Rise of the Dragonking

by Scarheart


RotDK Chapter 10: Thoughts and a Riddle

Twilight Sparkle watched as the mooring lines were cast from the ground, the thrumming engines gently vibrating throughout the hull of the great airship. The Aurora lifted off at a shallow angle, her nose aiming for the rising sun to the east. She would gain altitude, circling until her helmspony nosed her towards Equestria. It would take a couple of days, time enough perhaps for the Alicorn to muddle through the revelations Queen Chrysalis had allowed her last night. Her thoughts flickered as she sat next to her window in the ship's parlor, staring at her reflection, contemplating the conversation last night.

"I don't know what's wrong with the nobility," Chrysalis said, pacing like a caged animal with a glass of wine deftly carried by her magic hovering just in front of her chest. "For the past fifteen years, it's been like dealing with mindless foals who gave themselves over to sheer greed and stupidity!"

"Are you all right, Twilight?" Spike asked with concern, his face suddenly inches from her side. "You look like you're not with us."
"I'm thinking, Spike. I heard a lot of things last night I'm not sure I was ready for." She gave him an apologetic smile, her tail flicking once. "Just leave me to my thoughts for now. I'd like time to think them over."
"Oh. Okay, well," Spike stammered a bit, scratching the back of his head. "You let me know if you need anything." He then shrugged, pretending not to care and wandered off to find something to do.

"I can't move directly against them because the generals control most of the army," the Queen went on. "Between my royal guards and my faithful colt's personal bodyguard, we're outnumbered a thousand to one. I haven't been able to move from my castle for the past eight years. They don't want to remove me, but at the same time, they need me as a figure head. On top of that, they know the common changelings won't accept anypony else to sit on the throne other than myself or my daughter." Chrysalis drained her glass, started at the bottom and sighed. It was quickly refilled by her own magic.
All servants had been dismissed from her personal chambers. There was only the Queen, Twilight Sparkle, Atalanta, and Silent Wing in the room. The two younger ponies were out on the balcony gazing at the stars at the request of their mother, but for some reason Chrysalis wanted them near enough to come immediately when and if she needed them.
"What would you have me do?" Twilight asked.
Chrysalis stopped dead in her tracks, watching her glass fill back up as she became filled with contempt. "What can you do? Nothing, Twilight. You. Can. Do. Nothing," she said, enunciating each word carefully as if each one belonged on its own pedestal. The queen went on, "Let me make one thing clear, my dear. I don't like you. I probably never will like you. You are here because Celestia only agreed to meeting me if you were allowed to come. I agreed to requesting help from Celestia because I am not concerned for myself, rather my daughter and the future of my country."
Slowly she rose her head, her eyes half closed behind heavy lidded eyes. She held up the wine bottle, swirling the contents as her magic waved it in the air. "Drink?" she asked as if she had just not told Twilight of her feelings towards her.

The gall! Twilight Sparkle shifted uncomfortably in her seat, feeling as uncomfortable now as she did at that very moment when she decided to go ahead and have that drink. A seagull lifted on wing outside her window into view, eyeing her suspiciously before peeling away with a cry. The land was pulling further and further away as the great airship continued to climb. It seemed at the time it was going to be a long evening. It was.

"What about Silent Wing?" Twilight found herself a glass and filled it with the Queen doing the honors. "What are you going to do about his safety?"
Chrysalis tipped Twilight's glass to the Alicorn's lips with a gentle hoof. "We haven't had enough to drink to discuss him quite yet," she said, curling a lip. The queen stepped away from her old enemy, polishing off her glass for the second time in as many minutes. She set it down firmly, not quite hard enough to shatter the glass.
"Somepony is undermining my kingdom," Chrysalis growled angrily. "He or she has been very clever about it. This pony is very skilled at magic. I cannot detect the source, but I know it has infected the most influential leaders of the most powerful houses in my kingdom. It has cost me wars, changeling land, honor, and lives. The losses to the army numbers are close to a million, Twilight. A million!"
How desperate did any monarch have to be to resort to turning to somepony as an enemy for help? Were things that bad? Was the Kingdom of the Changelings at the brink of complete collapse?

The Alicorn could see the first layer of clouds as the ship rose up into the white swirling puffs. The propellers of the airship whipped through them, creating little corkscrew clouds that broke up and rejoined the rest of the cover. She hadn't noticed how much light they had blocked until her window burst above the cloud layer, bathing her fully with the rays of the morning sun. It blinded her at first, but Twilight sat there and basked. She decided to open a window and let some air in. The magic around the ship prevented too much from coming through, allowing for a pleasant breeze to kiss her face and caress her mane. Summer would soon be in full swing.
For a long while Twilight Sparkle simply sat in her seat, her head resting against the window panel as she watched the world slowly drift below her. One of the wait staff stopped at her table, an older stallion with a peppered mane and short and immaculately trimmed mustache. It reminded her of the one she had given Spike several times in the past. She concealed a smile. He wore a white tuxedo.
"Would her Highness care for something from the bar or perhaps something to eat?" he asked politely with a pleasant smile and bow. "We'll be able to start serving once the ship levels."
She ordered an apple cider and went back to her thoughts as soon as the waiter began looking for some other pony to talk to. There were few passengers on the ship, those that were on board were guards for the three changelings and Twilight. Those who weren't on duty were relaxing together, speaking in hushed tones. The parlor was luxurious, as was everything about the Aurora as she was the finest luxury airship ever built. Chrysalis and her family must still be settling into their rooms. Twilight had never unpacked from her suite.
For a half hour she did nothing, her thoughts in the clouds. Twilight thought of her son Star Journey and husband Flash Sentry. She hated being away from her family, though oddly it seemed she never had time to see either of them. Celestia promised any letters she wrote for them could be sent to her to ensure they were delivered. Changeling mail carrier service was questionable at best. She felt the ship level out and almost immediately her drink was served with a smile.
Twilight sipped her drink and cast her eyes towards the horizon. Distant mountain ranges poked through the low level blanket of clouds covering half the earth below. The peaks touched off another memory, a battle. The unnatural magical tempest. Princess Celestia coming to save her, but for a price.
She winced, wondering if the right thing had been done all these years. Again, her thoughts drifted, a parallel to last night drawing her back to her conversation with a worried queen.

"I have sacrificed everything to protect something I don't understand," Chrysalis murmured, rubbing a hoof over the bridge of her nose. It scrunched as she sighed. "What am I protecting? Why have I allowed everything to fall from my control?"
Twilight fidgeted, not at all comfortable seeing a mare she had detested for years suddenly start pouring her worries and fears to her. This must be what it is like to be on the brink of losing everything. "What else do you know of this pony?" she asked. "The one you said is causing all of this?"
"I only have a name. No description, no recollection of any pony meeting her. Just a name. Draccaria. It's a most irregular name."
"I've heard that name before," Twilight said suddenly after a moment recollecting. "It's Old Draconic. It's sort of a title, but the translation is open to interpretation."
The Queen stared at her. "Well, what is it? Spit it out!" she exclaimed.
"Draccaria is a combination of two words, Drac being a shortened formal form of Draconniconus or Draconnicuria, depending on the regions under the ancient Dragon Empire. Since you said this Draccaria is a 'she', then it is logical to assume the word is Draconnicuria, which would be loosely translated to Battlemare."
"Battlemare?" Chrysalis furrowed her brow, then frowned. "How odd. What about the other part?"
"Aria is Old Draconic for 'singer'."
The Queen staggered back, her eyes wide with shock as her mouth opened in horror. She knocked over a table. "No!" she cried out, shaking her head in denial. "Not again. I will not have this nightmare again!" Her fear turned to rage as she began to hurl things around her room.
A servant stuck his head in at the commotion. "My queen? Do you re-"
"GET OUT!" she shrieked, hurling a priceless vase at the door. The servant ducked just in time, quickly closing the door just as the vase exploded to pieces on impact.
Twilight wisely went to the balcony where Silent Wing and Atalanta huddled in fear as they watched their mother go berserk.

"Battlesinger," Twilight sighed at her reflection. It looked back at her, seemingly as lost in the revelation as she was. It was not a good one, either. Flamespyre Battlesinger had nearly killed Celestia. The battle should have been over long ago.
A different memory came unbidden.

"It's over, Flamespyre," Celestia said gently. "Your forgotten war was over long ago. Surrender and I promise you just treatment."
"Surrender?" The dragon spat the word. "The war may have been forgotten, but it never ended, Alicorn. I am eternal. I am forever." A wave of pain shook his massive frame.
Celestia pitied him. "You are mad."
The dragon grinned demonically. "Oh, no my lovely. I am prepared for this!" He rolled his eye into its socket and uttered a single word. His body turned to ash, crumbled.

Princess Celestia did not know her back had been broken during her fight with Flamespyre Battlesinger. Her magic should have banished him. Instead, it had burned him horribly. The Alicorn's magic was never meant to harm like that. It was as though the dragon had taken it, twisted it, and changed the spell. How does a dragon do that? Why did he do it if he was even able?
The only thing she could think of was the possibility of a forbidden spell. Perhaps Celestia might know of one. She had an idea for another spell, but that would certainly have to wait until she returned home and only after going all the way back to the place where the battle had taken place.
She realized she had heard the word he had spoken.
Perhaps she was wrong, but Twilight needed to look into this in detail. She would have to ask Celestia if she could remember. Neither Alicorn wanted to talk about that terrible day.
She stood, her drink half finished and went to look for Spike. Celestia would need to know of this, the sooner the better. Of course, this was unproven and subject to further discussion and thought, but she felt the two had to be related.
The Alicorn stepped into a narrow corridor, one of three in the airship, each one stacked on top of each other. The lower corridor was for passengers to get to and from their suites to access the lower section of the airship. The second corridor on story above was access for crew in providing having access to everything a passenger might need from their luggage to a late night snack. The top corridor was used by the crew who saw to daily ship operations and maintenance. Crew quarters were also located up there as well.
Where would Spike be? Of all the times she would need him, he would disappear. On the bright side, he was confined on a ship so it would be easier to find him. All she had to do was ask anypony if they had seen a dragon twice their size pass by recently.
Instead she found Silent Wing exploring the ship with his sister in tow. As there was a rather large contingent of Chrysalis' royal guards, the security was lax and the colt and filly were almost given free reign to go anywhere they pleased, so long as they did not interfere with shipboard operations.
"Princess Twilight!" Atalanta noticed her first and burst out in a big grin. "We thought you got left behind!" The little changeling filly pushed past her pale brother to greet the Alicorn.
"I was on board before you guys were." Twilight smiled into the large eyes of the little princess. "And it's just Twilight, okay?" Her son would be about her age, she realized.
"Okay! You can call me Ata! That's what Silent calls me all the time. I like it because it's short and it sounds pretty." The filly was almost bouncing. Being on the airship made her very excited.
Twilight remembered what she was doing. "Have either of you seen Spike?" she asked.
"I haven't," said Silent.
"No." Atalanta was looking past Twilight. "Maybe he went to see the bridge?"
"Is that your way of saying you want to see the bridge?" Twilight teased. "Why don't you two head that direction. There's an elevator at the end of the hall that can take you up to the top. Go up there and just keep going forward. You should get the the bridge without any trouble."
"Sounds good!" Silent was eagerly looking ahead as his sister was.
"And if you see Spike, can you tell him I'm looking for him, please?" The Alicorn stepped to one side as the two surged forward with hurried steps.
"Will do!" they echoed back.
She pressed on in the opposite direction, her hoof steps absorbed by the soft red carpet beneath her. It was easy to tell which room belonged to the changeling queen. Captain Myzanum was standing guard at the moment, a hulking mass of changeling who dwarfed even his Queen. Twilight noted something of a haunted look through his plated steel helm. Maybe the queen had yelled at him recently. He glared at her stonily as she passed, offering Twilight a brief nod. The captain was a scary one, to be sure.
The Alicorn did her best to squeeze past him. The hallway simply was not built to allow for more than three ponies walking side by side.
She made it to her quarters and peered in. None of the stewards had seen Spike. Maybe he did go to the ship's bridge. The young dragon was fascinated with airships. Or he became so when he first laid eyes on the Aurora. Frowning with annoyance, the mare began to think she should have followed the changelings to the bridge. Before leaving, she wrote the letter she wanted Spike to send quickly from the small writing desk by her bed. Rolling it up and tying a ribbon to its center, she thought about having to walk all the way to the bridge at the opposite end of the airship.
"This is stupid," she suddenly told her self and promptly teleported outside right in front of a startled maid.
Snapping her wings out once she felt weightlessness, Twilight coasted for a moment to get her bearings. She was some distance ahead of the Aurora. Spotting the airship behind her, the Alicorn turned and began flying towards it. Her eyes went above the nose of the ship, looking into the line of windows. Startled ponies started at her as she hovered up to them, searching in with a hoof shielding her eyes against the glare.
There was Spike, gawking along with Atalanta and Silent Wing right at the princess. The dragon suddenly seemed embarrassed. Twilight grinned and teleported again, appearing right in front of him.
"I've been looking all over for you," she said with a huff. "Since when did you getting bigger mean you're harder to find?"
"Um," he said, giving her a weird look. "I told you I was going to come up here. Weren't you paying attention earlier? Just hanging out up here with Silent and Ata."
The two changelings grinned at her.
"Obviously not," she admitted, a little embarrassed.
Spike rolled his eyes. "Obviously. What do you need, Twi?" he asked, seeing she would not have gone through all this trouble to find him if it wasn't important.
"I need you to send a letter to the princess."
"I figured. All right, I guess," he looked around. "This a general letter or are we going to have to do this private?"
"Already wrote it. Just send it, delivery dragon," she said with a grin.
He took it, assuming a grumpy scowl. "Hey! Watch with the name calling, Princess Smarty Pants." Spike flipped the letter expertly in the air and huffed. Green flame consumed the letter, burning it into a mystical smoke which darted out the window and on towards its intended destination.
"Thanks, Spike," she said warmly.
"No big, Twi. It's what I do. It's what I do." He blew on his claws and buffed them against his chest with comical arrogance.


Queen Chrysalis was pleased to be away from her castle. She found she was pleased to be away from her people. There was guilt in this pleasure, almost as if being relieved from a nightmare rightfully deserved should not be allowed in her case. The awareness of her ignoring the problems of her people, especially with the nobles leaching her power out from under her throne, was an admission she hated to cope with. But she had to.
She was lying on her bed in her cabin, a suite she found to be excessive to her tastes. Always liking things simple, she sniffed at the opulence, but found the bed wonderful. Perhaps when she returned home, she might have one like it placed in her bedroom. It was probably already cleaned up from the night before.
Her fall at Canterlot had done far more damage than she believed. Twilight Sparkle had shown that to her, in her own way.

"Battlesinger? Flamespyre Battlesinger has offspring?" she shrieked, her magic hurling a chair against the wall.
It shattered, the wood splintering. The raging queen was furious at herself for not realizing this. She was furious Flamespyre was seemingly reaching from the grave at her, mocking her, trying to take her kingdom from her. By now half of her quarters were a shattered mess, broken things strewn everywhere. Her bed had thus far not felt her wrath. After a time, her rage was largely spent.
"What do I do?" she implored the ceiling as her hoof dabbed at a shredded remnant of a curtain. "What can I do?"
Draccaria. This pony was a Battlesinger. This meant she was a dragon. A dragon just like Flamespyre. At least one of his followers to be sure. But her name was his name. There could be no other explanation.
"He planned this from the beginning, didn't he?" she asked no one in particular, a helpless little laugh escaping her lips. Chrysalis closed her eyes.
"You know Flamespyre Battlesinger?" Twilight asked her incredulously. "He was slain fifteen years ago by Celestia!" She emerged from the dubious safety of the balcony where the queen's children trembled.
"Slain?" Chrysalis laughed at her. "You cannot slay Flamespyre, Twilight Sparkle. You cannot kill an Immortal!"
Twilight stared at the queen in open shock. "Immortal? I saw him die right in front of me! Celestia killed him. I saw it!" She shook her head in fierce denial, her ears laid back flat.
For a long moment the two stared each other down, each one believing what they knew. Chrysalis wondered if she should dare tell Twilight, but decided against for the moment. This would be a discussion best to have with Celestia.
"There are no Immortals," insisted Twilight.
"Prove it," challenged the queen. "You ask your Princess Celestia if there are such things as Immortals. I know them all too well. Flamespyre created the changeling race. We are a product of his imagination."
"What?"
"You heard me, Twilight Sparkle. I am the result of my former master's twisting of magic. You didn't think we were always like this, did you?" Chrysalis knew she had Twilight completely bowled over with this revelation. "Even Celestia knew, my dear little Alicorn. Even she knew! There is a device beneath Canterlot that is a realization of the mad dragon's twisted mind."
Somepony sniffled with a tiny squeak. The Queen turned her head sharply in the general direction of the sound. Chrysalis realized her children were staring at her. Atalanta was on the verge of tears and Silent Wing was looking at a stranger. Almost immediately her anger deflated, searching around the room at the disaster it had become. She trembled slightly, moving slowly towards her children, her adorable little Atalanta and her sturdy colt Silent Wing.
"Leave us," she said with a quivering lower lip. She bit down on it as she took her hoof and gently lifted her daughter's chin. "I'll be all right. I am not mad at either of you, please understand that." She bent forward and lightly brushed Atalanta's temple with her lips.
Silent draped a wing over his sister's withers and led her towards the front door, his golden eyes locked on the door. He could not bear to look at his mother.
His dragon eyes.
Dragon.

Chrysalis began hyperventilating, sitting up abruptly as she realized she was going to have to tell Silent Wing what he was, or at least how she came to be his caregiver. No. Even she could not lie to herself after all these years. She loved her son. Even though he was the product of a monster, he was no different than the changelings. Both were born from the madness of a creature who had sought power in many different ways, discarding what he didn't want and hoarding what suited his needs. He had discarded the changelings long ago, just as he had discarded a foal, intending for Chrysalis to kill it.
"Why did he want my son dead?" she asked herself as she rubbed her nose. The eye had said something about a mistake, a reset. Somewhere in the Everfree forest was something perhaps Silent Wing had been intended for. In the dragon's death throes, the plan changed, her mind screaming at her to kill the little morsel who became her baby, her son.
She began to think back on her old legends, the old stories that had sat in her library collecting dust. They had been until Silent Wing came under her care. Then, either out of curiosity or out of a need to purge the demons from her mind, she researched. Between her time in meetings in matters of state to court functions and dealing the the military slowly taking bits of her power from her piece meal, she studied the old books. She began taking notes, keeping a journal for the past fifteen years.
Chrysalis remembered it as one of the first things she had put on her desk once on board the Aurora. Rising to all fours, she made her way to the desk, contending with a hoof that had fallen asleep. The Queen winced, growled, then stamped it imperiously for the blood to flow into it. She picked up her journal, leafing through it carefully and going over her own words in her own hoofwriting. Was it enough? The Queen intended to give it to Celestia, to see what she could make of it.
Should she give it to Silent? It concerned him greatly, perhaps even solely. As much as it involved the changelings and their past, the colt was somehow a cog in the machine, albeit a broken one according to Flamespyre.
"No," she told herself with a half smile. "Not broken. Perfect the way he is."
She set the journal down, placing a loving hoof over its cover. Thinking of joining her children at the bridge, she smiled to herself, deciding to not mope over something at that moment was out of her control. Now she just wanted time with her family. Over the years she had told herself there was simply too much to do to dote over her children. There were visitors to greet, budget planning, military briefings, settlement arbitrations, judgement of laws over squabbling nobles, and other things. Chrysalis had lost so much of her absolute power in fifteen years she was nothing more now than a figure head. That became an excuse not to spend time with her children. Governesses raised them. Tutors taught them.
Nopony gave them love.
"That is my failure," she admitted to the vanity mirror she spied across the room. The reflection smirked, shook her head and stared back with guilt.
"I never understood love," her reflection went on.
Chrysalis sighed. "It was a source of power."
"A misused power."
"A misunderstood power. By me. By my changelings."
Princess Cadence had it right the whole time. Her love had freed her Shining Armor and he in turn rejected Chrysalis, her invading army, and everything she had believed in up until that point. The Chrysalis in the mirror began to chuckle. The joke had been on her for a long time. It took a malformed pale changeling with feathered wings to make her see it with his love and patience.
"No," she corrected herself. "It was the way he treated his sister. He pushed her to be strong, to be great, to be herself."
He had saved his sister by picking the day of his near death to learn how to fly. She had many times before brought him to that very garden spot and had practically thrown him over the side to get him to use his wings. Not the best way to teach, but he did figure out gliding. She could still remember feeling his beating heart through her chest after catching him the first time she had thrown him. How it had pounded, so fast, so full of fear!
Chrysalis had refused to have anything to do with him for a week after that. Not because he had failed, but because she had frightened him terribly. Silent Wing never cried and had not cried since the day she killed the general in front of him. She wished she had never allowed him to see such a gruesome death.
She felt she had done better with her daughter. "I hope I have," she grunted. "Creator knows I've treated my little morsel like a bag of manure."
He had never let her down.
There was a knock at the door. "Your Majesty?" came Captain Myzanum's muffled voice from the other side.
"Yes, Captain?" What now?
"The old griffon is here to see you."
An old voice complained, "Truth be told, I have a name."
"Let him in," she called out, smoothing her mane quickly in front of the mirror. Then she abruptly stopped and rolled her eyes as she remembered Tseng Tzu was blind.
The door opened and the old griffon felt his way in.
"Come in, come in," she said graciously. "I'm glad you received the invitation. I'd almost forgotten my son had insisted you come."
"Most glorious Majesty," he said with a gentle smile, reaching out a talon, the claws groping at the air slightly. Automatically the queen took it and found a firm and friendly grip. "Thank you for seeing me without an appointment. Truth be told, I was not sure if you would have time for an old griffon such as myself."
She guided him to the lone table in her suit over by the window. There were no servants with her this trip. The Queen had only her guards with her. Besides, if she really needed help with anything, then Atalanta was there if she needed her. It was not as if the child could go very far on an airship.
"Would you like a window open?" she asked politely.
"That would be lovely, most glorious Majesty," came the reply. "I have had a premonition." Tseng Tzu scratched his chin as he sat down, his rump on the floor and not in the chair next to him. He seemed to prefer the arrangement.
Chrysalis turned to him, arching a brow quizzically. "Premonition?"
"Your son approaches the journey you have prepared him for," the old griffon said.
She sat down, staring at him as though he had somehow regained his sight. The old Chrysalis would have scoffed. Truth be told, she did right then a little. "Do go on."
He caught the tone in her voice. "It is not often I train dragons, most glorious Majesty."
This confused Chrysalis. "I beg your pardon?"
"Your son," Tseng Tzu grunted nonchalantly. "Truth be told, there is no other way to put this and now is the best time to tell you."
"What?" her voice went up several octaves. "WHAT!?"
Her stateroom door automatically opened. "My Queen?" rumbled Myzanum as he poked his head in.
"GET OUT!" she screamed at him. Startled, the captain disappeared, pulling the door securely shut in his wake.
Chrysalis locked it with her magic. She then padded it against sound carrying outside the walls. She then glared and the griffon who was wearing a pained expression on his old face.
"Must you do that?" complained Tseng Tzu with his talons over his ears. "I am already deprived of my sight, must you take my ears as well? Truth be told, you screech louder than a roc during mating season."
She put her face right into his, breathing furiously. Spittle flew from her mouth as she said, "You'd better have a bucking reason why you would tell me such an absurd thing, Tseng. I am very close to throwing you out the window."
"Truth be told, what would that accomplish, most glorious Majesty?" He shifted his wings and gave her a fatherly stare as best he could given the circumstances. Tseng Tzu was very good at it. "You have a sharp tongue and a quick temper. What good have they done you?"
"You're saying my little morsel is a bucking dragon," she seethed, not believing it.
Tseng moved his lower beak from side to side, stroking his long, thin beard. "Truth be told," he said gravely. "He has not bucked anything yet, but he is a dragon. So he's a virgin dragon." The wise old griffon nodded sagely.
Chrysalis stared at him, the completely calm visage, totally serious. Her jaw hung and her crown fell off her head. Her eyes bulged. Just now just heard two things she did not want to know. "I need a drink," she announced, rubbing her temple at the sudden and unbidden onset of a migraine headache. "Ye gods, can you pause long enough for me to get some courage in me? I don't think I can listen to this sober."
"As you wish, most glorious Majesty," Tseng Tzu answered amiably. He began to hum to himself while Chrysalis went to fix herself something to drink. His claws found a stack of unused stationery the queen had put there earlier while she was sorting through the desk. He selected a sheet and started folding it over and over with quick, deft talons and practiced ease.
Something strong. Very strong.
By the time she had her drink in hoof, Tseng Tzu had already made three little paper origami figures. They were arranged in a line before him, from his left to right. Two of them were changelings, one larger than the other. The last one, the largest was a dragon. It was in between the two origami changelings.
"Please, be seated my child," he said when he heard her draw near. "I shall explain how I know certain things. Truth be told, I would have spoken with you years ago, but you never came to see your son train. I cannot measure an aura when I cannot be near the aura I need to sense."
The Queen sat down and sipped her drink. It was a tall glass. "One second," she told him, holding up a hoof he could not see. She took a deep pull at her glass, letting the burning liquid roll down her throat. Gasping and setting her drink down on the table with a loud tink, she peered at the old griffon. Half her drink was gone. "Lay it on me, Tseng."
Tseng Tzu smiled briefly and tapped his claw behind the smallest origami figure. It was the changeling. It began to rise slowly in the air, taking on a certain glow. "This is your daughter," the old griffon said, his voice warm and loving. "Such a filly so full of life! So full of hopes and dreams and wanting to be a good girl for her mother! She tries hard to please you, studies hard at her lessons. A blossoming flower with a positive aura. She could be very strong if she continues down her path she is currently traveling down. Truth be told, she may become one of the greatest monarchs to ever sit upon a changeling throne."
He set it down lovingly. "A flower fed properly and cared for will become beautiful in its garden so long as the garden is tended as well as the flower is. Your garden is overgrown, most glorious Majesty. Outsiders have tainted the roots of your finest plants. They must be cleaned or like thorns, they will begin to strangle all that is good among your flowers. If they are not trimmed, then the garden becomes overgrown to the point where the thorns seek a place outside the garden to grow and spread. They will go to other gardens and destroy the flowers that are there, too."
"Oh, gods, you are lecturing me," groaned Chrysalis as she took a smaller drink from her glass this time. "Hurry and get to the part where you tell me my son is a dragon again so I can spit a mouthful of hard cider in your face in disbelief." She sprawled her face on the table and eyed the griffon with daggers.
A talon snaked its way across the table and tapped her on the snout. She stared at it cross-eyed, then rolled them with a sigh.
"Sit. Stand. Drink. Be drunk. I care not. So long as you listen and listen well. Truth be told, you are acting the child." Tseng Tzu withdrew his claw and went straight.
"I'm listening," she said apologetically. Chrysalis felt as though she were a filly before a strict tutor again. How long had it been since she felt like this? A smile played at the corner of her mouth. "Please continue."
The blind white griffon went to the next largest origami. It rose in the air. "This represents your aura," he said as it turned. "You started with such a dark aura, a sickly yellow of greed, rotten. Such negativity!"
"Thanks," Chrysalis muttered. She was reaching for her glass again.
"But now you have become steel gray, most glorious Majesty! An aura that has grown hard, yet seeks to change and become positive. Truth be told, you would not have even thought of exploring a different path if not for one moment in your life when everything changed." Tseng Tzu waved his claw and Chrysalis' paper figure returned to its original place.
As it did so, the Queen ventured, "Silent Wing?" She already was beginning to slur a touch in her speech. It had been a while since she had drunk that much alcohol at one time.(1)
"Indeed!" chortled Tseng Tzu as he tapped both talons on the table in a staccato. "Observe the aura of this dragon." The middle origami rose, its wings opening and flapping on their own. "It is far from perfect, incomplete, broken into two halves. This is the weak aura, but it is good, it is positive. Its desire to do that which is right is as strong as any I have ever felt."
"Incomplete?" Chrysalis stared at the mesmerizing dragon now flying in circles around her table. "Are you shaying my baby ish mentally unshtable?"
"Oh, no, not at all," said Tseng Tzu. "Truth be told, his mind is a steel trap. It cannot be breached by any form."
"Oh, good," the Queen said with a smile. "You had me worries."
"His aura tells me his soul is in two halves."
"Hish sh-shoul?" Chrysalis had a hard time pushing that out. Maybe another drink from her glass might fix that. She did just that.
"Indeed! I am happy you have been so open to this," Tseng Tzu said cheerfully. "You'll have to complete his soul and make him whole, or his sister will make him a foal. Listen well, O Changeling Queen a choice to be made, a choice of what sacrifice grade. Old blood, new blood flow the same, which one will come changes the game." His voice had changed, turned, assuming rhyming of a sphinx.
Chrysalis stared as the little dragon stood before her on the table and danced. It danced until the room went dark. The dancing dragon leaned forward at the last minute before all went dark.
"It's about to get chaotic."(2)