The Greatest Show of Kindness
Chapter Ten: A Bad Memory, Part III
Tiredly, Flutter trotted into the hive. Immediately upon entrance, she felt a rush of love enter her body. Because the hive was made out of material that trapped love inside of it, and it also radiated love, if a changeling made contact with it, they got love from it.
The way to charge it if it ran out of love was to steal love from other creatures, and then for a changeling to use its magic and imbue it inside. It was one of the rarest materials in the world, and almost ninety-five percent (95%) of it was used in constructing the hive.
The main reason of the changeling invasion of Canterlot was for the changelings to obtain enough love to recharge their hive, as it was running dangerously low on love. By conquering Equestria, there would be an infinite amount of love to use, which would cause this problem to never occur again.
As Flutter walked through the streets, the revitalization was a wonderful feeling. Both her’s and Bumble’s stomachs began to increase in size as strength returned to their bodies. Bumble’s cracked shell quickly begun healing, stitching itself back together due to a natural process in a changeling’s body, of which makes them heal upon receiving great amounts of love energy straight into their bodies.
Deciding that the best thing for her to do was to get her’s and Bumble’s strengths back up, she immediately followed the streets to return to their home and rest. She knew exactly how to get to her home from anywhere in the hive – the hive’s living districts were set up in a grid-like pattern, with between five-hundred and seven-hundred rows of homes. Each row had twenty homes.
Knowing that her home was the sixteenth cave on the two-hundred-thirty-ninth (239th) row, she immediately went there. It only took about fifteen minutes to get there, and the moment she stepped through the door, she trotted into her bedroom and set Bumble down. She looked down at him with a gentle gaze, lowering herself to his head and tenderly kissing his forehead. He smiled, using his hooves to pull a leather blanket over him.
Grinningly she climbed up into the bed with him, grasping the blanket and tucking herself and Bumble in. Quickly, she fell asleep.
Hours passed before anything happened in the hive. The night passed to day, and in the morning, there was a knock on the door. Flutter’s eyes shot open from shock; she wasn’t expecting any company so soon.
Rolling out of the small, stony mattress, she opened the door. To her surprise, there was a teary-eyed, sniffling Chryssy.
“F-Flutter?” she solemnly asked, looking into her eyes.
“Chryssy? Are you okay, dear?” she questioned, pulling Chryssy into a warm hug. Chryssy began to cry, putting her head against Flutter’s shoulder. “Oh, it’s okay. It’s okay…”
Rubbing her mane softly, she shooshed Chryssy, reassuring that everything would be okay. Chryssy gave a loud sob, clenching her fangs and eyes from the horrible anguish she was feeling. Flutter picked Chryssy up into her arms and flew them into her bedroom, sitting both of them down on the bed.
As Flutter rubbed Chryssy once again, this time down her carapace, she reiterated her question from before.
“Is everything okay, dear?” she repeated.
“My mommy still hasn’t come home yet! I’m so worried!” she sobbed. “You’re the only changelings that I’ve seen come back, and I just don’t know what’s going on! It’s been over three months since I’ve seen mommy, and… and…” she trailed, unable to continue.
“Sweetheart, Chrysalis is our Queen. I’m absolutely positive that she’s okay and that she’s on her way back right now. Don’t you worry your pretty little head off, you hear me?” Flutter requested.
“O-Okay. Thank you so much, Flutter,” Chryssy gratified, rubbing her eyes.
“You’re very welcome, Chryssy. Now, is there anything else that you needed?” Flutter offered.
“…Is Bumble okay?” she asked.
“I think that he’ll be fine if he gets a lot more rest. Unfortunately…” she started, giving Chryssy a view of Bumble, “I think that the impact that he had against the wall that we hit was too forceful on his body, and it caused him to go blind.”
“What!? He’s blind!?” Chryssy shouted, looking intently into Flutter’s eyes. She shifted her eyes between Bumble and Flutter, unable to accept this fact.
“He is. It’s horrible, I know, but-“ Flutter began.
“No! There has to be something that we can do about it! There has to be a spell that can solve it!” Chryssy cut off. The sudden shout surprised Flutter, causing her to recoil a little.
“Chryssy…”
“Flutter! This is so unfair! We can’t just let him go without being able to see!”
“Chryssy.”
“I’m going to go and find a spell that will help-“
“Chryssy!”
When she heard Flutter’s more authority-like voice, she quickly shut up. Looking down, she slumped to a laying position.
“Chryssy, I understand why you’re so concerned about this, but you’re making a bigger deal about this than Bumble did. If you want to go home and try to find a spell that will do something to help, I won’t and can’t stop you. But you don’t need to freak out about it,” Flutter explained.
“I understand, Flutter. It’s just that… that… I…” Chryssy stuttered, her cheeks becoming light green. She turned her head to look another way. “I… love Bumble. He’s the only changeling that I consider to be a true friend. All of those aristocrats act all “high-and-mighty,” and they don’t really care about anything that really makes a friend a friend. Bumble, though, he has those qualities. He’s nice, smart, reassuring, loving, cute… none of the rich court officials or upper-class changelings are those things, except for maybe smart. It’s for these reasons that I want Bumble to be able to be able to see – because he really deserves the absolute best in life.”
For a moment, Flutter could do nothing but stare in shock at what Chryssy had just said. She had no clue that she felt that way about Bumble. She wondered at that instant if Bumble had any of these same feelings towards Chryssy.
After breaking out of her trance, Flutter gave an ear-to-ear at Chryssy, pulling her into a big embrace from the behind. She lifted her up, nuzzling and buzzing her wings.
The embrace had lasted a few more moments before Flutter released Chryssy. After being let go, Chryssy jumped down onto the floor with a thump; she started to walk toward the door.
“Are you leaving, Chryssy?”
“Yeah. I’m tired, and I want to go and take a nap now.”
“Oh, all right. I guess I’ll see you later, then.”
“I’ll come back when mommy gets back. See you!”
With that, Chryssy walked out of the front door.
Outside, a huge thunderstorm was brewing. Lightning struck multiple changeling abodes, one of them being Flutter’s and Bumble’s. Bumble shrieked as loud as he could from the shock, pulling the blanket closer to his body.
When the flashes from the lightning subsided, Flutter saw him shuddering violently under the covers and immediately uncovered him and cradled her in her arms. He cried from the fear, and to this she shh-ed him.
“Shh, it’s okay. I promise that everything will be fine, sweetie. It’s just lightning. Nothing will hurt you, I promise,” she calmingly stated.
“O-O-Okay, mama. Thank you…” he shyly mumbled, falling back to sleep in his mother’s arms.