Chrysalis was not in a good mood.
First, she found out her changelings couldn’t remember what happened yesterday. Then, she found out her changelings couldn’t even remember how to fly. And now it looked like they were actively trying to kill themselves.
“AAAAAAAH!” The changeling mare screamed as she ran through the forest on her hind legs like some sort of circus performer. “HELP ME!”
Chrysalis facehoofed. That was exactly what she was trying to do, but the changeling didn’t seem to like being helped. Chrysalis’ time could be spent much more efficiently by helping some other changeling…
But she couldn’t just abandon one of her changelings. After all, as queen, she was practically their mother.
Then again, they were pretty hopped up on love, and could easily take out a manticore if they knew to dodge its stinger, and to avoid the poisonous plants everywhere... and to make sure other predators didn’t join the fight… and to avoid traps, to avoid flesh eating plants, to avoid other territorial animals like ursas, to avoid using too much magic, to make sure none of their vital regions got hit...
…
Fine. She would help.
But if just grabbing her wouldn’t work… then maybe Chrysalis could give some advice. First was the obvious, to her at least.
“Fly up!” She yelled, hoping her voice wouldn’t scare the changeling as much as her beautiful, loving, and not scary at all smile did.
Chrysalis considered simply beating the manticore to a pulp, which would’ve been nearly as easy as picking up her changeling had it not been so panicky, but then her leaderly instincts kicked in and she realized it would be better if the changeling learned not to rely too much on others. Though, even though her weakest drones should’ve been able to handle the thing with the love they had now, she knew not to send a non-fighter into battle with—
“What!? What the hell are you talking about?” The changeling screamed back. “Humans can’t fly, you idiot!” She panted. “Maybe if I could find a rope...”
Chrysalis choked back several expletives as she trailed the changeling. “Okay, you—” She grumbled incoherently. ”You have wings! Just flap them, up and down, really quickly!” she said in the least patronizing voice she could muster, which was still incredibly patronizing.
“Humans don’t have wings, ā càn!” the changeling mare screamed. “Hey, tiger thing, go eat that stupid person instead!”
“GRRGHGNMGH!” Foam dripped from Chrysalis’ mouth. “You’re not a human! You have wings! Did you not notice that I’m above you!? If we’re beings that can’t fly, then how am I above you!? And why are you running like that!? You’d go faster if you ran on all fours instead of running on your hind legs like an idiot!”
Finally noticing something strange, the changeling looked up. Chrysalis was indeed above her.
Just as the manticore was closing in, the changeling buzzed her wings and shot straight up.
The manticore tried to jump up and catch her, but it was too late. Frustrated, it trudged back to its territory to sulk.
Chrysalis let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding in. Thankfully, her changeling was able to keep itself out of trouble, and that meant she wouldn’t be endangering the group later. Now, she just had to wait for her changeling to fly up to her and she’d give the biggest, most relief filled hug…
“I can fly!” The changeling completely ignored Chrysalis and zipped through the trees.
Chrysalis slumped. Nothing was going how she wanted today. Fortunately, past experience told her that usually just meant you needed to take a more active role.
“Hey!” Chrysalis called out.
The changeling hovered over to her. Soon she was so close they were practically touching, but for some reason her eyes didn’t always meet Chrysalis’. “Oh hey,” she said, “you’re the per— er— thing? Monster? You’re the monster thing that saved my life.“ She extended a hoof. ”This is totally surreal! And I’m flying!”
Chrysalis smiled and accepted the light hoofshake. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. “You can just call me Chrysalis, or Queen. Whichever you prefer.”
The changeling’s eyes widened. Suddenly, she held her hooves to her mouth as she giggled. “This is even more surreal! I get to meet the queen of the African jungle and we’re on a first name basis already! And she’s a flying zebra! This is the craziest dream!”
Chrysalis blinked, trying to make sense of her changeling’s words. She wasn’t sure if she should feel insulted or praised for the title ‘flying zebra queen of the African jungle’.
“Oh! And you’re Chrysalis? That’s perfect! We both have bug names: I’m Butterfly Feng! Please call me Butterfly.”
Chrysalis should’ve been happy, but something struck her as off. The thing was, all of her changelings already had names. She couldn’t recall all of them immediately, but she would always remember a changeling’s name when she saw the changeling it belonged to. And while My Tool felt off, this was just plain wrong.
Butterfly Fang might have been some changelings name, but it wasn’t this changeling’s name. This changeling had a few scratches on its ears and head fin, so Chrysalis had dubbed her ‘Clipping’, short for hair clipping. Chrysalis was so clever…
...Well, it pained her to know her changeling rejected her name, but she did have to admit Butterfly Fang was a pretty good name for a changeling.
Either way, Clip— no, Butterfly, would still be her changeling no matter what. After a short nod to herself, Chrysalis welcomed the changeling with open arms.
“...What are you doing?” Butterfly asked. She just stared at Chrysalis’ expectant smile and wide open arms as if she was being asked to perform some sort of complex routine she had never heard of before.
A befuddled Chrysalis stared back. “You just survived a manticore attack. Don’t you want to… you know, hug something?” She hugged herself, very intimately. Chrysalis knew it was a sight that any changeling, modest or not, would give a wing and leg to be part of.
Butterfly shook her head. “Uh… no. We’re friends now, but we’re not that close yet.”
Chrysalis tilted her head, once again opening her arms expectantly. “But we’re right next to each other. It would be so easy to just, you know, tilt your wings forward...”
Butterfly did the opposite, flying backwards and then into a small circle before flying back to Chrysalis. “Well, that’s neat. I’m not hugging you though. That’d be a bit weird, as well as a bit indecent out here.”
Chrysalis let her arms fall down and scowled. “What do you mean weird and indecent! It’s just a hug!”
“Look, I don’t know what kind of freaky stuff you guys do in Africa, but we don’t hug people we just met in Hong Kong!” Butterfly scrunched her muzzle.
Chrysalis fluttered back down to the ground, frowning. This wasn’t how she wanted to greet her newly sapient changelings at all. If she had her way, she would be welcoming them into a giant party, with love and cake everywhere, entertainment abound, open dueling between changeling warriors on stage, and pony slaves carrying her everywhere. Hopefully the ponies would plan some sort uprising so she could have fun with that too.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Butterfly followed a frowning Chrysalis to the ground, forgetting the manticore from earlier. ”I didn’t mean to make you sad. It’s just we don’t do those sort of things in Hong Kong. You can still call me Butterfly though.”
Chrysalis didn’t hear her changeling in her musings.
Now, not only was there no cake, martial arts, and indentured servants, but her changelings didn’t even know proper etiquette!
Wait a minute. What if she had forgotten changeling etiquette! It was possible that after being around ponies, griffins, and other creatures for so long, she forgot what it was like to be a changeling!
Well then, maybe a more reasonable changeling could help her out.
‘Tool!’ She screamed out on the hive-link.
‘Right.’ Chrysalis could practically feel his eyes rolling. ‘Don’t bother getting my name right. It’s not like it’s important or anything. You don’t need to tell me how to fly either. I’m sure I’ll get it on my own.’
“Wait, we forgot about the tiger thing!” whispered Butterfly as she waved her hooves in front of Chrysalis’ glazed over face. “The tiger’s right over there!” She pointed, but Chrysalis wasn’t looking.
Chrysalis’ sigh reverberated through the link. ‘My Tool—’
‘Mitul.’ He corrected.
Chrysalis fought an urge to mispronounce his name again. ‘Mii Tool,’ she said, ‘to fly quickly, all you need to do is flap your wings quickly and let your diaphragm contract and expand with the wing beats. You can also tilt your body and wings independently. The rest has to be learned by practice.’ She finished her explanation as quickly as possible.
‘Now please—’
The small amount of hurt and annoyance Chrysalis felt confused her.
‘What? What did I do now!?’
“Chrysalis! Chryssi! Chrysalisalisalis! Get up!” Suddenly, Chrysalis felt something hugging her. It was a strange hug though, because hugs normally don’t try to pull you up. Nevertheless, the hug was appreciated during her moment of frustration. “It spotted us again, we gotta...” Suddenly, Butterfly dropped her. “Oh, I see how it is. Well, you’ve got your hug now, you African běi gū jī!”
Chrysalis gave no response.
Mii tool continued talking over the link. ‘I’m a repair man. I repair things so I can buy books. I’m not going to work as some sort of bug taxi!’
‘Changeling.’ Chrysalis’ scorn could be felt through the link.
‘Fine! Changeling taxi! I don’t do taxi work!’
‘Look,’ Chrysalis growled. ‘I don’t know what this taxi thing is or why you hate it so much, but I am trusting you to save lives, so please—’
‘If you’re trusting me, then why do you have to say please?’ Mii Tool asked, now more confused than annoyed.
The gears in Chrysalis’ brain turned at high speeds.
“GET UP YOU STUPID AFRICAN BĔI GŪ JĪ ZEBRA!” Butterfly screamed as she attempted to lift Chrysalis, but her queen was too heavy.
Chrysalis noticed that annoying manticore galloping over while she was thinking. How rude.
She lazily backhoofed the thing, sending it crashing through several trees. That should teach it not to interrupt changelings. Though, she didn’t mean to hit it that hard.
Also, she could feel Butterfly’s emotions. She knew her changeling thought she was about to die, yet did not abandon her like some had in the past. She would remember this.
Meanwhile, Butterfly just stared at the destroyed section of forest. “What the… I could feel that.” She put her hoof to her face, probably in attempt to pinch her cheek. That was when she realized she had no hands.
Chrysalis continued her talk. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with saying please. I think it shows respect.’
‘Respect? Well, following it I suppose. But again, I’m not doing taxi work for you. Maybe now when everyone’s reincarnated in a forest, but later, I only do repairs...’ He paused. ‘Okay, If you want to ask me something, just ask me.’
Chrysalis tapped her chin in thought. ‘I think I get it. You don’t have to say ‘please’ because you’re expected to do things without any form of coercion. I like that.’
‘Mii Tool,’ She continued, ‘I need help. Butterfly Fang was insulted because of a hug. A hug! You’re a recently awakened changeling or human or whatever. What’s wrong with hugging?’
She waited patiently for her first lesson on changeling etiquette. Hopefully now she wouldn’t have to worry about insulting all of her followers whenever she opened her mouth.
‘...Well,’ Mii Tool started, ’it seems fine to me. I don’t know if there’s really anything wrong with it. That’s more philosophy, which is a out of my area.’
Chrysalis waited for him to continue, only to be met with silence. ‘That’s it?’ she asked. ‘That’s all you have to say?’
‘I don’t really pay that much attention to people. I’d probably be a lot more useful if we were talking about physics or chemistry.’
More nonsense words, plus a non-answer, which was aggravating. Maybe she should start writing these down. As it was, that last sentence only told her they had nothing to talk about now.
‘Fine. I’ll do this myself.’ She came back to reality.
Now conscious of the real world, Chrysalis felt a large weight on her head. Looking up, she felt several rocks bounce off her face. “Ow.”
Butterfly covered her mouth as she giggled, but her laugh seemed a bit too unhinged. It was as if she had realized something both profound and utterly terrifying while Chrysalis was blanking out. “Oops! I’m sorry! You just looked like a cat, sitting there all motionless. Are you okay?”
Chrysalis ignored the pain in her face. There were far more important things to worry about right now. “Butterfly, if you had to, could you fly on your own?”
“Huh? Uh, yes,“ She nodded. ”I think I’ve got the hang of it now.” She looked unsure. Though, perhaps she was confused because the question was asked so suddenly.
“Good,” Chrysalis continued. “There are more changelings like us in this forest, and we need to spread out so none are left alone. As long as you can fly, you shouldn’t have to worry about manticores.”
“Okay,” Butterfly nodded. “But... what’s a changeling? And what’s a manticore?”
“We’re changelings,” clarified Chrysalis, “and the thing that was chasing you was a manticore.”
Butterfly nodded, suddenly looking around for some reason.
“One last thing,” Chrysalis continued. “You will occasionally feel a small buzzing in your head. Stop resisting it; it’s how we communicate over long distances.”
“Oh, so like a cellphone?” Butterfly jumped up and started hovering.
Chrysalis blinked. “A what?”
“You don’t have cellphones?” Butterfly looked sad. “Well, it’s a little hard to explain, but… hmm...” She rubbed her chin.
After a few seconds of no speech, Chrysalis huffed. “You can explain it later. Right now we need to find the other changelings!” She took off.
“Bye bye...” Butterfly watched her strange new friend fly off into the forest, keeping her gaze on her until she was out of sight. The lack of a proper goodbye from her friend was a little disheartening, and she still wasn’t sure what to think of her, but that wasn’t going to stop her from doing the right thing.