just stopped and sat down without complaints, “Please explain where my mistake is then.” Even Keratin looked gobsmacked. Taking a moment to compose myself, I started explaining. “Look,” I started pacing back and forth, her eyes following me the whole time, “most of these people have been in those pods for a long time now, right?” I looked at Keratin who nodded his head, “How do you think the podded people and their own would react if suddenly about fifty of them were returned… somewhere, hungry, thirsty, and weak?” “Wouldn’t that be a heavy drain on our resources?” Asked Keratin. It was a decent point if it was made about a week ago. “Resources that we probably have a lot more of now with her feeding the entire hive,” I pointed my snout at Chrysalis who frowned. “Not precisely…” She spoke up, but her voice wavered for a moment, like the realization of her decision just now hit her. Closing my eyes as a fresh headache started to form I turned to Chrysalis, “What’d you do?” “We are… were, using all the resources we can in order to rapidly make this whole place…” The longer she talked the quieter her voice became. I was honestly preparing for a long, detailed speech in order to convince her as the whole thing seemed too rash to me. It was astounding to watch her face as it started shifting through emotions, followed by her right claws clacking against the ground at a rapid pace. Seeing as she was distracted by her thoughts I turned to Keratin. “About waking her up from her ‘coma’; start with fifteen minutes, and every time you wake her up reduce the next waking by, say, one minute,” When her claws stopped clacking I turned to see that she froze all over again. With what Keratin told me, I was beginning to believe that there is some sort of trigger to this condition. “Is that really necessary, sir?” His words made me refocus on him, “It's obvious that she isn’t harming herself by doing this. I understand trauma may be a factor…” I sighed, “She has a body now, Keratin; a body she is in charge of. She needs to eat, sleep… all that good stuff, even if she needs to sleep once or twice a week her body will need it. I wouldn’t be surprised that even sleeping might be an issue for her right now, given that it might feel like she is locked away again.” “I… see,” He didn’t seem happy with it, but something told me he would listen and try to help. I would also have to look into getting one of the menders to talk to a pony doctor (if one came with White Light) and get a crash course in psychology and psychiatry perhaps. “Right now she needs us, Keratin,” I walked over to Chrysalis and raised a claw, ready to gently poke her on the snout. “Indulging her every whim may keep the actual scope of her trauma hidden until it's too late. We don’t need another Husk, even an opposite of her.” Poking her on the snout, I questioned at first why they found this to be the best place to prod in order to wake her up, but it was quickly drowned in amusement at watching her muzzle slowly scrunch up in annoyance. Just before annoyance changed into frustration she blinked rapidly and then glanced around her as if she only now became aware of where she is. She very much looked like someone who was jolted awake from a deep sleep. I was about to ask her if she is okay, but she just smiled at me and turned to Keratin who immediately tried to look more professional. Again, I pictured him with glasses. “Keratin, would you be a dear and get the other leaders to meet me at the town center? I am afraid I may have… overreacted. And please, ask doctor White Light if he is willing to forgive an old mare for her rashness.” “Yes, my Queen,” A quick bow of his head and Keratin was out of the room in a second with Chrysalis trailing behind him at a slow pace. I followed after her, deciding to do the respectful thing and stay slightly behind as she was, well, a Queen. She, however, surprised me by igniting her horn and pushing me to walk right next to her, and the symbolism wasn’t lost on me. “You are a prince, Patchwork. I am assuming Celestia taught you a few things about leading, but as far as I am concerned you are my equal in voice and actions. Do not put yourself beneath me,” Confirming my assumptions, all I could do was nod. “Also, while I do not expect my every whim to be catered, I would like SOME concessions here and there, until I… recover,” She added with a wink. ‘Why can't anyone just pretend to be deaf,’ I groaned but nodded my head regardless.