//------------------------------// // Steve Carter. // Story: Chrysalis' unexpected Life // by coto616 //------------------------------// --------------------------------- Steve Carter. An idea proposed by Moonlight_Mist --------------------------------- It had been a little over a month since the non-lethal battle between the two monarchs, Red Bug had noticed that Celestia was much more open to talking to her and had shown interest in how the guards were treating the changelings, and every time they mentioned it to the former princess she was uncomfortable to hear it, Much of the population even though they did not accept the changelings did not cause them problems either, they just did not want to get involved with a race that they knew stole their love to survive, that little thought was something that all the princesses and even Chrysalis overlooked, did the changelings try to get close to the ponies out of friendship or did they do it only to steal their love?, But some ponies were friendlier than the others and did not mind hugging some changeling when they were discouraged, slowly the two societies were getting along but there were still rough edges between the two, like the ponies who learned that they could abuse a cheap labor force and the changelings who did not know simple things like discretion, personal space or private property. But today was something special. Clear Spark was accompanied by Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, who was the one bringing him the bad news, the colt had had an argument with Diamond Tiara a couple of hours ago and he knew very well why the teacher had called him, he had had the same problem with the filly before and they thought they had got over it, but everything was pointing to the opposite, now he just wanted to get to school, tell his side of the story and go back to Sugarcube Corner to eat his muffins. Arriving at the school, the colt knocked on the door and a second later Cheerilee opened it, the teacher looking very upset. "Please come in Clear Spark, we've been waiting for you." Cheerilee said very coldly to the colt and closed the door after he entered without looking at or saying hello to the trio of fillies that were a bit further back. "We'll be waiting for you out here, Clear Spark." Sweetie Belle called, not knowing if the colt had heard her. Clear Spark swallowed saliva as he slowly walked over to one of the chairs in front of the teacher's desk where Chrysalis, Spoiled Rich and Diamond Tiara, who was just as nervous as the colt, were sitting, the filly seeing her classmate approaching and gently tapped the seat on her side so he could hear and know where to sit. "Did the teacher say why she wanted us here?" The colt asked, muttering to Diamond Tiara. "No, but we both know why the teacher called us here." The filly replied. "What did you say?" "That she didn't say anything, but..." The filly was about to tell her partner when the teacher interrupted her, clearing her throat to keep quiet and looking her straight in the face. Cheerilee sat in her chair, silent for a few seconds to calm down as she looked at the four figures in front of her, who looked away as none of them could claim ignorance of what had happened, literally the whole town knew about it and the teacher found it hard to keep her composure and not explode in shouts, but she had to if she was going to find a definitive solution. "I assume you all know why you're here." Cheerilee said. "Teacher, I don't think..." Spoiled Rich was interrupted by Cheerilee, who had raised a hoof for silence. "Please let me finish." She replied before taking a deep breath and continuing. "I thought we'd talked about this before and I was sure everypony understood and you two wouldn't be arguing or fighting any more, I know you two don't get along very well from day one and one of you being an earth pony has great resistance to a magical attack, but that doesn't justify you doing this to our beloved school!" Cheerilee shouted at the last part, pointing her hoof at the wall on her side. Or the teacher would if she had a wall on her side to point at, there was a huge hole in it caused by the fight, the little tables and chairs everywhere, some onlookers peeked through the gaping hole to see what had happened, but quickly moved away when they saw Cheerilee's furious look. "You know she-." Chrysalis tried to say as Cheerilee glared at her, telling her to shut up. "I don't care who started all this or why, I know you both are still young and sometimes have a hard time controlling your emotions, I know what I asked you to do was difficult and to talk to your parents about the constant fighting, so do you have anything to say for yourselves?" "Sorry teacher." The two little ones said in unison, lowering their heads in embarrassment. "Can you promise me that you will try harder in the future so that we can all live in harmony and have peaceful lessons in our beloved school, or at least in what is left of it?" "Yes, teacher." The two little ones replied. "I'm glad to hear that, I don't want to scold you but you two are the only ones who can end this conflict and you both have committed to end it, now if you will excuse me I need to talk to your parents, if you wish you can go to Pinkie so she can give you something delicious to eat and charge it to my account." "Thank you, teacher." The two foals replied happily before getting up from their seats and walking out the door where a small group of their classmates had gathered to wait for them and find out what had happened, Cheerilee felt a shiver run down her spine as the foals closed the door. Cheerilee cleared her throat and looked at the two mares before speaking. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" The teacher shouted. "You almost destroyed my school." "It's her fault." Chrysalis said, pointing her hoof at Spoiled Rich. "MY FAULT? I didn't send you to blow up half the town with a magical bolt." The mare replied. "Maybe I wouldn't have shot you if you hadn't tried to kill me by throwing an apple at my head while I was flying." The queen replied innocently. "Then don't throw banana peels in front of me when I'm walking in the market." Spoiled Rich replied angrily. "It's not my fault you slip because you can't see where you're going." "You threw a crate of banana peels IN MY FACE!" Spoiled Rich shouted angrily. "Think of it as an improvement to your hairstyle." "I'm going to..." "SILENCE!" Cheerilee shouted, interrupting Spoiled Rich, who was about to lunge at the queen and fell to the ground. "Since you girls destroyed the school, you two are going to fix it." "Ha, you can't be serious." Chrysalis replied with a gesture. "I am, neither of you two is leaving this place until you repair our beloved school." "Teacher, you know I have plenty of money, and we can make a generous donation to your school so you can repair it and even improve it, and... I'm sure Chrysalis with a lot of hard work can chip in a few coins." "I'm sorry to tell you both that won't work with me, you two need to learn a lesson." "You can't make us do that, we're not your students." "Karen is right, why do you think we would do that?." Cheerilee was silent thinking about her friend's words. "You are right, I have no way to force you but you must remember something, I work with a lot of infants, those are a lot of eyes and ears, they hear and see everything that goes on in Ponyville, and one can't help but hear gossip about their parents, because I'm sure you see or do things you don't want anyone else to know, right?" Cheerilee wanted to make it very clear that she would not let the destruction of her beloved school go and would take whatever action necessary to make the two responsible pay for everything they did, Chrysalis and Spoiled Rich knew Cheerilee, and they both knew that the Ponyville teacher could not be intimidated. "There are tools in the storage room behind the school and I know you'll find a way to get the materials to repair everything." Cheerilee got up from her seat and left the school heading for home thinking about what she did to deserve the destruction of her little school. -------------------------------------------------------------------- A few minutes later Chrysalis was picking up the papers from the floor and tidying up the chairs while Spoiled Rich repaired the wall, both of them silent and very upset about everything that had happened, completely sure that it was all the other's fault. "Hello?" Said a stallion poking his head through the colossal hole in the wall. Chrysalis and Spoiled Rich immediately turned their heads to see who it was, it was a pony they had never seen before, a chestnut-colored stallion with a silver tail, black eyes, and a Cutie Mark of a book, he was wearing a dark grey suit and a hat which kept his mane out of sight, from his he had the appearance of a reporter and the queen thought he was probably coming to interview her but she couldn't get carried away with assumptions. "Hello, how can we help you?". Spoiled Rich asked since he was closer, he looked at both mares and moved a little closer to the queen. "I would like to talk to you about my son." Said the stallion to Chrysalis. The queen thought for a second and quickly deduced what was going on. "Ohhhh, you must be the father of one of Cheerilee's students." Chrysalis and Spoiled Rich knew that the parents of some of the students traveled a lot for their jobs and so were not often seen in town, as in the case of Filthy Rich, or Silver Spoon's parents. "Sorry for the confusion but we are not teachers, we are just helping to repair the wall and tidy up the place a bit, but if you will allow us one of us can go get the teacher and bring her back in minutes." Spoiled Rich nodded his head at the queen's words, he was most likely a concerned parent to hear what had happened to the school. "I know neither of you are a teacher but let me be a little more clear, my name is Steve Carter, and I'd like to talk to you about my son, Clear Spark." The queen hearing that felt her heart stop for a second letting go of the broom that fell carelessly to the floor, she didn't know what to say, she didn't know what to think, she didn't know how to breathe, she never imagined having this conversation, she felt her temperature slowly dropping and she was beginning to see the world tilting when she felt a hoof holding her tightly from the shoulder preventing her from collapsing. "Go." Spoiled Rich said to the queen as she held her hoof over the queen's shoulder. "Wh..." Tried to say the queen looking at the mare at her side. "I don't like you but I'm a mother, and so are you, go talk to him, I'll fix this place up." She said with a smile trying to calm her down. "O-o-ok..." Replied the queen taking a deep breath before leaving the school and walking towards town accompanied by Steve Carter, Spoiled Rich did her part and picked up the broom from the floor to start sweeping. -------------------------------------------------------------------- There were very few ponies at that hour in Sugarcube Corner, only the usual customers who stop by in the afternoon for a quick bite to eat or for a cake to take home to their families, Pinkie greeted the queen and told her that the students had stocked up on a large number of cakes apparently all paid for by Cheerilee and were planning to hold a contest in the clubhouse, The hospital had already been notified and they were preparing a medical wing for the irremediable arrival of several foals with digestive problems, so there was nothing to worry about, only Cheerilee would have a substantial discount in her salary at the end of the month for the purchase of dozens of sweets. Karma strikes again . Chrysalis was much more serene and cool-headed sitting in front of the stallion who claimed to be the father of her child, she stared at him trying to understand everything that had happened but this was a unique opportunity, and being silent would not give her the answers she was looking for in the same way as asking the stallion in question, they both had a thousand things they wanted to ask but for a long time neither of them said a word, partly because they didn't know how to start the conversation or what the right questions were, after the fourth cup of coffee and half a dozen muffins that neither of them had touched, one of them decided to open his mouth first. "I assume you have a lot of questions that-." "Who are you and how did you find us?." Asked the queen interrupting the stallion. "Wow, looks like we're both tenser than we look." The stallion took off his hat and scratched his head before putting it back on. "As I told you before my name is Steve Carter and I am Clear Spark's biological father." The queen nodded her head. "I'm a freelance reporter for `The Wandering Pegasus` newspaper and because of my job I travel a lot, I like that, I'm not somepony who can stay in one place for long, I like to explore and learn new things and that's why this job suited me perfectly." " Go on." "As a freelance reporter I have a knack for finding traces and clues in print publications, and upon reading the news that the cruel queen of the changelings was on trial against a Canterlot mare, like every reporter I wanted to know more about it." "That doesn't explain how you found us, I remember we left explicit orders not to publish any personal information about, my son, or his birth mother." "I am a reporter and researching is my job, I reviewed the related articles from various written sources as well as the interviews of the other princesses, and thanks to that I was able to find out why the trial and where you and your son lived." The queen was a bit struck by the stallion's way of answering. "If any newspaper published personal information about us I would be grateful if you would tell me so that I can take the necessary measures, I don't want any reporters besieging us at the door of my house." "Don't worry about that, I assure you that nowhere did they publish any personal information, it was what they didn't publish that allowed me to find you and Clear Spark." "How?" "All the articles were about the same thing, you in a lawsuit against an unknown mare, nothing more than that, and my curiosity led me to investigate why so much secrecy, I know it wasn't about money or territory because most of that information is public, it wasn't about some armed conflict either since there was no troop movement all this time, I know it was not because you were attacked because it would be ridiculous for you to lose against an ordinary mare, and that led me to think that it must be something personal, when I investigated a little I discovered the name of the mare involved and with that I could only conclude, it was a lawsuit for the custody of my son, there was no other explanation for the lawsuit between the queen of the changelings and a mare of Canterlot. " "And how did you find us?" "After the trial was over you disappeared from the map and the news, and that seemed very strange to me since it would be easy to think of an army of reporters looking for you to interview you but... you were nowhere to be found, and that's how I found you." The queen listened patiently to the stallion's words and how the lack of information could give a lot more information than anyone would think. "You are a famous mother who wants to live quietly with a child who needs to go to school, you weren't living in your hive nor were you living in busy cities, so you needed a place that was small but had everything you needed to raise a child, sparsely populated but with the ability to connect to the rest of Equestria, that narrowed my options down to one place, Ponyville." "Did you tell any other reporters about where I live or why?" "No one knows I'm here, and if I may I'd also like to ask you a few questions." "Fair enough, but before we continue I have to make sure of one more thing." The queen could not refuse to answer questions to her son's biological father, if he really was. "How can I be sure that you are Clear Spark's father?, for all I know you may be a reporter who discovered me by luck and is making all this up to interview me." The queen was right, she could not take the word of a stallion appearing out of nowhere claiming to be the father of her child without being completely sure that he was, the stallion from his jacket pulled out some very old papers and held them out to the queen, she took them in her hooves and began to look them over. They were old birth certificates that showed the place and date of birth of Clear Spark, Petal Dance as the biological mother, and Steve Carter as the father. There were also clear notes about the foal's blindness but nothing about his hearing problem, but the queen knew that it was discovered much later, Chrysalis reviewed the papers carefully and could find no inconsistencies and the paper showed no signs of forgery, it was a lot of information that would require a lot of work to get just to lie and get an interview, so the queen decided to believe the stallion. But the whole scene seemed very strange to her, many questions needed to be answered, like why he appeared now and not when all this happened?, why Clear Spark never asked about his father?, and whether was there a reason why he could not come back?, the queen knew she would not get those answers with direct questions, but the stallion was right about one thing, sometimes the lack of information gives more information than a direct question, and she being an expert in deception could find the answers easily playing with the same rules that Steve Carter used to find them. "So what would you like to know?" Asked the queen handing the papers back to the stallion. "How is he?." "He is doing well, he still has a little trouble getting around Ponyville but everypony knows him and he is never really alone, at school he is doing excellent and he has lots of friends, he is much better than when he lived with his mother." Chrysalis said the last part with reassurance and satisfaction at the good life her son was having. "So bad was my son's life with Petal Dance?." Asked the stallion intrigued and with clear ignorance about how his son lived. "If I told you that she abandoned him to his fate in one of the most dangerous forests in Equestria, would you believe me?." The queen raised an eyebrow as she café watching the stallion's reaction, but he showed little concern for the queen's words, Clear Spark was not going to have a future with a neglectful mother and a completely absent father, Chrysalis was his only chance at having a life. "I never thought things would be this bad for my son, I used to send some money to his mother when I could but..." "Surely his mother spent it all on alcohol and speed dating, and you should know that a foal needs much more than money to live, he needs care, love, a home, someone to talk to and many more things that you being a parent should know and I shouldn't have to explain to you." The queen finished the idea but without hiding her annoyance at a second irresponsible father. "Because of my job I didn't have the means to give him the life he deserves, I travel too much and because of his condition he needs a stable place to live." The stallion was right about his special needs but the queen knew he was lying about why he couldn't offer them. " Whoever wants to, sows possibilities, and whoever doesn't, harvests excuses...or wasn't it?, I better ask my friend AppleJack, did you know she grew up without her parents? so did her little sister and her older brother, but they live with their grandmother, it amazes me what family can do when you put your mind to it." "What are you trying to imply?" "Clear Spark is indeed special but with a little effort you could have managed, just like a friend of mine who lives with her little sister, or another friend of my son's who lives with her aunts because her parents are scouts, there are always possibilities and I doubt very much that you couldn't think of a better option for your son than his mother." "I was absent when Petal Dance was expecting." The stallion sounded very sure of his answer as if he had repeated it many times before, possibly using that answer with other mares as well. "I understand what you are saying because of the job you have, it must be nice to be able to travel a lot and meet a lot of interesting places and ponies, I would love to do that but unfortunately I can't." There were really few beings in the world that have had more adventures than her, maybe Discord in the chaos dimension?, or Luna in the dream realm?, but Chrysalis thought that giving the stallion wings to talk more about himself would be a good way to get to know more about his personality. "It's amazing, I've seen amazing places and talked to unique beings, like for example a few days ago I was in..." The queen let the stallion tell his story without giving much interest to what he said but was attentive to how he spoke only hinting at small details to know the kind of stallions and mares Steve frequented with, and she could get a very clear idea of why he met Petal Dance. "And how did Clear Spark react when you told him about your adventures?". Was a simple indirect question to find out what kind of relationship he had with his son. "Unfortunately the few times I came to Canterlot he was always at school and I always had to leave before he returned." Another thing the queen was interested to know, a concerned parent's first thought would be to go see their child at school and not waste the day with a quick score. "And I suppose you have had quite a few adventures in your life, you are the queen of the changelings after all." "I've had a few adventures in my life, some good and some not so good, but I prefer the quiet of Ponyville, although you can't call this place quiet." "Many have told me the same about this colorful place, and you now live with somepony else?, are you married or do you have any suitors?" The queen found the question strange, it could simply be the natural curiosity of a reporter but it could also be something else and from the stallion's personality the queen was sure that question had other intentions, so she wanted to play along and find out where it led. "At the moment I have no one at my disposal, I've searched a bit but... I haven't found anything interesting." It was all a lie, she did have interest in some Ponyville stallions but they were already owned by somepony else, but among them all there was a professor that caught her attention a lot, but cross her hooves against Derpy?, nope, she had no desire to end up in a hospital, she had heard the stories about what happened to Twilight, Rarity, Amethyst, and Zecora, and the queen had no intentions of being the fifth victim of that pegasus. "Good to know, maybe one day we could get together to talk more privately." The stallion replied with a smile. Chrysalis thought she could go on interrogating Steve all day but she wouldn't get anything useful by doing so, she had already managed to form a picture of the stallion's personality quite complete and she didn't want to abuse Spoiled Rich's gentleness either, so she decided to speed up the talk. "So tell me, how did you meet Petal Dance." "I met her and a group of friends on one of my trips to Las Pegasus, then I tried to locate her and it was impossible, I managed to run into her in Canterlot a couple of months after our son was born, then our relationship has been casual." "And why did you abandon your child with her?" Frankly, she wasn't interested in the answer but needed to know his final reaction. "I wouldn't say I abandoned him, it's just that-." "Yes you did abandon him, you said so yourself or at least you expressed that with your words." The queen looked at the stallion in a cold and apathetic manner. "Why so much hostility towards me out of the blue?" Steve asked without understanding the queen's personality change, but Chrysalis already knew what she needed to know and wanted to end the conversation as soon as possible. "I don't want you to get close to my son, he has suffered too much in his life because of his birth mother and I don't want you now to come into his life exciting him with a bright future and empty promises to simply disappear a couple of months later, I won't allow that." Said the queen with a strict tone. "Why are you saying that I don't care about my son and that I'm just going to disappear?" Steve asked offended. "Because I am not stupid, you said it yourself and you also expressed it with your body language, if you cared about your son you would have shown up the first day when you knew the why of the trial and I assure you that with the paternity papers you have, you could have approached at any time to fight to be his legal guardian, but at that time you were also his legal guardian and the court would have given him to you without much trouble but you didn't do it, another thing you could have done was talk to his mother and she would have told you everything but you didn't do that either, you could have also talked to one of the princesses or some lawyer but you didn't do that either, and you only showed up now to make sure that I am a perfect excuse so you can say that Clear Spark is better off with me than with his mother or you. " "You can't be sure of that." Replied the stallion. "When is his birthday?" Asked the queen. "What?" Steve said not understanding the question. " When is Clear Spark's birthday." "But... what does that have to do with anything?" Replied the stallion somewhat confused. "Because that proves my point, you didn't even bother to read the papers you showed me and it just proves to me that you don't care about your son, you never did and I'm sure you never will, if you cared about him you would have read your own son's birth record and answered my question without hesitation, but that's okay, Clear Spark doesn't need someone like you in his life and like I told you I don't want you in it either." The queen finished drinking her coffee and rose from her seat, the stallion simply looked at her unable to say anything to refute her words, in a short time she had figured out why he had really come. "Thanks for the coffee but I don't want to owe you anything." Chrysalis left a couple of coins on the table and looked back at the stallion. "I decided to raise Clear Spark because I had the desire to do so and that is something you didn't show me during our whole conversation, now I must go back to repair my son's school and apologize to a mare, I know I shouldn't worry about seeing you again so I hope you have a good life and make better decisions in the future." The queen said goodbye to Pinkie who was behind the counter and walked out of Sugarcube Corner in the direction of the school. The queen had thought a few times about who would be the father of her son, but she never thought about meeting him or what she would do if she did, but now that she had done it she felt satisfied with the result, without proposing it she had tied a loose end and hoped never again to have to deal with problems of this type, but all this planted a seed of doubt in her head, it was not a legal problem since that was all solved at the end of the trial, it was something simpler and that would inevitably happen in the future. What would she do when her son asked about his father...