Previous Chapters
Close
Chapter One5,872 words
Chapter Two7,537 words
Chapter Three1,596 words

Chapter Three

A Handmaiden’s Loyalty

“I dealt with the raiders’ camp,” Truth said as she stood in Chrysalis’ office.

The Changeling Queen glanced back at her handmaiden. “Ah,” she said, understanding. “Anything of note?”

“There were more than I expected,” Truth replied. “But, I have greatly reduced their numbers. It will take them months to recover. If they recover at all.”

Chrysalis nodded and went back to organizing the shelf of books in her office. It had been a week since the incident near the Crystal Empire. In that time, Truth had spent long hours thinking over what she had learned. Her Queen had engaged in a relationship with the ruler of the Crystal Empire, the very same mare that she had impersonated during the Invasion of Canterlot. Chrysalis was in some aspects betraying the hive and her people, but in a more tangible way she was helping the hive recover. Princess Cadenza was supplying Love Extract in great quantities to the hive, sending it with Chrysalis when the latter returned from her outing to the Empire.

To further complicate matters, not only was Cadenza’s husband unaware of her current relationship with Chrysalis, but also in the dark about his wife being pregnant. By Chrysalis’ doing, no less.

Traditionalists would not approve of such things. General Silas, to whom Truth was currently reporting in order to gain leverage over the Queen, certainly wouldn’t.

Truth had held her tongue for the time. Overwhelmed by all that had transpired, and was likely still transpiring. Worse still were her personal feelings for Chrysalis. Handmaidens and their charges developing a romantic relationship wasn’t unheard of. But Truth wasn’t sure if her feelings for her queen were romantic or just sexual frustration.

“I going to tell them.” Chrysalis said suddenly.

Truth blinked a few times. “What?”

“I’m going to tell them, the whole hive.” Chrysalis said, sounding more confident this time.

“My Queen, are you sure this is… the wisest course?”

Chrysalis nodded. “There’s no point in keeping it from them any longer. Especially with my plans.”

“If I may, what plans?” Truth asked.

“This child of mine and Cadance - Princess Cadenza. This child is to be born in a few months time and I do not plan to deprive them of either parent.” Chrysalis fixed Truth with a pointed gaze. “And I think my time as Queen of this hive is to end soon.”

Truth stayed silent, digesting the information.

“When will you make the announcement?” she asked after a time.

“In a week. I want Princess Cadenza here as well.” Truth made to speak, but Chrysalis stopped her with a gesture. “Please, it will be better this way. And if it is safety that is your concern, I have great confidence in you and the members of my Royal Guard.”

Truth closed her mouth and took a breath. “Very well.”

“This is an outrage!” Silas roared, causing more than a few of his lieutenants to wince.

Another week had passed, and only hours before, Chrysalis had made her announcement, Princess Cadenza at her side, Truth standing a few feet adjacent to them, and the whole of the Royal Guard surrounding them. There had been a few murmurs and even a shout or two from the crowd as Chrysalis informed her hive of what had happened, what was happening, and what was to happen. After the event ended, Truth had been told that Silas had called a meeting.

And the meeting began with the General’s above statement.

“Why did you not tell me of this?” Silas demanded, rounding on Truth.

Truth kept her expression neutral. “Perhaps it is because I did not know.”

Silas snorted. “It matters little now. We must act. Tonight,” he growled. “Tonight we will storm her house and remove her.”

The gathered lieutenants all looked around nervously, but it was Truth that voiced the thoughts in all their minds. “That’s suicide, General.”

Silas rounded on her again. “What?” he hissed.

“The entirety of the Royal Guard is patrolling her home and a good sized division of the army guards the way there.” Truth shook her head. “Your followers are many, but not that many.”

“But we have you, Handmaiden.”

Truth smirked. “You flatter me, General, but even I could not face so many of the Royal Guard and survive.”

“Then what do you suggest we do?” Silas growled.

Truth pondered this for a time, Silas and his lieutenants watching her closely. Finally, she spoke.

“If you intend to take this hive from the Queen, there can be no doubt in your position. You must remain pure, which means you must stop taking the Extract the Queen brings.”

Silas nodded grimly. “Very well, we all shall.”

Truth nodded and continued. “We cannot take her now, nor anytime soon. We must wait for the foal to be born.”

“Why?” one of the lieutenants asked.

Truth shot him a glare that seemed to make him shrink in his seat, but answered his question anyway. “The child is the key. Once we have it, the Queen will bow to our every command.”

Silas took a moment to think this over before nodding. “Very well. But, how are we supposed to take the child from her?”

Truth smiled. “I will continue to listen, General. In the meantime, no meeting will be called without my say-so, and any who do not follow my instructions will join Colonel Gisei in retirement.” She cast her gaze around the assembled. “Understood?”

They all nodded.

“Then lie back and wait.”

Little of note happened in the months that followed. Once more Truth divided her time between looking after her Queen and training. She followed Chrysalis everywhere, only allowing the Queen to be more than a few dozen paces away when an important task was required.

Silas and his ilk grew more and more restless with each passing week, the General sending couriers to hound her for news. Each time a courier was sent, it always seemed to be at a very inopportune time. They interrupted her training, interrupted her meditating, interrupted her private meetings with Chrysalis. One even sought her out while she was bathing just a few pools away from Chrysalis in the hot springs. Worse yet, it was always the same changeling that seemed all too happy to hound her. She eventually snapped and broke one of his legs, claiming he had interrupted her while she was training and she accidentally attacked him.

Silas left her in peace after that.

Truth knew what he was after. Since Chrysalis’ announcement, both he and his soldiers had kept to her doctrine of keeping away from the Love Extract that Chrysalis brought to the hive, and by the time Queen Chrysalis and Princess Cadenza’s child was born, they had withered to a state worse than that of the Invasion.

“She’s lovely, isn’t she Truth?” Chrysalis cooed, holding the recently born hybrid foal in her forelegs.

Truth, Chrysalis, Princess Cadenza, and the foal were currently in the Royal Infirmary, a private medical inside the Queen’s home. It was small, but well stocked and staffed. The nurses and doctors had left not long after the birth, only occasionally popping in to check on the foal.

Truth had been standing at the entrance to the infirmary the entire time, not seeing the scene as she watched the halls, but certainly hearing it. While she couldn’t say if the experience completely dissuaded her from having foals, it certainly did make the idea a tad unappealing.

Truth nodded in response to Chrysalis’s question, the foal’s appearance certainly being what one might call ‘adorable.’

“Do you want to hold her?” Cadenza asked her from her spot in the bed.

Truth looked at the alicorn with surprise. The two of them had hardly interacted at all since the incident with the raiders. And yet she was offering to allow a creature she knew to be a skilled killer hold her child?

Is she just being polite? Truth wondered.

Chrysalis offered the blanket wrapped foal to Truth. “Go on,” she said softly.

Hesitantly, Truth took the foal from Chrysalis. She felt ridiculous, standing there, holding a child with a sword on her back and a gun in her belt. The foal seemed to be asleep at the moment, her tiny features certainly stirring something in the Handmaiden’s chest.

The foal suddenly awoke, yawning cutely and managing to pull one of her diminutive forelegs from the blanket. The foal stared up at Truth, her shiny black eyes staring at the Handmaiden with curiosity. Truth made to give the foal back to Chrysalis, but the Changeling Queen held a hoof up, observing the scene playing out.

Truth looked back at the foal, teal eyes meeting obsidian orbs. The foal stared her down, idly nibbling on her hoof. After a time, the foal yawned and snuggled up closer to Truth’s chest, placing her hoof on the Handmaiden.

“She trusts you.” Chrysalis said softly.

Truth nodded silently. The hatchlings of a Queen rarely took any other creature besides their parents, especially this early in life. Why did the foal like her? Was it because the child was a hybrid? Did she just smell appealing?

Truth didn’t know, and at the moment didn’t care. She cradled the foal a little closer to herself, feeling calmer than she had in weeks.

Truth did come to a conclusion on one thing in that moment.

Silas was getting this foal over her dead body.

Author's Note:

Kind of a cliffhanger, isn't it? Originally this story was going to include Truth kidnapping the foal and then fighting her way through a few of Silas' goons, but I felt that the real conflict of the story, Truth Loyalty, had already been resolved. And so, the exact events will likely be left up to you imagination, a la Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

Hopefully you guys enjoyed this expansion of Truth's character. I do realize the plot thread of her infatuation with Chrysalis wasn't entirely resolved. I have plans for this, which will come up in If You 3. Which should come out sometime before Half-Life 3.

Maybe. ;)

1,132 views

Previous Chapters