The celebration at Hearths Warming was more than a month behind Equestria now, and even though the country was still blanketed in white and freezing the overall mood was as high as usual. It likely wouldn’t be long before Winter Wrap Up came and went.
Chrysalis had spent the time doing what she had already been doing; recovering, knitting, and conversing with the representative of the Crown, or the Princesses themselves. Her room had accumulated a huge array of different knitted articles, from cuddly soft toys to snuggly warm clothes. Shortly after the Hearth’s Warming celebration she’d started on a private little project that even the Princesses were not privy to.
She’d done a lot of housework and asked for specific wool colours in return, as well as a large supply of cotton stuffing, which she had been steadily going through since it had been delivered. Despite having her reward for her work, she’d still asked Rarity if she was making a larger dent into her funds than she felt was appropriate. In other words, anything more than what she would spend on herself.
This was when she learned that a stipend had been put into place for her needs, a small bank-account with enough bits to keep up with her expenses which only the Princesses and the Element Bearers could access. It had become healthy enough to allow her the wool and stuffing she wanted for her project.
And so, for the last week she had been knitting with zeal. A small private army had spun into existence from the needles that she used, each soldier no bigger than a foal’s lunchbox. They were being kept safe and secure in a chest which Rarity had found in her attic which she had no use for or real desire to keep. The ratty old wooden case had seen better years, splintered at the edges and its wooden frame faded from the years it had seen, but it came with a key and was sturdy enough to contain Chrysalis’ things.
A knock came at her door, and she looked up from her work at the clock whose ticking had become background noise to her relentless knitting. Half-past eleven she recognized it telling her, and the calendar with fuzzy kittens and puppies displayed on it told her that it was a Thursday.
‘Ah,’ she thought idly, ‘it’s time for my regularly appointed meeting again I see.’ She hummed to herself for a moment, pondering over who could be beyond her door this time. With a sigh she acknowledged that she would only know if she let them enter.
“It’s not locked.” She called.
The door latch clicked, allowing for the oak door to swing open and allow Cluey to enter. Chrysalis grumbled to herself when she recognized the stallion in question; he had been the least pleasant of all of those who came to question her. Since day one he’d been short and brash, only the presence of Rarity or one of the other Bearers stopping him from roaming into questions that she didn’t want to answer or even think of. He’d been brash enough to ask if the spell which had been used to drain Circlet dry could be taught.
It was thanks to Chrysalis’ recovering horn that he was only thrown out an open window into the snow outside, instead of thrown all the way to one of Ponyville’s frozen ponds.
The stallion, still white with blonde hair and tail despite his lack of armour, strolled inside and stood beside the door to allow another pony entrance; Princess Celestia herself. She strolled in with her ever-present grace and poise, and Chrysalis dipped her head to her before using her magic to retrieve the silken pillow that Rarity had stashed in the room for whenever the Princesses visited.
A third pony stepped into the room, his Cutie Mark a pale blue and gold compass rose. The stallion towered over Chrysalis and stood only slightly shorter than Big Macintosh, a pony that Chrysalis first thought of as a country bumpkin only to discover that he was far more intelligent than his quiet and simple outer appearance would suggest. This pony however, with his golden and well maintained mane and tail, was somepony that she was sure she had met before.
She hadn’t enjoyed his company that time either.
“Whatever are we doing here in this storeroom, auntie? It smells like somepony has been sleeping here.”
Yep, there it was, the voice that set her every nerve to ‘attack’ mode if only to knock his pompous ass down a peg or two. A sidelong glance at the Princess and Cluey told her everything she needed to know. He’d simply refused to be ignored, and followed his apparent aunt wherever she went like a puppy following its mother. The stallion didn’t seem to have noticed her and, while she continued to knit feverishly, Celestia sat on the pillow provided.
“And what is that odd clicking noise? It is quite irking.”
Chrysalis cleared her throat to catch his attention before smiling in sweet yet venomous way to the Princess.
“While I do enjoy our chats, Princess, I assume that you have a reason to bring this buffoon to me?” She said pointedly, grinning at the effort it took the Regent of the Sun and Cluey to not snigger aloud. The stallion, however, only glared at her as if she’d cursed his entire household with some form of odorous curse forevermore.
“’Buffoon’? How dare you! I am-” he began, only for Chrysalis to cut him off.
“Prince Blueblood the Third, great-great grandfoal of one of Princess Celestia’s sisters in law; head of the Platinum Estate,” Chrysalis rattled off without missing a beat. She gave him a wary eye which Celestia could swear was trying to bore a hole through his skull to lobotomize him.
“H-how..?”
Chrysalis gave a shark-like grin. “I remember you well you snobbish brat; how’s the skull, I trust that the lump has gone down and you’ve had the splinters removed?”
Blueblood blinked. “What?”
Celestia blinked down at Chrysalis. “Chrysalis, what are you getting at?”
“Tell me, Princess; did your ‘nephew’ have an incident some… ooh, twenty-odd years ago? An injury to the back of his head, perhaps?” Chrysalis asked.
“I do recall his father, Prince Blueblood the Third, storming into the courtroom with bandages about his head demanding that we hunt down and imprison a mare that clubbed him. If I can remember, he demanded capital punishment for ‘assault on a member of the Royal Family’.” Celestia said, looking up at the ceiling and putting a hoof to her chin in thought.
“That was me,” Chrysalis said with a grin, watching a look of shock-awe spread across Cluey’s face gleefully. She shrank back in her basket as the Princess gave her a withering glare.
“I trust you had a good excuse?”
Chrysalis huffed and nodded at Blueblood. “His father was a swine.” She hissed. “I went to Canterlot with my family to absorb some ambient love to share with the Hive, as you know I can do, and to feed the life that would become my last grandfoal. After a brief and rather unpleasant conversation between myself and Blueblood, I felt the need to both show him how I felt about him and make a hasty exit.”
“I do recall my father saying something about some harlot that assaulted him.”
Chrysalis hissed at him. “I am not a harlot you son of a mule!” She snapped furiously, to which Blueblood visibly flinched. “If you’re even half as self-obsessed as him you’re the apple that fell far from the tree!”
Blueblood went to snap in retort only for Celestia to hold a hoof up to him. “Prince Blueblood the Fourth,” she began, making him cringe; she’d used his full name, something that he knew was about to end less than in his favour, “you were warned at the door that you would not receive a warm welcome in this home. Miss Rarity wants nothing to do with you. Whatever you want to ask of me, it can surely wait until I return home.”
“But you’re meeting with a Changeling! How could this thing possibly be more important than-”
There was a pop of empty space being filled with air in a rush and Blueblood had vanished, teleported away by his aunt’s glittering magic. After the displaced air settled, Cluey finally lost control of his own face and managed to give a loud laugh at Blueblood’s misfortune.
“That was worth every second.” He chuckled before flinching backwards under the stern glare that Celestia shot his way.
“I assume there is a reason that you brought this other stallion along with you as well, Princess?” Chrysalis asked, shrugging off the prior conversation as if it hadn’t happened. “As much as I enjoy putting the more uppity ponies in their places, as well as your visits, there must be something you want if you bring him along. Not that your company isn’t appreciated, mind you, just that the Captain here and I are not on good terms.”
Celestia sighed. “Chrysalis, we’ve received reports of a large female changeling crossing the borders. Reports are that she’s my height, with a corkscrew horn and a crimson tail and mane.” She said. “As well as numerous accounts of her following the railroad on hoof; she’s no longer just a foreign issue.
“Your sister is in Equestria.”
The steady clicking of needles stopped abruptly, and Chrysalis stared down at her unfinished work, her eyes wide. “She’s… she’s coming,” she mumbled almost to herself, “I suppose I always knew she would; but that she could… she could finish with the Hive in such a short amount of time… How many of my Changelings has she butchered..? One, two hundred thousand..?” She shivered in revulsion. “Some of your ponies still call me a monster for what I pulled trying to feed them; I can only imagine what they would call a creature that cannibalized her own race into extinction.”
“Highness, we don’t even have punishments for such a being.” Cluey advised. “With all due respect, the last crisis of this magnitude was Nightmare Moon or the original uprising of Sombra. Of the two of them, one has been redeemed by the Elements of Harmony and the other… well, let’s just say that we barely found enough of him to bury.” He shifted his hooves uncomfortably. “We’ve not found a middle-ground, really. What would we do with somepony that has committed utilitarian genocide? Somepony that has single-hoofedly caused the extinction of their species; it has never before happened in Equestrian recorded history!”
Celestia sighed. “It is not something that I can come to a conclusion over by myself; I must consult with my sister about it, and then we must take into consideration the… circumstances surrounding the individual. Say she comes to her senses after the fact, and is truly remorseful? Do we punish her as harshly as we would should she have felt nothing? What if her already fractured mind breaks further and she is left a vegetable? Do we punish the crime or the criminal?” She gazed distantly at the room’s clock in thought. “I admit myself unsure; there is no punishment that we could enforce that could possibly make her account for her actions, even execution would be a pointless gesture.”
“How do you mean, Princess?”
Chrysalis gave him a steady look, one that belittled and yet conveyed a still and sad silence across the room. “Tell me, Cluey, would executing her bring back the lives of those she has massacred? Would it comfort Equestria to know that, with the deplorable actions she has taken, she was simply put into a sleep from which she never awoke?”
“It would be a better death than those she inflicted.”
“That’s the point!” Chrysalis snapped. “Have you ever seen somepony starve to death, foal?! Watched the agony that they go through as their body simply devours itself?! It is a long and painful death, the sheer agony of it only made bearable in any sense thanks to the fact that it doesn’t happen all at once and that there is always the hope of reprieve on the horizon!” Tears were rolling down her face as she all but shouted at him, her eyes furiously boring the point into his skull and daring him to look away. “I have seen too many die this way, too much suffering and pain, pain that the invasion had promise of making all but a forgotten memory! Can you imagine the horrors that the changelings must have gone through as she drained them dry? To starve to death that quickly?!
“I’ve had to witness it with my own eyes, the day Circlet died! Felt it the day my wretched sister attacked me and banished me from the Hive! I-” she choked out her next word as she struggled to continue her tirade, only to take a steadying breath before continuing, “I would not wish that on anypony; not my changelings and not ponies. Thistle may have caused incalculable pain and suffering to an entire species, but nothing we could do to her could possibly repair the damage she has done. Once something is gone, it is gone. There is nothing that can bring back those she has slain.” She huffed and wiped her cheeks. “I cry in your presence too often, Celestia; this is becoming habit.”
A pregnant silence filled the room once her voice faded from the air, and Cluey had the decency to look sheepish and somewhat ashamed of his words. Celestia had simply continued to stare into space as if in thought, and Chrysalis returned to her knitting, albeit at a somewhat reduced pace. After the silence had lingered for a few minutes, Celestia tilted her head to Cluey.
“Captain, I would ask that you go to the Golden Oak Library and give the resident dragon, Spike, a message to send to my sister, I would request that she join us here for a while. It has been far too long since she actually went out and met other ponies; I think we’ll spend the day in Ponyville. Book us a visit to the day spa, and perhaps a restaurant appointment for dinner.”
Cluey saluted and stepped out of the room, closing the door politely behind himself as he left.
“So, Chrysalis, how have things been? I’ve not received word about you getting cabin fever or developing megalomaniacal tendencies; I trust everything is going well?” Celestia asked after a moment.
Chrysalis chuckled. “Well, I’ve not been parading about the boutique soliloquizing my every plan to entomb Ponyville in woollen doom, so I’m fairly certain that my megalomaniacal side is dead and buried.” She said, giving Celestia a wry grin across the room to which the princess chuckled. Chrysalis lifted a hoof to her mouth and gave a cheeky mock-evil laugh. “For now!”
Celestia tittered aloud. “I would be worried if not for the fact that I know Twilight and her friends would stop you before you managed to knit everypony into an early bedtime.” She retorted amusedly. “Though, seriously Chrysalis, you know I am aware of such things; I want to know about how you’re feeling about this all. Rarity’s letters don’t tell me such things.”
Chrysalis sighed and nodded. “My time here has been… comfortable. I’ve had a few conversations with a mare here in town that I’ve met, and it’s not like I’m finding it hard to eat well. Though Sweetie Belle’s cooking still has much to be desired I must say; the breakfast she cooked on the first morning was apparently a freak occurrence.”
“She lacks zeal?”
“She has zeal, she lacks skill.” Chrysalis said with an amused tone. “She’s set off the fire alarm several times. Horseapples, I’ve had to step in a couple of times and intervene in her attempts and offer to cook, myself.” She gave a ruthless chuckle. “The first time was amusing at the least. One would imagine that somepony of Rarity’s… cultured nature would know what a curry is.” She paused for a moment to let it sink in before adding, “And that she would also know how to refrain from using more colourful language around young and impressionable sisters.”
Celestia chortled, “Her letter said something about eating the essence of the sun itself.” She mused. “Perhaps you overdid it?”
“It was mild!” Chrysalis protested. “I didn’t even melt a spoon! Sweetie Belle didn’t complain!”
“Rarity’s letter also said that her sister had been drinking glasses of milk like she was dying of thirst or had a calcium deficiency. I think she’s hoping that her sister was too distracted with the burning to hear her choice of words.”
Chrysalis gave a snort. “Lightweights; it’s the first meal I’d prepared in years and it’s not appreciated. If only my mate could see me now.” She said, holding a hoof to her forehead in mock offense. “He would wonder how I got so out of touch. Then he’d probably ask for a sandwich.”
This forced a laugh from the elder diarch. “Oh, that’s absurd.”
Chrysalis nodded. “I know; after that kind of feat with a curry, he’d know better than to ask such a thing without risking a slap.”
“Just a slap?”
“Celestia, back when my mate was alive I could have slapped a pony hard enough to punch through walls.” Chrysalis pointed out sternly. “A slap is all I would need.”
Celestia chuckled. “Just so long as you are aware that physical punishments of such nature are not legal here.” She advised. “It’s called ‘domestic abuse’ and can carry rather hefty punishments. Light help you if you punish a foal in such a way.”
Chrysalis gave Celestia a sidelong look. “You’re not accusing me of anything I trust.” She huffed.
“Of course not, Chrysalis; it would be unfair for me to do so.”
“Good.”
“It’s not like I am innocent of such a thing myself in any case.” The solar diarch said, the revelation causing Chrysalis to drop a stitch.
“What, you-”
Celestia raised a hoof. “It was another time, centuries ago; Blueblood’s great, great cousin and my first and only foal, adopted as she was.” She replied calmly. “She broke into the Hall of History, the room in which the Elements are housed, and broke several of the stain-glass windows because I had denied her a weekend flight camp. I admit that I have always been against harming foals, but sometimes the ends justify the means.”
Chrysalis shivered. “To think that you, the ‘gentle and benevolent’ Princess Celestia, mother figure to much of Equestria, could be angered enough to…”
“Oh, I did no lasting harm, it hurt me more than it did her, but pain is an… impressive teacher sometimes.” She chuckled and shook her head. “She didn’t even bruise, but she did learn a valuable lesson.”
“I’m sure.”
With an amused chuckle, the princess shifted in her seat and nodded to the knitting floating in front of the changeling before her. “So, are you going to tell anypony about your little project? Rarity has mentioned it in her letters, but she’s also noted that nopony knows what you’re making.”
The sound of knitting slowed to a stop and Chrysalis heaved a sigh. “I admit myself feeling pathetic doing this,” she mumbled, before nodding to the old wooden chest in the corner, “go ahead; take a look for yourself.”
The chest faintly glittered with the princesses’ magic and floated over, flipping open and tilting so she could see the contents. Within, dozens of small woollen changelings smiled back out at her. Celestia turned her gaze to the changeling in the basket next to her, her face one of worry.
“Imagine if you were separated from your ponies for the rest of your life.” Chrysalis mumbled. “What would you have me do?”
Celestia placed the chest back where it had begun. “Go out, meet ponies, make friends.” She said gently. “I’ve not been advising you to do so just so that ponies get used to you, you need ponies to lean on, friends to help you bear the pain of your loss; why do you think I come along as regularly as I do?”
“I just assumed it was pity. It’s all I deserve for all the things I’ve done in the past. Pity and perhaps despise, particularly from your niece and her husband.”
“Chrysalis, stop beating yourself up about it; Cadance and Shining Armour have already told you that they’ve gotten over it.”
“But I beat you in magic combat and left you-”
Celestia snorted a laugh. “Chrysalis, it shouldn’t take a good actor to place a bad one; you singed my horn and I feigned defeat. I’ve been alive for over four millennia, moving the sun –and for a thousand years the moon- for most of that time. If I wanted to beat you during that little duel, I would have.”
“But-“
Celestia sighed amusedly. “I am going to show you what it was like for me on the losing side of that fight, are you ready?” She said, before quickly whipping a hoof forth and slapping Chrysalis across the face. It wasn’t a particularly hard slap, nor did it do much damage, but it did turn her face. After a moment, Chrysalis turned an eye to the smiling diarch, who hummed appreciatively. “Mmh, that was a most satisfying sound; every bit the sound a slap should make.”
“Sister, what in the name of our Moon was that for?”
Chrysalis and Celestia turned sharply to face the new and previously undetected presence to the room, who stared at her alabaster sibling as if what she had just done was the most insulting thing on Equis. Celestia went to respond but was cut off when Chrysalis cleared her throat, put a hoof to her chest, and threw her head back dramatically.
“Oh woe is me, a strike ‘cross mine cheek; ‘tis masks which shall have to adorn my face forevermore, hideousness has the pain caused!” She cried in a manner befitting Rarity’s worst ego-driven hissy fit. “Oh waily waily!”
Celestia struggled to hold back her sniggering, and Chrysalis gave Luna an amused smirk that only seemed to exacerbate the irked look on her face. Luna growled softly as she retorted.
“Keep at such actions and we may have to strike thee ourselves.”
Chrysalis gave a short laugh, “Princess, you hardly need to keep up the formal speech here, it’s not like I’ve bowed to you.”
Luna keeled her head back faintly, and her sister gave her an accusatory look.
“We don’t know of what thou speak, Chrysalis.” She said a little too hurriedly, her eyes darting between her sister and the changeling before her.
“Luna,” Celestia began slowly and deliberately, “do you have anything to tell me, dear sister?”
Luna’s eyes darted about the room nervously. “Nnnnoooooo..?” She tried, only for her sister’s eyes to narrow at her dangerously.
Chrysalis chuckled. “Luna, you’re a worse actress than I am.”
“’Tis coming from somepony who had our sister fooled for days.” Luna retorted coolly.
Celestia grumbled. “Luna, are you not telling me that you can speak in modern terms?”
Luna chortled. “As I believe a certain stallion within this village would say, ‘eeyup’.” She said to her sister with a cheeky grin. “Don’t look so shocked, sister; I always was a fast learner.”
With a sigh, Celestia regarded her sister. “So you’re keeping it up simply to annoy? How childish, sister; I thought you wanted to be taken more seriously.”
“You would deny me my entertainment? For shame, Celly; whatever would your student think?”
“She would probably think that you need a different form of amusement, particularly as you had her on the verge of using the Want-it-Need-it spell.”
“Oh yes, and then she would proceed to give a million suggestions;” Chrysalis cut in, waving a hoof amusedly, “let’s see, what would she suggest; book reading, star gazing, train spotting…”
“Twilight’s not that bad!” Celestia defended, only for the others to barely hold back their laughs.
“Princess, when she first discovered my skill for knitting she asked me to make her a book-cosy.” Chrysalis said. “It’s the middle of winter, she could have asked me to knit her anything; a blanket for her winter saddle, a scarf or a hat even. No, a book-cosy to keep her book from getting cold; you should have seen the look on her dragon’s face, it was priceless.”
“Spike,” Celestia said pointedly.
“Hmm?”
“He’s not ‘her dragon’, his name is Spike.”
Chrysalis huffed. “Princess, I know his name; but when you’ve had your own kin devoured by dragons in the past, you hold little respect for one outlier. He’s different because he was raised amongst ponies, yes, but a single different dragon will not change my opinion of them all as a species.” She grumbled, giving Celestia a pointed glare. “For me to call him by his name will require some respect, and those who give get.”
“What do you mean by that, Chrysalis?” Luna asked with a slightly worried tone.
“He still jumps or cringes when I’m about, won’t go within two feet of me, and doesn’t look me in the face whenever talking to me.” She huffed. “It is quite rude.”
“Chrysalis, you invaded the most secure city in the strongest country in the world and then proceeded to fight one of the most powerful creatures in said world. If faced with that, would you not be a little afraid?” Celestia asked wearily.
“I’m shorter than him.” Chrysalis hissed. “He could probably hold me down by sitting on me. Hay, he doesn’t even use tones befitting those between polite conversation. He’s blunt and somewhat gruff when he speaks to me at all.”
“Perhaps you could stop calling him ‘Firebomb’ then?”
“Snitched on by your student I would assume.” Chrysalis grumbled as she knitted without falter.
“By Rarity, actually. You’ve been here for a while, Chrysalis; you should know that she dotes on him.” Celestia affirmed.
Chrysalis gave a loud guffaw, “Oh yes, ‘dotes’; she uses him as a living pincushion and a love-stupefied servant. While I’ve little real care for a dragon, I’m still a mother and I would have to say that the pincushion thing cannot be good for him, and as such I do not approve.”
Celestia sighed. “It’s not good for him, at least not in the short term. His scales shed almost randomly every few months, you’ll probably find a hooffull of them in his bed every week, but I’ll have to speak with Rarity about doing damage to him in such a way; damaged scales will leave his relatively thin skin open to infection or infestation.”
“It certainly explains the case of scale mites he had at the autumn solstice.” Luna commented. “Granted he would be as susceptible as any other dragon, but he would be unable to use his fire to remove the blight as it can simply hide inside the damaged scales.”
“I suppose you’ll have to speak with your student about it too, Princess; if Luna can put those dots together so easily, surely Twilight can?” Chrysalis asked, earning a glare from the darker sibling. “I’m not calling you simple, Princess; I’m saying that Twilight is very bright and that she spends every day with him. If she could see that I was not her ex-foalsitter after not seeing her for years, how in the world did she miss that?”
Luna chortled. “She has a point there, sister.”
“Yes, I suppose she does.” Celestia admitted with a shrug.
“With that settled,” Luna began firmly, “what did you call me down to Ponyville for, sister? I assumed it was urgent when I received Spike’s fire-mail and came as swiftly as I could.”
Celestia shifted to look at her sister without craning her neck. “Luna, you’ve been cooping yourself up in the castle since just before Hearth’s Warming. You need to be out and socialize more. I was under the assumption that we could take a day to go to the day spa here in Ponyville, enjoy a dinner at one of their restaurants, perhaps find some time to enjoy a day outside of the castle.”
Luna shrugged. “If you say so, sister.”
At this, Celestia clapped her hooves together. “Wonderful; now, I believe that we should first head to the Day Spa here in Ponyville first. Perhaps we could take some others with us. After all, the more the merrier!”
Chrysalis sighed and placed her knitting away in one of the nearby cubbyholes that were used to store her woollen supplies. “Who were you going to suggest taking?”
Celestia hummed with a hoof to her chin. “Well, we could take Rarity for one and perhaps my student as well?”
“I heartily recommend timid Miss Fluttershy.” Luna voiced. “Mayhap we could simply have all of the Bearers come? I am unsure how well the spa’s staff might take this…”
“For royalty, I’m sure they’ll make the exception.” Celestia mused.
“If you’re done with your preparations, there is one that I would like to invite; provided you don’t mind of course.” Chrysalis said calmly.
“Of course not, Chrysalis; who did you have in mind?” Celestia asked with a smile.
Chrysalis’ face split into a warm grin. “Oh, she’s just this overworked mother of two I know.”
*&*&*&*
“I’ve never been here before,” Ditzy Doo said as she looked up at the front of the Ponyville Day Spa with mild awe, “I’ve never had the Bits or time; I mean, Time Turner makes enough that even my salary as a postal worker allows us to live comfortably, but we don’t really have enough for stuff like this…” She turned to look at Chrysalis worriedly. “Are you sure that the Princesses don’t mind me coming, I mean…”
A soft chuckle from a familiar voice startled the poor mare into seeing more crooked than usual for a moment before she turned and bowed deeply to the Princesses. “You are very welcome to join us, Mrs Doo. Please rise, there’s no need for formalities today, we’re all friends here.”
Ditzy squeaked a little and stood back upright, though she wouldn’t look directly at either of the Princesses. She seemed uncomfortable to be in their presence at all. Twilight and her friends, who stood behind the Princesses, gave her worried glances.
“Is something the matter, Mrs Doo? You seem troubled.” Chrysalis asked with a slightly worried tone. “I thought you’d enjoy being pampered today, was I wrong?”
“N… no, I just…” She mumbled quietly before shaking faintly, “I just don’t see why me. I’m a nopony. I deliver the mail, have difficulty flying in straight lines, I’m the town klutz… These six, well, they’re Ponyville’s pride and joy. Applejack’s family run the biggest and best apple farm this side of anywhere, Fluttershy has ponies coming from other towns to have her care for their pets, Rarity is famous for her skill in fashion, Rainbow Dash is practically a Wonderbolt, Pinkie held a city wide wedding party, and Twilight Sparkle is Princess Celestia’s favoured pupil; together they’re the Elements of Harmony! I’m just… me, the pony who wrecked Ponyville town hall because I’m clumsy. The wall-eyed mare that delivers mail for a living and has to rely on her husband to help make ends meet because I’m not payed enough, because I’m supposedly too much of a liability to the postal office in town to pay more!
“Why in Equestria would the Princesses want me to join them to a day spa, when I can’t even afford to come here on my own?” She huffed finally, her tirade ending with a sad little whine. “I’m just a nopony.”
Chrysalis sighed, her voice managing to cut the silence that had grown after the distraught mailmare’s rant came to an end. “Ditzy, I wanted you to come along;” she said calmly, “not because you deliver mail, or because of what you do about town, but because I like you. You’re the mother of two wonderful fillies –one of whom could admittedly get herself quite badly hurt one of these days, but who both love their mother. Trust me, Ditzy, I know these things; I can feel them like you feel the wind on your cheek. You’ve your drawbacks, as do we all; but you’re a wonderful and pleasant mare to have around, and I wouldn’t ask for anypony else.
“At the same time, Ditzy, I recall what having a foal is like. The constant worry over them, the energy that goes into their safety and upbringing, the time and stress… I know; that’s why I asked for you to accompany us. You need the time to yourself, to let your husband take care of your foals and just relax for a day.”
“And as for the issue of your pay, Mrs Doo,” Luna began, before motioning with a wing for Cluey to hurry off, having been whispered to during Chrysalis’ little reassuring, “we’ll see into it; it does not seem right that you are struggling to support your family. How much are you paid currently?”
“A-about ten Bits an hour, Princess.” She managed to say nervously. The ponies around her, with the exception of Chrysalis, gawked at her.
“T-ten Bits an hour?” Rarity squawked, before collecting herself slightly, “that’s… atrocious!”
“I take it that’s unacceptable? I admit myself somewhat out of touch when it comes to Equestrian currency.” Chrysalis asked, earning a nod from everypony.
Rainbow Dash shifted her hooves and spoke. “Minimum wage for a pony over the age of eighteen is twenty bits an hour; then there are concessions put atop that such as parental aid, danger pay…” She gave Ditzy an apologetic glance, “disability allowance…” She glared at the gawks she was getting from her friends. “What? I’m the captain of the weather team; I didn’t get there by being lazy! I can laze on duty because I’m good.”
Luna coughed. “Mrs Doo, as a mare with two children, earning danger pay for her work, and with Mrs Doo’s disability, should be earning a minimum of thirty eight Bits an hour.” Luna said to Chrysalis matter-of-factly. “Mrs Doo, we shall have our investigators look into your employers; it would seem that Cluey will be quite busy for the rest of the day.”
Ditzy bowed to them. “Thank you, Princesses; this is a lot off of my mind.”
Rainbow Dash stepped forward. “Derpy, did you know this was going on?”
With a shake of her head, Ditzy replied, “No, I just assumed that Mr Storm was telling me the truth. I’ve wrecked the town by accident over the years, so I’m clearly some kind of liability. I recall him telling me that I was lucky he wanted to keep me on, as nopony else would hire somepony like me.”
“Storm,” Rainbow parroted, “as in ‘Dust Storm’?”
“Yeah.”
Rainbow guffawed. “Figures he’d pull something like this, that slug; I fired his ass for trying to embezzle funds from the weather team when he worked under me. Guard said they put him on record, but could do nothing else about it as I’d already taken action. And besides, if you’d come to me I could probably have hired you for the weather team, we can always do with more storm wranglers.”
“I think we should put all this dreadful business behind us;” Rarity said, “and simply enjoy a day in the spa, hmm?”
The girls all nodded and began to walk in –following the Princesses of course. Chrysalis tapped Ditzy with a frayed wing and whispered into her ear.
“If you’re still down after this, we can go to Sugarcube Corner and I’ll buy you a whole box of muffins.”
Ditzy only laughed and nodded, wrapping a wing around Chrysalis’ small frame as they walked. “Thanks.”
“Ah, Princesses, welcome!” Aloe (or was it Lotus?) practically cheered as the group approached her, her sister by her side waiting with a smile. The pair bowed to the princesses before she continued. “Your party is slightly larger than we expected, but it’s no issue. We’ll have to attend to everypony in turn, as there are only four of us here today. Our cousin, Vera, is busy setting up the hot tub for your visit, but the sauna is ready for you. We hope you have a wonderful day with us!”
“Thank you, Lotus Blossom.” Celestia replied calmly, earning half-shocked looks from the twins. Clearly they hadn’t expected her to know one from the other. “If you could be so kind as to lead us to the sauna?”
“Princesses, won’t your, uh, regalia be an issue?” Chrysalis asked, earning a chortle in response. In a flash the gold and black Mithril trappings of the sisters was gone, and Celestia gave Chrysalis a cheeky grin.
“Oh, you act as if we weren’t prepared.” She said amusedly, following Lotus to the sauna. The whole walk in, brief as it was, Applejack talked animatedly with Twilight and the other girls seemed content to listen. It was the sort of thing that Chrysalis had come to expect of the group after even her short stay with them. The group filed into the sauna with Chrysalis coming up the rear just to ensure that Derpy entered with them and didn’t hover outside.
Finally, after finding their seats about the sauna, the group of mares lounged and enjoyed one another’s company. At least, until Celestia garnered Rarity’s attention, and by proxy the attention of the whole group.
“So, Rarity, I’ve been told that you have Spike assist you from time to time?” She asked politely.
“Oh yes, he’s such a wonderful young gentledrake, always willing to help out if I ask him.”
‘It helps your case that he’s infatuated with you.’ Chrysalis argued mentally.
“As I would expect of somepony so young and brought up by Twilight.” Luna said calmly.
“I have heard, however, that you’ve been known to use him as a living pincushion from time to time as well?”
“Well, he has said that he has thick scales and that it doesn’t hurt him… It was just convenient to have pins on demand like that…” Rarity argued weakly, her smile not fading regardless.
Celestia sighed. “It would seem I need to speak with Spike as well then.” She breathed. “Rarity, Twilight, during the autumn, did you notice Spike fidgeting or scratching a lot more than usual?” A pair of nods was returned and she frowned faintly, “That was because he had scale mites. Normally he would risk getting them whenever he sheds a lot of his scales at once or joins you on your ventures into the Everfree Forest, but he would be able to be rid of them by simply breathing fire on himself.
“You see, his scales aren’t thick enough to tolerate being pierced by needles quite yet. If he needs to have any medical injections his scales should be pulled back to allow for access to his skin, because having a needle pierce his scales can break them. Using his fire breath to kill the scale mites would normally work for him, but with damaged scales…”
“The mites had somewhere to hide.” Twilight finished worriedly. “Princess, I didn’t even notice that he was harmed in any way… How did I miss something like that?”
“Twi, you have a habit of tuning out the whole world when you’re studying; you probably just didn’t notice it until it was already gone.” Rainbow Dash said. “And by tuning out the world I mean there was the time we rearranged the whole library around you while you worked and you didn’t notice until you wanted to get dinner.”
“Rarity,” Chrysalis cut in, getting the white unicorn’s attention, “never again; understood? I may not like his species, but I’m still an ex-mother and he’s still a child. Unknowingly harming him is one thing, but now you do know, and I’m telling you, never again.”
Rarity nodded. “O-of course. If I had known it was doing such harm to him in the first place… Oh why didn’t he just say something?”
Chrysalis chortled and waved a hoof at her. “I’ll tell you later, this is hardly the place.” She then turned her attention to the lavender unicorn sitting opposite her. “And for the love of the Shadow, Twilight, pay more attention to your charge. He’s not your own flesh and blood, but for all intents and purposes he is your son.”
Celestia chuckled at Chrysalis’ behaviour before nodding to Twilight. “She has a point, Twilight. That, I believe, is a conversation for a later date however; for now I suggest we simply enjoy the day spa.” She smiled warmly and nodded to Ditzy, “So, Mrs Doo, you’ve two foals? I’d love to hear about them.”