//------------------------------// // CH 54 (calling out) // Story: Accepting Change // by drFraud //------------------------------// Patchwork   Other than the occasional push with my wings the only thing that I let drag me down is gravity. Since I left Canterlot alone (Drop was asked to stay but I wasn’t told why) very early in the morning and pushed myself as soon as I cleared a fair distance from the city, my arrival time to the hive made sure to leave plenty of daylight to enjoy the ragged beauty of Badlands as I fell. Particularly when compared to the almost smooth edges of the new changeling castle along with the surrounding domes. For a brief moment I almost admitted to myself that the old look of the castle, with jagged sharp spires, actually fit the theme of the location better than the current one, but then again, perhaps this place looked different in the past… maybe. Lazily turning around in a corkscrew I levelled myself to the ground and began a more controlled flight with the steady buzz of my wings becoming louder as I cleared the higher-altitude winds. As apprehensive as I felt about coming back to this lair of trouble and headache I also couldn’t deny that a small amount of pride and joy easily took place next to my growing anxiety. The cocktail of emotions made for a strange feeling of both belonging and wanting to run away; something that I did not have much time to dwell on since busy work kept piling up. ‘I don’t see that many lings out and about,’ I squinted after enhancing my eyesight slightly, trying to see where the clouds of working lings disappeared to, ‘I would say that they finished their work, but I can still see at least one or two houses that could use a fix.’ I did not get any words from the ling communication plate before I left Canterlot so what is this? I did not mind them taking a break, not at all, they deserved it, but I barely see anyone out and about. I wouldn’t say ‘deserted’ but there is certainly a lack of activity a city of several thousand should have. Tilting my head left then right as I studied the just-about-fixed city, I almost failed to spot a small group of three changelings that flew towards me. Their faces did not look promising. “You!” The middle one pointed a hoof at me the moment they came close enough to talk, “The so-called changeling Prince,” my anxiety started bubbling into something else, “fix this!” He pointed at the castle and then flew away towards it before even… I wasn’t even given the time to ask what the fuck is going on. I wasn’t even the one that told them I was a prince, of any sort. Chrysalis… I sighed trying to push down the frustration and anger that started slowly squashing my patience, “What the fuck happened this time?” Pushing my wings a bit harder I swiftly caught up to the trio, passing them just as easily, and made my way to the main castle entrance, the ONLY entrance connected to the ground from what I knew. Much like the other new entrance/exit holes it is surrounded by a layer of green, which I managed to confirm are leaves, ranging from small ones (barely the size of my frog) to four larger ones that could easily hide me under them. The four massive green leaves were placed above the areas where I knew a guard would stand providing effective protection against the sun and rain… if this place ever got some of it to begin with. I landed just before entering the new castle proper but I wanted to ask a quick question to the three lings behind me. There were no guards at the front, something that really stood out as there were always four of them (two on each side) since I initially arrived here. “Where are the ponies?” I asked before they landed. Other than an occasional flash of elytra I saw no other colours outside. “We didn’t hurt them…” Oh… Great. “Not what I asked,” I turned my head to the speaker on the left, a she-ling with light orange elytra. The only one of the three that didn’t scowl at me and she visibly flinched when I focused on her. “Almost all of them are under strict surveillance in the tunnels, sir,” The ling on the right spoke and I had to turn my body a bit to see all three of them properly. His colours are what I would call ‘standard’. His scowl did not do anything for the negative emotions bubbling up, but his tone of voice was even and resolute. Other than the changeling in the middle, the other two did not look like I was the source of all trouble, which did help in keeping myself in check. Quickly glancing down at the ground just to remind myself of the large swaths of tunnels spreading through nearly the entire location (not all of them connected), I decided to bring up the ‘almost’ part of the sentence. “Almost?” No answer, “Look…” another sigh, and another attempt at keeping myself in check, “what happened to them.” “Hey,” the middle one snarled which made my claws itch, “we didn’t hurt them, and they are safe in the tunnels. Just go and fix the queen!” ‘Well, that’s one thing confirmed.’ The other two lings looked at the middle one (I noticed that his elytra is almost black when his wings buzzed) with slight fear and for a brief moment, I could feel sparks running through my chitin. “Free the ponies,” I barely managed to keep the anger from my voice. “But they…” The middle started to raise his voice, but fuck that at this point. “Did I fucking STUTTER!?” Fuck self-control. I turned around and made my way inside, past the large entrance. I never understood why this place didn’t have a gate of some sort. … ‘Where would she even be?’ I had a general feeling of ‘here’, but that was about it. I froze after the first corner was cleared though. ‘The void looks back at you, obviously,’ I snarked to myself looking at a wall, an actual wall, of changelings blocking the rest of the tunnel. Other than their heads almost nothing else is visible, their third eyelid closed and their faces expressionless, facing forward and nowhere else. They clung to the walls, one on top of the other in such a way that I probably wouldn’t be able to squeeze anything smaller than a pin between them. A wall of black with blue dots that didn’t so much as acknowledge me. Creepy, is the only thing that came to mind. “Fuck it, through the wall it is,” I muttered more to myself than anyone else as I stepped forward. I thought that they would try to bar my way forward in some way, but before I even got close enough to touch them several of them moved around creating an opening just large enough for my frame to pass. Their faces were still expressionless until I heard some shuffling behind me which got the entire front part of the ‘wall’ to tilt their heads to the same side and their left ear to twitch. ‘Fucking… I don’t care anymore,’ Squaring my shoulders I walked forward at a decent pace, into the darkness of chitin. ‘What could have caused this behaviour?’ I could feel myself calm down a bit as questions began rising up, ‘They were nowhere this protective when I fought Husk… Is it because they knew, deep down, that she wasn’t their queen?’ Questions upon questions. Not that the answers would have mattered right now; I did speed up slightly though. Wading through the sea of black chitin and colourful backs made me lose track of time easily (especially since any light barely managed to break through from the local light gems), but there is a bit of silver lining; the changelings knew where I needed to go. If I made a step in the wrong direction they wouldn’t open up a path until I made the right step with some gentle nudging by the surrounding ‘wall’. Their behaviour reminded me of bees. ‘Don’t they surround a queen if she is in danger? I know they do it during transport.’ Something to look into. Maybe I’ll ask a few of them later what their thoughts were at the time. Speeding up a bit more I got into an easy canter and spoke up to the mass, “Lead me to the Queen.” … ‘I really need to buy a watch at some point,’ I grumbled in my own head. I couldn’t run, as I would have smashed into other lings, but cantering gave me enough time to stew in my own turbulent thoughts. I tried to calm myself down, but, thinking about it now, since the attack on Velvet I barely slowed down. The academy that I had to quit in the end, continuous training with Celestia with additions from Shield Strike… ‘I didn’t even try to look for her for a chat at least,’ I smacked my forehead and groaned, feeling anger bubbling up again. One of the two ponies that became more important to me than she should have, much like Celestia. ‘And she is on borrowed time as it is,’ I growled. I felt my ears twitch as a male voice reached me. I wasn’t paying attention so I had a bit of difficulty making out what was said. “I told you that they won’t let us in,” I hear a familiar voice up ahead, challenging whoever was with her to say something against it. “I know Dicty, I just hoped we would be able to fix this,” Came another voice, but this one I did not recognise at all. But based on the emotions I felt at least I knew it was a pony. Frowning I stepped through the mass and into a small clearing in the corridor. Dicty along with a grey-coloured unicorn, with a pale-green mane, cut short and swept to the side and a longer tail, stood in front of ten changeling guards. I saw changelings wear armour before, but it was something that barely counted as such; sheets of smooth black metal segments protecting their head, neck, chest, and hooves, while keeping their elytra free for flight. It blended seamlessly into their colours so it was always difficult to tell if they had it on at first glance. I will have to test out its effectiveness at some point. This armour, however, while still black, was something I only saw a few times during the fight with Husk and only in passing. I never bothered going through my memories to look further into it, but now I think I should have. These ten changelings are large, a good half a head taller than an average ling at the least and I somehow recognised a few of them, even though almost all changelings looked the same. I did recognise Ponera immediately on the far left. The armour they wore was heavy, with massive plates protecting the front and making their back barely visible. The plates weren’t smooth like the smaller armours I saw but rough, with bumps and sharp edges at almost random locations on the plates. The black shine spoke of upkeep and I couldn’t tell how old the armour itself was. The entire thing left little of the natural shell unprotected on the front, and other than a few segment separations being visible it is obvious that this armour wasn’t made with manoeuvrability in mind. Either that or there was some hidden mechanism to it. Regardless of the armour, these ten guards stood in two rows in front of the door behind them, staring straight ahead, without so much as a twitch of their ears. There was about a body length of free space between them and the changeling wall on all sides and with the off-white, almost grey walls that the castle possessed now, they served almost as a light at the end of the tunnel, both figuratively and literally. I shook myself out of my thoughts and cleared my throat, loudly. The pony jumped with a yelp while Dicty gasped loudly and her ears started twitching wildly. “One of you mind telling me exactly WHAT needs fixing?” The pony, I did not care about him right now, but Dicty was usually more observant, she should have heard me, “Also, how long has it been ‘broken’?” The unicorn whirled around wearing a strained smile on his face while his emotions simply radiated fear and trepidation. I noticed that he started showing physical signs of older age with a few visible wrinkles surrounding his green eyes. “Prince Patchwork,” I was already frowning, but I could feel my brow creese further, “s-so good to see you.” Dicty did not turn around immediately. She took a deep breath before slowly turning to look at me with a resigned expression on her face. The unicorn pony took a small step backwards, both his ears and his tail pinned close to his body and he made a clumsy attempt to hide behind her. Seeing as I wouldn’t probably get much of an answer out of him I looked to the she-ling. “Dicty, why is there a…” I looked around me trying to find words for this phenomenon, "‘death-wall’ of changelings sealing almost all of the corridors in the castle?” “Well…” She started off, “We were hoping that some counselling would help the Queen. You know, talk her worries away and…” I nodded, not looking away from her, “And I am guessing that you found a professional and well-trained counsellor then?” I know that she did not, “One capable of dealing with several centuries of trauma?” The pony tried to make himself smaller behind her. “Well…” The smaller tremble in her voice and a whine behind her got the air around me to crackle, “I was hoping… thinking that somepony talking to her/counselling her for now might provide temporary help. Or even give us something more to go on.” She did not look apologetic, and that only made me angrier. There were too many implications there for me to unpack, and I did not have the time to deal with it, or at least it felt like I was running out of time in the first place. Counselling, especially when dealing with trauma, is difficult as it is, but this was centuries of trauma. I doubt Chrysalis even knew what counselling entailed in the first place, and I’m a hundred per cent certain that the passage of time was something that she wasn’t even aware of for a long time. Given the situation, I could only assume that end result of the current situation is catastrophic. I could feel both anxiety and frustration give way to anger and I found myself taking deep breaths in order to keep myself calm, at least on the outside. “Pony?” I ignited my horn, picking the grey unicorn up from behind Dicty (which got me one more, louder yelp along with some thrashing) and placing him next to her so I could see him clearly, “What exactly did you talk about before this…” I waved my left arm trying to encompass the entirety of this situation, “exploded in your face?” “We… um… w-w-we talked about her son,” he started trembling and I could see Dicty taking a few steady breaths. ‘You stupid son of a bi…’ I heard more than felt the ground under me scrape as my anger easily rose to the boiling point. “The son she had to see die before her own eyes?” I growled out. “Patch we didn’t know it would be this bad,” Dicty took a step forward, and her dark-red elytra flared, “she seemed to be fine and It looked like it was working and then… she just stopped.” Normally I would be bothered about her lack of confidence and her voice losing strength, but the situation was so bad apparently the other lings felt their Queen needed absolute protection. Pulling claws out of the grooves I left on the floor I walked forward sitting down between the she-ling and the unicorn, who scrambled to move to the side. Only one question remained right now. “How long has she been like this?” The oppressive quiet that followed made my teeth grind, “How LONG!?” “S-s-since y-yes...” ‘Nope! I’m fucking done!’ I buzzed my wings as loudly as possible, practically enforcing silence while I digested this new revelation. In hindsight, I should have gotten to a similar conclusion on my own. This is going to require a heavier hand than I would normally be comfortable with. “You, second on the left…” I looked at the changeling guard that immediately stepped forward, “take this,” I took off my saddlebag and placed it in front of him, “and take it my dome.” The changeling lowered his head without question and grabbed the bag in his mouth before making his way past me. “Patch,” Dicty raised her voice but I twitched my tail aggressively to the side while also raising my left arm along with a single claw silencing her. Two signs to be quiet, the pony one I never used before (there was no need for it) and the human one (something that still came as naturally as breathing). “The four of you,” I pointed at the four remaining guards in the front row with my right index claw, “are getting these two of my sight and away from the Queen while I deal with this.” Again, no words or nodding; they stepped forward and obeyed without question. Good. “Patchwork,” she was more demanding now, but I am SO far beyond listening, “she needs our help.” I raised my right claw stopping the four guards that were about to herd these two idiots out. “I am well aware that she needs help, but right now I don’t have the time, the energy, or the patience to listen to your excuses for this fuck up. Get out.” They didn’t protest further and I listened for a few seconds as the sound of their hooves grew distant. “Does anyone know where Keratin is?” I asked while scratching an itch above my left shoulder. I asked more for myself than anyone else, I certainly did not expect a response or a reaction, but the wall behind me started whispering barely five seconds after the question left my mouth. I swivelled my ears behind me hearing the words ‘Keratin’ and ‘Prince’ but that’s about it, until, about a minute later, I could hear galloping coming closer and closer. I waited more out of curiosity than anything else, as it also allowed me to focus on something else rather than my growing negative emotions. By the time I turned myself fully to the corridor behind me, I could see the wall of changeling behinds part and a panting Keratin grinding to a halt and dropping into a deep bow, bending his left foreleg back. “My Prince, you wanted to see me?” He asked between breaths. There was a certain reverence in his voice that I certainly did not hear before and it bothered me. “Find Scurry and make sure that both ponies and changelings are back to work as soon as possible,” no pause, no second guessing, “gather up all the reports for myself and/or Chrysalis and have them ready for review the moment I sort this out. “Before that find out whoever is responsible for the changeling guard rotations and either send them over to me or have them organise a patrol route near the border with Equestria, no heavy equipment, just light patrols. Any larger pony groups are to be brought to me immediately and smaller groups or a single pony are to be kept an eye on, but don't antagonise them. Got everything?” “Yes, my Prince,” he did not rise from his bow, “Captain Spine regained consciousness two days ago and I was told that he is eager to get back to work.” “Is he mobile?” I turned around and made my way to the door of what I assumed is the Queen’s chambers, I doubt she would be anywhere else right now. The five guards moved to the side wordlessly allowing me unobstructed access. “I do not know.” “Find out and let me know, either by a runner or personally, I don’t care which,” I ordered without looking back, pushing the door only to notice that it’s a pull one. There was a loud snap as a spark jumped between my claw and the door but I hardly felt it. Grabbing a furrow on the door looking like something that would let a hoof latch onto, I pulled the door before looking over at the remaining guards behind me. “Other than my orders make sure that no one, especially that grey pony, comes anywhere near this door until I say so. I don’t need all five of you here, only three will do, the rest make yourselves useful.” I did not wait for confirmation, just closing the door behind me with a loud enough slam to send the message. … “What the fuck am I doing here,” I spent the last two minutes looking at the ground, “I’m a fucking nurse, I didn’t want any of this.” My jaw was still clenched making my teeth practically grind against each other as I talked to myself. “What the fuck… How…” Raising my head to look at the ceiling I tried to keep myself calm but I could feel my eyes starting to sting. Lowering my head back to a more neutral position I shook myself almost like a dog. I needed to focus, I can break down later, and I need to focus on the now. Looking at the room that I guessed once belonged to Husk I wasn’t surprised about the spartan furnishings. The room was fairly large by changeling standards from what I noticed so far. Certainly smaller than anything I’ve seen in Celestia’s castle but still, if decently decorated and furnished I would say that there would still be plenty of room to walk around without feeling claustrophobic. At best I would estimate a good eight meters long and about four meters wide. With the way the door was placed, I was looking at the four-meter width part somewhere around the very middle of the room itself. To the right stood a tall frame of what I could only guess belonged to a mirror if the shards underneath it are any indication. I’ll have to get that cleaned up at some point. To the left at the far end stood a more ornate resin bed (the square frame of solid resin is actually adorned with some images I couldn’t place) and underneath it was a dark resin chest. The bed was in the middle of the wall leaving plenty of room on the sides. Lying on the bed on her right side, with no covers, is Chrysalis and there is a small back shadow huddled in the corner, wide blue eyes focused on me. The she-ling (I have no idea how I can tell them so easily at this point and I did not care) was visibly shivering with a bucket in front of her. Sighing I walked to her, “What are you doing here?” I asked the shivering bundle. I managed to sound calmer than I actually was. When I got close enough I noticed that the bucket is full of water with a red cloth at the bottom of it, and I also noticed that the she-ling’s elytra is so dark that I almost mistook it for black. Instead, it’s just very dark green. “I-I-I was just keeping the queen clean and comfortable, your Highness,” was her quivering answer. I couldn’t be angry at her, nor would it be acceptable of me to just kick her out. She did give me an idea though. “Stand up, please,” I pushed the bucket to the side with my magic, “I have a bit of a job for you.” I waited for her to get up but I did not wait to see if she would follow. Walking over to the door I pushed it open wide enough for her to comfortably pass through. The soft clack of her hooves sped up and she sat down just outside of the door waiting for my request. “Could you please bring me a glass of pure love and something sweet for her to eat,” I pointed at Chrysalis with a quick tilt of my head. “Um… a-a-a glass…” She stuttered but then righted herself, “Of course, your Highness, I’ll bring them as soon as possible.” “Take your time,” I managed a smile, “this might take a bit. Let her in when she comes back, knock three times on the door before entering though,” I spoke the last part loud enough for all three guards outside to hear. A quick nod of confirmation and she was out in a flash. Closing the door I noticed that I managed to calm down somewhat allowing me to keep my emotions in check. I will need it; cause I have no idea how long this would take. Walking over to the left side of the bed and sitting down at the head of it I looked over Chrysalis’s still form facing me. I couldn’t see any physical abnormalities; her eyes are closed and her face carried a neutral expression. There is no indication of any emotions on her which already worried me. Raising my claws I decided to give her a few pokes first; a poke at her face, a couple of pokes at her neck, her belly, and behind the ears, all without any reaction from her. Within expectations so far. Two more pokes at a bit more sensitive areas, the armpits under her forelegs and a sharp poke at her frog on her left foreleg. Again, no reaction, which got me frowning. My poking got frantic and while I tried not to hurt her I got close to piercing her carapace and skin a few times which got me to change from mere poking into prodding and shoving. And my wordless grunts into continuous muttering of ‘c’mon, c’mon’. After about five minutes, I gave up. Sitting down I ignited my horn and started doing what I should have done from the get-go, magical poking… clearly, my skills knew no bounds. Giving her body a scan would be pointless beyond telling me she is alive, which I could just as clearly see by her breathing, although breathing by itself is not the only sign of life. Shaking my head and refocusing my thoughts I started using my magic to poke at her own, kind of like using a stethoscope to hear an abnormality in the lungs. Some of the magic books I read a while ago spoke of layers of magic surrounding the very core of what a pony is, so to say. The layers of magic are sensitive to other magic interacting with it, which is how the other pony races are able to use it either to walk or shape the clouds and the weather, manipulate the earth or just the very fabric of reality around them. It is also why I was able to get Chrysalis’s attention the last time, as just poking at the magical fields that serve as a sort of ‘second skin’ could easily grab attention; it's like a sharper sensation of someone just barely touching your skin as a human but with magic. More of a pressure, less of a touch. I needed to set a reminder for myself, one of the medical books I brought with me explained how to get a better understanding of the body’s condition by poking and working with those same fields in the first place. Right now, all I got is frustration. Her magic barely reacted to mine, unlike the last time. Though she turned inward back then, this time I felt she just shut herself off completely; pulled back in the deepest parts of her mind in a way that I had never seen before… but I did read about, in passing. It made what little fur I had stand on end and I felt my stomach drop. If she shut herself off so completely, so thoroughly, her body may as well be forfeit. Hunger, thirst, she is still breathing so it's not all bad, but how long with it stay like that? I did not want her to die, to give up like that, after all the work that was put in, by me, by other changelings, we didn’t save her from one monster just so she could up and give in. “C’mon… don’t do this to me…” I became more forceful with my magic while trying not to cause any damage, “I don’t want… I can’t do this on my own.” It was, is, selfish of me, that after everything this poor woman went through, I want to saddle her with the responsibility of ruling a species, even though I made this choice of my own volition. Even if a part of myself understood that my situation was FAR from reasonable. “What do I do? What do I do?” I kept trying to avoid the very core of her being, a core that every changeling possesses. A little complex thing that served as a perfect representation of our soul, and probably the only place where she could have ‘hidden’ at this point as I just about looked everywhere else… well, almost everywhere else; I am NOT looking literally everywhere. “Chrysalis, wake up!” I shoved her, both physically and magically. I am frustrated again, angry even. Hopping onto the bed I knew what I should reasonably do, but I could feel my own mind fighting me on it, my younger mind that made me silly, cooky, a mind that was now frayed and looked for any help and comfort at the end of a very long month. “Chrysalis, c’mon! C’mon!” I think I’ve been trying now for twenty minutes. ‘My eyes are stinging…’ I reached up and whipped off a bit of moisture which only made me more frantic, ‘I’m not that fucking young, fuck… control yourself, you're almost twenty!’ “Wake up, wake up, wake up,” I started poking at her core. I was trying to be gentle, but the core was much sturdier and better protected than I thought like there was a wall, a castle, with walls so thick it may as well be the core of a planet. I was knocking on the metal door with a stick for the effect it did. Angry, stressed, and anxious, I didn’t want to do this alone. The changelings just about hated me in the first place, and if I had to lead them, on my own, like Celestia, I would probably never see Velvet again, or Celestia, or Shield, just like them, my old family… one that I was forced to leave without even a ‘goodbye’. I’d be stuck here, in Badlands, barely understanding the people that I had to leave just over a month ago and I understood these new ones even less. “Mom,” I whispered at first. My mind happily reminded me of that old cartoon where Simba saw his whole world collapse. “Come on, mom… moM!” I couldn’t breathe, “MOM!” ‘Wait… why is the air crackling?’   Chrysalis   It kept repeating itself… the same memories, over and over again. I couldn’t just… remove the memory… I don’t deserve the peace it would probably grant me to forget. I watched as she killed him… again and again. Effortlessly, and with glee I never believed a single creature would be capable of. He challenges her, proud, strong… my sweet little nymph… They fight… it looks like he might be able to do something… but she is only playing. First the left wing, then the right. Then the elytra… and then the rest… in motions I could repeat as though they were my own, I realised with a sickening realisation. ~C’mon… don’t…~ Repeat. Again. He challenges her, proud, strong… my sweet little nymph… They fight… it looks like he might be able to do something… ~ What do I do? What do…~ Repeat. He challenges her, proud, strong… my sweet little nymph… They fight… it looks like… ~ Chrysalis, wake…~ Repeat… Something feels different… He challenges her, proud, strong… my sweet little nymph… They fight… ~ Wake up, wake up, wake…~ It did feel like waking up. Repeat. I am just barely able to tear my ‘eyes’ from the repeating memory and focus on the constant tapping on the walls of my sanctuary. Not the pounding I’ve gotten used to over the centuries, but the hurried tapping of someling in panic. ~ Mom…~ Patch? The whisper is so, so very faint. He challenges her, proud, strong… my sweet little nymph… My second son… My second chance at being a mother again, a REAL mother, even if he didn’t exactly agree with it. As long as he was willing to humour me, I would cherish even that much for as long as he allowed me to. ‘Did something happen?’ I felt a cold pit in my ‘gut’. Repeat. He challenges her, proud, strong… ~ Come on, mom…~ That is not the voice of someone who is in a good state, either of mind or of body. ‘Something is wrong!’ The memory was getting fuzzy. I was waking up, but it felt so slow. Repeat. He challenges her… ~…moM!~ He took Her away from here like I knew he would; it would be impossible to hide it. I could all but feel Her presence up until she was far away from Badlands. To keep me safe, I’m sure… to keep us all safe. ‘She is free, that has to be it!’ I need to wake up, I need to wake up now. Repea… ~MOM!~   Patchwork   I was forced to jump of the bed when the resin padding started boiling and the frame cracked under the pressure of whatever was happening. Chrysalis was standing up, very slowly, but it wasn’t the giggling, loving menace that wanted everyone to know that they are loved. The soft features on her face and body were replaced by sharp, protruding edges and a furious visage that… fucking scared me. Her green third eyelid was closed, obscuring her irises but her eyes are still glowing and sparking in a way that Husk only wished she could do. If this is how I looked like at my worse, I had no idea how ponies even managed to get close to me. With a deep guttural growl, she stood up to full height, turned around to face the rest of the room and jumped, the force of which turned the bed into splinters. Less of a pony and more of an insect were my first thoughts, but then I scrambled to put as much room between me and her as possible. I’m barely aware of the wall until I squashed my elytra against it. Thankfully nothing broke. She landed with a deafening crack and I saw the light pouring into the room when the door opened with a slam. Both I and Chrysalis looked at the three stunned guards standing there, her with a snarl and myself in shock. All three of them bowed deeply the next second, with their helmets clanging off the floor with how fast they tried to prostrate themselves in front of her. “Where is she!?” ‘Fuck me that that is terrifying,’ The rage along with the dual-tone voice that came from her made me actually huddle in the corner before I even became aware of it. “Mom?” I tried raising my voice to be heard from the crackling of energy surrounding her, but it came out more as a raspy whisper. She must have heard me because the speed at which she turned her head to look at me would have given any normal person a concussion just from the sheer force of the whiplash. “Patch?” Like a light switch turned off things went from one hundred to zero in less than a second. No flash of power, no scary face… just… ‘poomf’ and ‘hey the soft is back’, “You are safe?” “Just scared out of my mind, but, yeah...” I didn’t even finish the sentence properly and she scooped me into her arms. The best hug I’ve gotten since I came to this world, and that was saying something.