//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: Queen Weaver // by TenebrisScholar //------------------------------// I didn’t know why, exactly, but we were spending a bit longer in the Crystal Empire before heading back to Ponyville. I didn’t know why and I was a bit annoyed since I wanted to finish my armor and head to Griffonstone so I could finally start being more active in my war with Chrysalis, rather than reactive. She’d already fired the first shot, so it was official. I wasn’t going to just sit by and wait for another attack. Passivity was death in a war. But I waited for everyone to finish their sight seeing or whatever the hell they were doing. It gave me a bit of time to talk to Amore and even learn a bit from her about both magic and how to run a country. She was a surprisingly good teacher in both regards, even if her magic couldn’t translate 1 to 1 to changeling magic. Though Love magic did seem to translate over far easier than most. We also discussed how my magic differed from unicorn magic and some things we could potentially collaborate on, and she came up with an interesting idea. She suggested I could potentially weave enchantments into my spidersilk armor, sort of like one of the methods I’d developed for enchanting crystals. I had two main methods for that, with slightly different variations within said methods. The honeycomb method and the web method. The honeycomb method worked by turning the crystal into something like a magical hive. Inside, pits would form in a lattice like the honeycomb in a wasp or beehive and I could fill the lattice with magic like honey fills the comb. The spell would be in the energy itself but the shape, structure, and complexity of the honeycomb lattice could affect the performance of the crystal in various ways. This was by far the easier of the two methods and I had a fairly simple lattice I’d worked out for basic enchantments I didn’t really care too much about and didn’t need to last long, which I’d used for my speed enchanting against Sombra and the Umbrum. I used it mainly because it was the quickest and easiest structure I could make without being stupidly inefficient and the honeycomb method in general was pretty straight forward. My web method was different. Pits and holes would still form in the outside of the crystal as my magic burrowed into it, but instead of making a honeycomb lattice, the inside was hollowed out leaving only thin strands in a structure much like a spiderweb. In fact, with my extensive knowledge of exactly how various species of spiders weave their webs for their nests, I could replicate the exact patterns. The end result was, obviously, incredibly delicate, and it was a significantly more difficult process than the honeycomb method but the enchantments were much more efficient. However, I was pretty sure the primary benefit was that they could be much more advanced and complex. I wasn’t absolutely sure about that since I had only just started learning magic and was nowhere near skilled or knowledgeable enough to make anything more complex than a simple light or setting the crystal on fire. But I was fairly confident I’d be able to do more with the web method when I was more knowledgeable and experienced. There were other hypothetical methods too, such as the anthill method, but from what I’d tried so far, they weren’t very good. Amore’s idea to weave enchantments into my armor came from hearing my explanation of the web method. Apparently materials other than crystals could be enchanted, crystals were just one of the easiest materials to enchant and were fairly abundant in this world. So, she supposed that if I could weave spells like webs in a crystal, I should be able to literally weave enchantments into spider silk armor too. My current suit was too far along for that, and I didn’t know how to make any enchantments that would be good for armor as my understanding of defensive magic was crude and subpar at best, but once I knew more about magic she and I were going to work together to see what we could come up with. It was about three days after the Princesses arrived. They were still here for some reason. I’d have thought the longest they would have stayed would be a day or so. Apparently that wasn’t the case. I was dreading the fires they were going to have to put out in Canterlot. Unless they’d managed to settle all that down by now. It had been about a month or so, so maybe the situation had calmed down enough for them to leave it for a few days. I’d half expected them to bother me about my trip to Griffonstone, but they never brought it back up. That honestly made me more suspicious than if they’d kept hounding me about it. Why did they just drop it all of the sudden? They had to at least suspect what I was planning, so why not say something? Why not try and stop me? Was it because I had Queen Amore as an ally? I suppose I didn’t really need Equestria anymore now that Amore was on my side. I could just set up a hive in some unclaimed part of the Frozen North or grab all my stuff from my hive in the Everfree and head to the Undiscovered West. The love storage crystals could sustain me so I didn’t need to live next to Ponyville for ready access to food anymore. So maybe they were trying to avoid provoking me into cutting ties with them by bothering me about my plans? So they’d just let me go to Griffonstone and start a civil war? Or did they have something else up their sleeve? Damn it, what were they planning?! I kept my suspicions to myself and just continued as normal. I’d just have to wait and see. It was early in the morning and I was currently in the local library reading a book on love magic. Amore was busy in a meeting with the Princesses, Twilight and the others were off doing whatever, and I didn’t particularly care about Sombra or Radiant Hope. Hope had woken up, finally, and after crying for essentially a day straight, she asked to see me and thanked me for saving her just before being transferred from the castle infirmary to her own home. Sombra had essentially moved in with her and doctors would visit her every day to make sure her recovery was going smoothly. Guards were posted outside the house and would follow Sombra if he ever went anywhere. That’s as far as my interest in their situation went. They had nothing to do with me anymore so their lives were none of my business. “Weaver!” A voice called out to me. I looked and saw it was Twilight. Happiness and excitement were radiating from her. “Hey, Twilight. You’re happy. What’s up?” “Queen Amore just gave me an original copy of a book she wrote on crystal magic! It’s super interesting and I’m still super excited about it! I can’t wait to add it to the library back in Ponyville!” Twilight told me with a huge smile on her face. I nodded. “Ah. Cool. I might have to borrow it some time. Might help me with my enchanting… So, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you already be busy reading that rather than looking for more here?” “Oh, no. I’m not here for another book, I’m actually here to come get you. The Princesses and Queen Amore want to talk with you about something so they sent me to come get you.” Twilight told me. I sighed and closed the book before levitating it back to the shelf where I’d found it. “Alright then. It’s probably something to do with setting up trade routes to get love crystals to the Undiscovered West when I start making a hive over there, or something.” I said, thinking back to our last meeting. We hadn’t fully finished discussing that at the time so they probably just wanted to finish ironing out some details, and I’d need to be there for that. With a smile, Twilight teleported us back to the castle. “““Surprise!””” Exclaimed a chorus of voices. Spike, Twilight’s friends, the Princesses, Amore, and Cadance and Shining Armor. I flinched. “Wha… What the hell?” I asked, caught completely off guard as I saw we were in the castle banquet hall which had very obviously been decorated by Pinkie Pie if the balloons, confetti, and streamers were anything to go by. There was a banner hanging up in the back that read, “Congratulations Taylor!” “I’m so, so, sooo happy for you!” Pinkie Pie declared, bouncing over to me and wrapping me in a hug. “Oh, and did I finally manage to surprise you?! Did I, did I, huh?!” The excited and hyperactive mare asked enthusiastically. “Uh… Y-yeah…” I stuttered uncertainly. “YES! I told you I’d surprise you one of these days and I finally did it! WOOHOO!” Pinkie cheered triumphantly. “I don’t get it… What’s the occasion?” I asked, thoroughly confused. “You just had your first seven eggs, darling! Of course we had to throw you a foalshower!” Rarity commented. “Foalshower? You mean like a… O-oh…” I asked as the realization set in. This was a babyshower. Because I’d just had my first kids… My first seven kids… And this was to celebrate that… I felt a little light headed. “When Twilight and her friends explained the concept to me, I, of course, insisted upon hosting the event!” Amore declared “And we certainly couldn’t miss it either! You have my congratulations, Weaver!” Princess Luna stated. “Luna was quite insistent. She’s been looking forward to this since Twilight informed us it was happening.” Celestia said with a smile. “Ah… Uh… huh…” I muttered. “Obviously we can’t do this all the time since you’re a changeling queen and you’ll probably have thousands if not hundreds of thousands of foals eventually. But these are your first foals! That’s something special and absolutely worth celebrating! So we all agreed we had to do something special for this. Plus, we all know you’re under a lot of stress right now between your foals, Chrysalis, and everything with the Crystal Empire so we thought this would be a good opportunity for you to relax and unwind a bit.” Twilight explained with a smile. Relax and unwind? Hearing that almost made me want to laugh. But I was stuck still processing what was happening and its implications. “Yer lookin’ a little shell shocked there, Weaver. Ya alright?” Applejack asked. “Uh… Yeah… I’m… fine…” I responded, not really thinking. Both Applejack and Princess Luna looked at me in concern. Amore walked over to me. “She’s likely just a little shaken. Understandably so, considering this is her first time! But, I know what might take your mind off of it. As is tradition for a ‘foalshower’ as Twilight explained to me, we have each gotten you a gift. From what I understand, traditionally said gifts are meant to be related to foal care, but being a different species the needs of your foals will likely be very different from those of ponies’. So in my case, I made a gift for you that I hope shall help you defend them, considering your conflict with Queen Chrysalis.” There was a flash of light as Amore summoned what appeared to be a necklace. It was seemingly made of silver and was covered in diamond and emeralds. The silver chain resembled a spider web. In the middle was a spider with a diamond thorax and abdomen and intentionally blackened silver legs. Around it were emeralds like bugs caught in the spider’s web. It was beautiful, incredibly well made, and on Earth Bet it probably would have been worth millions just due to the size and quality of the diamonds and emeralds. Amore affixed it to my neck. “It's not as intricate as I would have liked as the jeweler only had a little less than a week to work on it, but I hope you like it. In the Empire there’s a process all newborn foals undergo called a crystalling, where they are attuned with the Crystal Heart. I conducted a similar process upon this. Different as it's an object rather than a living being, but similar. So a miniscule portion of the Crystal Heart’s power resides within this necklace. It will need to be charged with love every so often, but it will create a barrier to protect you from curses and offensive spells. It would also repel the umbrum or windigos, were either of those an issue you had to face. I know you struggle with defensive magic so I thought this may be quite useful to you. At least until you become more skilled in creating barriers yourself.” "Celestia and I have gifts for you as well" Luna stated happily. There were two more flashes of light. A large blanket appeared next to Luna. It was covered in stars. Next to Celestia was a little sun shaped night light. "This blanket is enchanted to help ward off nightmares should I ever be pre-occupied. So your little ones shall never have to worry about having a poor night's sleep." Luna stated folding up the blanket and passing it to me. "This nightlight should help as well." Celestia stated warmly. Everyone else started giving me gifts one after the other. The only ones of note being a book on parenting by Twilight, a new dress made of the length of star spider silk I’d given Rarity designed to match my necklace, and a jar of royal bee jelly from Fluttershy. No one else really knew what to get me so they just gave me different stuff they thought I’d like or they thought my kids would like when they hatched. I stood there, now wearing my new dress and necklace, completely overwhelmed. “Uh… I… T-thanks…? I…” I was a mother. They were hosting a babyshower for me because I was a mother. I was about to have seven kids. Seven… In the middle of a war. While an entire species was out to kill me. I had no idea what to do or how to respond. In fact, I felt like I was on the verge of having a full blown panic attack. “Khepri…? Are you alright?” Fluttershy asked. “I… No… Not really…” I felt everyone starting to get worried.  “Ehem… Everypony, please excuse us for a moment. Weaver, would you step out with me for a moment.” Amore requested. I just nodded and followed her out of the banquet hall. Outside she said, “Weaver, take a deep breath and slowly release it.” “Huh…?” “It’s an exercise to help you relax. So just breathe. In… and out…” Amore told me. I followed her instruction as she tried to help me calm down. After a minute or so I finally started to calm down. “Alright… I think I’m good…” I told her. “Are you certain?” “No. But it’s not as bad as it was.” I answered honestly. She sighed. “I see… I apologize, Weaver. Had I known this would affect you like this I would have been opposed to the idea… Would you like to talk about what’s worrying you?” “No.” “Would you talk about it if I asked you to, for your own sake?” Amore asked. “No.” Amore sighed again. “Very well… I won’t pressure you, of course, but I do think it would be good for you if you did talk with me. Or anypony else for that matter… Have you at least calmed down enough to continue the event or should I call it off?” “You guys probably worked hard putting this together, so I’ll manage.” I stated. “If you’re certain…” Amore led me back in. We tried to continue, even though the atmosphere of the event had completely changed. As it went on I started to calm down more and more. Despite that one delay, they had the entire day planned out. We went to see a play, we had lunch, they’d even had set up something like a spa. I say something like a spa because spas apparently hadn’t existed a thousand years ago and after having the concept explained, Amore had a public bathhouse retrofitted to be able to work as a spa. Apparently it had started falling out of use due to in house baths just starting to grow in popularity and become more common at the time. They had masseuses flown in from Equestria, had set up something like a sauna, and other things like that. I had to morph into my human form for the massage since my hard carapace was in the way in my changeling form. That part was actually pretty relaxing all things considered. It was certainly an interesting experience. I’d never actually had a “spa day” before. I doubted I’d do it again unless someone else set it up, I had other things to worry about, but if I was being honest with myself it was actually sort of enjoyable. And it did take my mind off of things, at least for a little while.