15- Diplomat of the Diarchy
I hate studying. I LOVE reading. If you let me, I could be seen reading anything from a fiction tale about the Kingdom of Xanth, to a compendium of greek myths. Being told to read a specific thing though, that's horrible. Even if I wanted to read it, being told to just makes me not want to. Guess I have a bit of a stubborn, antagonistic side.
So here I was, poring over forms and historic documents, learning all about my 'job' as an employee of the Center of Changeling Relations. And seeing as I couldn't read anything in Equish or Unicorne(yeah, I think its a stupid punny name), I had to have a proxy read it all to me. Enter Queen Chrysalis. Ex Queen Chrysalis. Whatever. Turns out she was the one Twilight had been hinting at before, when she said she had included 'another person in on the ruse'. Chrysalis was...intense. Happy one moment, serious another. Confusing, really.
After Twilight informed Celestia about my cover story, she jumped on the bandwagon wholeheartedly. All employees at the CCR have been sworn to secrecy, and I'm supposed to go meet them later this week. So yeah, the princess of the sun, great and wise leader that she is, just made me, an antisocial wad of a human being, an employee at an institution that FOCUSES on interacting with other people. If she wasn't apparently an immortal with better things to do(Twilight claimed she and her sister were over a thousand years old), I would have sworn she was trolling me.
Bah. The history was kinda interesting, I guess. Changelings feed on emotion, love in particular. As such, (coupled with the fact that they look like bug ponies, seriously they look really scary) ,most folk shied away from, even running away in fear at the sight of them. They couldn't feed off love from another changeling, so they were starving. At three years ago, pretty much every hive had died off, leaving a certain Queen Chrysalis with less than 400 of her children alive. An entire race, nearly starved to extinction. Again with Queen Chrysalis(and yes, every mention of her has the 'queen' capitalized. I don't know why.), she had gone crazy from hunger(having refused to eat while her children starved) and ordered what was left of her brood to attack Canterlot and steal love from the inhabitants. This of course was a horrendous idea, having so many holes in the logic you could have called it swiss cheese. The moment they attacked, they turned all the love from the citizens into hate and fear. Couple that with the fact that their invasion failed, they were all the more closer to extinction. Shortly after, she regained her sanity in what she thought would be her final days, and flew straight into the throne room of Princess Celestia( startling a large number of ponies gathered there for the day court, and causing Celestia strain a wing from jumping into a defensive combat form). Begging her to help her children, regardless of whatever consequences she had incurred, as long as they only be met upon herself for her actions. Princess Celestia was understandably wary, but over time true relations were established.
They had since integrated into the rest of society, but there was still as of yet tension between them and the rest of Equestria. I guess regardless of the populace(even freakishly friendly pastel ponies), someone who looks different will be feared, and hated, for no more reason than the fact that they can. Celestia had collaborated with the current queen of the changelings(Queen Insectum) to form the CCR, which apparently had the joint task of promoting harmony between the races, and preventing bigotry and violence. Among other things.
"Pay attention, youngling!" my least favorite queen yelled, throwing an eraser at my head with her magic. We'd been going over the earlier history of when she was still a princess,(apparently she was an immortal as well, seeing as this was over a thousand years ago.), and I have to say. I was booooored. Even her girlfriend was bored, seeing as she was...yeah, she was eating a curtain. That in itself might have been odd, but the fact that she was hanging from it as I could hear her chewing it, that just threw it out into the left field of weird.
"I was," I lied badly, gaining a raised eyebrow from her queenship.
"No you were not, you were staring at...Flufflepuff, stop eating Twilights curtains. I swear, you act so foalish sometimes." The giant ball of fluffy pink pony(no relation to Pinkie Pie, thank god) stopped chewing on the curtain and dropped to the floor. She then squeaked at Chrysalis, walked close, kissed her full on the lips, and then scooted out the door(back legs puttering along, her front legs just sliding on the floor with the main of her body).
"Do I really have to know all this? Its not like I'm actually going to be working at the CCR, am I?"
"Knowing the Princess, you just might be. Also, what if somepony inquires further on your, ahem, cover story? If you aren't able to back it up, you might very well cause more trouble than you intend. Both to your own standing and to that of those that have vouched for you. Understand?"
Bah. how dare she counter with sound logic. How come I couldn't have gotten the version of her that had gone for a vanilla unicorn, instead of trying to eat from the 'princess of love'? As far as I could see, that had been one of her biggest logic fallicies.
"Yes ma'am."
"Allright then. In 408 A.N.(After the Nightmare), a warring hive was killed off by a sect of Griffons. Pretty foalish, they attacked them first. In the end-"
Gooooooooooooooooooooood god this was so freaking boring. And she just went ON and ON like this for hours. I could have done something, ANYTHING else to just ebb my boredom. Eventually night fell, and she left. At least I got SOMETHING cool out of this. I asked if I could make a hybrid morph of her and...Flufflepuff(I swear, some of the names here are just god awful. A prepubescent girl chugging a gallon of estrogen supplements a day couldn't come up with some of these). They actually were pretty excited about it(something about an illegitimate baby. Maybe something to do with them both being mares. As far as I could figure, they'd have to adopt to get a baby. But hey, maaaagic.), and let me get my morph. It didn't turn out as cool as I would have liked, but it was still angular and spiffy. The body was still changeling, all glossy plates of chitin. It was however, pink. A deep glossy and dark pink, but pink nonetheless. No holes in the legs, horn or otherwise, but the angles still looked pretty badass. It had wings along with the horn, and thankfully the wings weren't pink. They were a metallic blue, and were insectile. I still had yet to fly(and with my fear of heights, I plan never to cross that bridge.) with Flutterbats leathery wings, but in my opinion these looked awesome. I was almost as big as Twilight.
They had both squealed in girlish hysteria, and I unfortunately spent the next few minutes fending off the two of them. Something about wanting to adopt me. creepy. After that mess was hashed out(explaining that I already had a family, but I'm fairly certain they were only joking) they tried to get me to use changeling magic. Simply enough said, that was a bust. I stood there shaking like a leaf, trying to get something to happen(didn't help that Chysalis's only advice was 'feel it, and just change'.), but the only thing I could get in the realm of results was another round of 'use horn to lift tiny objects with maximum effort'. Was this ever going to get any easier?
They eventually left, and I was left to my own devices once again. For a while, before Twilight intervened and started asking me questions. I didn't even notice at first, seeing as I had my earbuds in(Skullcandies. Noise canceling, darned good quality for what they were. Best $16 I ever spent).
"WADE!" she shouted, leaning into my line of sight, scaring the bejesus out of me. I may or may not have let out an extremely feminine sounding yelp. I wouldn't know, I couldn't hear it over the beating of my heart.
"Sheesh Twilight," I said, taking out my buds, "Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Whats with the yelling?"
"I'm sorry, but you weren't responding to me, for a minute there I thought something was wrong with you..."
I grabbed one bud inbetween my fingers, and motioned it to her. "Earbuds. They fill the ear canal, and block outside sound. Couldn't hear you, I was listening to music."
"Music? But wheres the tape reel, or the record player? How does it play music? Why are the headphones so small? Why-" I cut her off, sticking my hand into her mouth. She gagged after a second, and forced my hand out with her hooves. "ew ew ew ew ew, now my mouth tastes like ink, ew ew ew eeuck." Oh yeah, I had been handling paper and books all day. My fingers were almost black with ink.
"Thats your own fault for channeling your inner Pinkie Pie. If you want me to answer anything, don't rapid fire them at me. K?"
She finished wiping her tongue off with her foreleg. "Fine. How is it playing music, it didn't look like you have a trotmare or anything like that..."
I held up what my earbuds were plugged into, my Phillips Go Pro. A small little block of white plastic, no bigger than a pack of tick tacs. Not as illustrious as an Ipod, but it still played mp3's just as well. Held about 4 gigs of songs, too. "Firstly, I think my worlds closest comparison to your...ahem...'trotmare' would be a walkman. Magnetic strip of tape that it reads from, cycled between two spinning wheels?" She nodded at my description, confirming my suspicions. They had tapes? That meant they could have movies too, maybe this wouldn't be a horribly boring world after all.
"Well humans have progressed quite a bit past that, DON'T bother asking me how it works, I don't know. This," I jiggled the Go Pro in front of her face, "Is an mp3 player. Don't ask me what an mp3 is either, all I know is that its a type of format that they're recorded on, or at, or something. Currently, this device is holding...a little over a thousand songs." Hey eyes went wide, and it was the damned kindle all over again. She went on and on about 'how much of a scientific breakthrough this could be', and even asked if she could take my player apart. I declined, as politely as I could. I wasn't going to let her break it, especially seeing as she more than likely wouldn't know how to put it back together.
She then compared the audio jack to equestrian headphones, seeing as my earbuds weren't exactly made for equine ears in mind. The jack was longer, and thicker than mine.(sexual innuendo aside...) She asked if she could cut off the end of my headphones, to see if she could make it compatible. Another hell no from me. She was starting to get all frowny from me constantly rebuking her.
So I cycled through my songs, finally settling on one called Grey Octave(I shared my player with my sister, she was putting unfamiliar stuff on it all the time.), and pushed play. Putting my earbuds between my middle fingers and my ring fingers, I cupped my hands over Twilights ears. She went stiff as a board, her eyes twitching and looking all around. after a minute or so, I removed my hands, to Twilights protests.
"No! Put them back, it's just getting good!" Oh great. another aspect she was going to be all so insistent on.
"Sorry, but seeing as I'm really the only one that I can use it, I'd like to try to preserve the battery life...which is still at 100%. Odd." While it could go for over 8 hours, it couldn't go on indefinitely.
"But...fine. If I can replicate a cable that can interface with it, can I try it?" I didn't see any problem with that...Unless...
"If you break it, you have to make me a new one."
"Terms accepted!" She chirped, a grin wide on her face. "Oh, I almost forgot, I just got word from the princess, We're expected at the Center for Changeling Relations first thing tomorrow morning, so grab your bag, we're going to Canterlot tonight."
Well. I kinda was hoping on a longer time to study. Great, now I was gonna end up making a fool of myself in front of my new 'coworkers'. Oh well. Maybe it would just be introductory.
"Really? Couldn't have given me a shorter warning?"
"I just learned myself, now come on, we don't want to be late.The last train leaves in seventeen minutes."
~------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~
We arrived two hours later, around 10. It was dark, and there was almost no one around. Save for the three guard ponies that were waiting at the platform for us. One was an old pegasus, with a jet black body, and green hair. One was a younger earth stallion(he was obviously new, whereas the other two had a stoic look about them, he was nervously looking around and bouncing on his hooves to stay warm) with a peach colored coat, and soft blue hair. The last was an average looking unicorn, both his coat and hair a different shade of dark blue.
"Greetings," came from the pegasus, a deep gravely voice I wouldn't be surprised to see come from the lips of a soldier from Gears of War(it was manly. Don't question it) "We were sent by Princess Celestia to escort you to your guest room(yeah, he said room. Not rooms. This was gonna be awkward), and have been made privy of details about you.(Twilight had already told me that, so I thought I'd give my human legs a stretch, seeing as the only people out and about to see me already knew about me) You can't traverse the city in that form, there ARE still some out and about."
"Told you," said a certain snarky dragon. "Pay up."
I had bet him five bits that no one would be around once we got there. Jokes on him though, because I- "Don't have any bits. Will you accept an IOU?"
"...Fine"
"You are the human, Wade?"
"Yes?" I answered. Sorta. I had a questioning tone, because I wasn't really sure what he was asking me. He had already confirmed I was the human by his earlier remark, so why was he asking?
"We understand you have yet to gain a male...morph?" Spike gave a derisive snort. "The Princess asked of us, and we three have agreed to volunteer our services."
Oh goody. I could now get three new morphs, all male! Or...I could make a hybrid morph, so I wouldn't be stepping on anyones toes...hooves. I could tell that even though they were offering, they were kinda uncomfortable about this.
"Well thank you for your...services. Mind if I try something new?"
Well now, I apparently confused all three of them.
"Just let me touch all three of your hooves, at the same time. I made a two pony mix the first day I got here, and then I made a mix between a bat and a pony. I wanna see if I can make a three way mix. This way, I won't go around looking like any of you three in particular, okay? And by the way, my name is Wade Jallecks. Nice to make your acquaintance." I extended a hand, and their apprehension of me visibly drained away.
"I am Captain Air Razor you may call me Slash if you wish." The jet black pegasus extended a hoof, and placed it on my outstretched palm.
"Hello sir, my name is Grinding Gear, and I'm a private." The skittish earth pony placed his hoof on top of my palm, but there wasn't much room. I'd have to hold the next one in my other hand.
"I am last? How unelegant."spouted the trim unicorn in a clipped accent. "I am 2nd Lieutenant Elegy Esper, at your service. A shame, I welcomed having a visage of myself I could actually inspect from all sides. Mirrors are just so inefficient. Stationary, you know?"
He placed his hoof in my left hand, and I began the acquiring process. Both Air Razor and Elegy Esper weren't effected by the trance state(big shocker, I know) but Grinding Gear went full on slack-jawed, drool pooling out of his mouth and such. He shook himself of the daze, and I released their hooves.
A minute later they looked on at me in confusion, and more than just a little bit of disappointment.
"What."
"Well sir...its just... we thought you were going to..." Gear trailed off as I held up a claw.
A purple claw. Yeah, I went with my Spike morph. "I'm not going to waste the suspense. I assume you three will be escorting us tomorrow?" a round of nods, Gear's slightly delayed. "Then you'll get to see it in the morning. Shall we get going, brother?" I waved a claw back at Spike, who had kept silent during this discussion. He giggled at my statement, and leapt forward, down the street.
"Spike, wait! We can't run off without them, wait!" Silly purple pegacorn.
~----------------------------------------------------------------------------------~
We ended up all sleeping in the same room. I made a pile of pillows and blankets on the floor, and as far as I know Spike and Twilight cuddled together. It was quite comfortable, and I didn't take up much room in my Spike morph. Maybe I should call this form something different? Barb? Nah, that sounds like a girls name. I'll think of something.
I fell asleep quickly, and woke up just as quick. Apparently I'm a heavy sleeper though, because I woke up to the snorting giggles of a certain lavender colored pegacorn.
"Ohmygosh, don't move! Lemme get my camera!"
I was told not to move. So I wriggled around, trying to free myself from the blankets ensnaring me. It was in my efforts I became aware of a warm mass of scales curled against my side. Apparently Spike had sleepwalked, and joined my nest in the middle of the night. I didn't mind, it was a source of warmth, it felt like a little brother. Well, seeing as we were both the same size, I'm not sure how accurate that last statement is. Twin brother? Bah. I digress.
"Say cheeeeese~"
"Gorgonzola." I managed not to grimace or smile in the picture, getting a perfectly neutral look across as Spike drooled on my shoulder. Gross.
I disentangled myself from the sleeping dragon and mass of blankets, and demorphed. I was all the way up to 38, according to my watch. Guess I had built my reserves up a little. Yay.
"I'll never get used to that." Thanks Twilight, lord knows I want to feel like the freak in the land of talking unicorns.
"Well thank goodness 'I' don't have to watch it..." see, I can be snarky too. I started to morph, concentrating on the three from last night.
"Did...you pick up a fourth when I wasn't looking?"
"Fourth what?" I said, my voice warbling with an artificial quality. Well that was weird. Lifting up a hoof I could also see it was covered...in a shell. Chitin, to be exact. "Well. Guess one of our guards is a changeling. Wanna place bets on whom? I bet 5 bits that its Gear. He seemed flighty."
"Well. I guess that's to be expected. Its not that surprising in the end. And no, I'd rather you not owe both Spike and I an IOU. But if we were going to be betting, my bits would be on Air Razor."
"Any particular reason?"
"No. Would you like a mirror?"
I took a couple seconds to think, then nodded. She lit up her horn and one popped in with a burst of air. I looked... odd. I had a kinda normal head, a masculine muzzle covered in fur/hair. Sprouting from my brow was a crooked, arching horn, covered in a light fuzz of purple. Oh yeah. Apparently peach, black, and blue makes purple. Same darn shade as Twilight, to boot. my body was thinner that Air Razor's or Gears, making me think it was more heavily based off of Elegy's. Covering my chest all the way up to my neck, down to my armpits(frontal legpits?) and ending just before my pelvis was a sheet of darkened chitin that was only a slightly darker shade than my...coat. Hair on my head and tail was a slightly lighter shade. Odd. From the 'knee' downwards my legs were also covered in chitin. I also had hot pink wings. Wonderful. At least the Chryslpuff morph had cool looking wings.
"My tail feels...weird."
"How so?"
"It feels thicker? I guess?" I made a conscious effort to twist it around to where I could inspect it. The hair on it draped away from the tip of the nub or whatever. It seemed a little longer than most pony morphs. On the end...was that a-
"Sweet Celestia that's a stinger. One of them is a changeling king?" Well, that was new. I think I like seeing Twilight look utterly confused.
"King? I thought...the books you gave me said they all died out..." At the very least, they never said anything about one living in Canterlot.
"Well, all the known ones are dead. That being said, they ARE a sect of changelings. If they didn't want to be found, I don't think they would be."
"Twilight...why am I on the floor?" Spike had apparently joined us in the land of the living, and suddenly upon seeing me jumped a whole six feet off the ground and scattered the blankets. After a short explanation as to who I was(and a quick laugh at his panic) we had that sorted out.
After cleaning up after ourselves( my blankets, folded up nicely in a pile, the bed made up to perfection) we went down to a lunch hall. Our three guards had led us to an opulent hall connected to the main castle. There were ponies of all kinds being served from a selection of waiters(there were more females than males, but I always called them waiters regardless). After eating some sort of pasta dish, (that's what I had, Twilight had some sort of soup, and Spike just ate a bowl of gems) We were greeted outside the hall by a trio of familiar guardsponies. Air Razor had a shit eating grin creeping across his face(thank god Twilight didn't agree to the bet, I have a feeling i would have lost), and the other two had a look of surprise at my insectoid appearance.
"Well, that certainly is a surprise. I would have thought you would have mimicked what Air Razor looked like, not his actual species... Still, the overall appearance is one of elegant cohesion, if I do say so myself." Great, this guy was like a male version of Rarity. Maybe I should set them up? Nah.
"Have to say, it is rather interesting to look at." Air Razor rubbed a foreleg to his jaw.
"Its...certainly...different?" came the timid comment from Grinding Gear.
"It was a bit of a surprise. Almost as if SOMEONE was withholding certain information. And here I was thinking it was Gear. Oh well. Shall we get going?"
~---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~
It was a short trek to the CCR, a tall building nestled in between the Center for Rodentia Ramifications, and the Center for Proper Airflow in Ponies Houses(Don't look at me, I couldn't come up with something so stupid if I tried). It was an ugly shade of green, almost like the shade you'd have someone describe as 'swamp'. Without further fanfare, we entered the CCR.
I promptly ran headlong into the familiar feathery wall of a wing of our favorite princess of the sun. (I could have sworn there was nothing in front of me as I walked in the door, I call hax.)
"Greetings Wade, I trust your escorts treated you cordially?" She said in a happy, almost laughing tone. Again, if she wasn't some sort of immortal that obviously had better things to do, I would have sworn she was messing with me.
"Bleeeeuugh," I stated, spitting out a white feather. Could have sworn my mouth was closed too. "Got a lot of stares, but with them tagging along," I pointed at the trio, "no one bothered us, if that's what you're asking."
I made a sharp nod towards Air Razor, "If I had known you were sending me someone so darned cool to acquire though, I would have gotten him separately. Still," I waved a chitin encased hoof at the solar diarch, "I can't argue with the results."
"Glad to hear. In our defense, I didn't expect you to get them...all in one go."
"Our? Oh wait, that's the royal we, isn't it? My apologies." I managed to avert my eyes, and even though I could tell I was blushing, at least it wasn't too severe. Last thing I wanted to do was make a fool out of myself in front of one of the most powerful people in the land. All though, I think I kinda already did that, what with the whole fainting dinner fiasco.
"No, as the case may be. While my sister still employs the Royal We, I have since times of old abandoned it. I meant myself, and Queen Insectum." She pointed to a place in my blind spot. Great, I not only managed to embarrass myself in front of one member of royalty, but two. All in the same day. Wonderful.
Turning my head I saw...a younger, smaller, blue tinted version of Chrysalis. Only slightly smaller. Whereas Chrysalis was almost the same size as Celestia, Insectum was right smack dab in the middle of that and how big Twilight was.
"Salutations young one(great, were all members of royalty ancient immortals or something? I wonder if her mother told her to call me that...), We have been waiting for your arrival." With a flare of her wings, she nodded.
"A...pleasure to meet you, your highness." How was one supposed to treat royalty? I hope I didn't incur the wrath of one of them, for some random stupid glance or gesture I didn't realize was an affront. Maybe I should just try not to move as much as possible.
"As is for us." She gave me a critical once over as she stalked around me. It was kinda creepy, like I was being looked at like a piece of meat. "A shame he is not a true changeling king... A true shame." She said with a small, wistful sigh.
Not even then, your insectness. I suppressed a shudder, would be a a bummer if I upset her over something so trivial.
"Well, as much as I would LOVE for the conversation to stay on that point," I directed a pleading glance at Celestia. "I assume you didn't just come by to say hi to little ol' me, did you?"
"Alas, no. It just so happens we have a foreign dignitary visiting today, which is the reason for your arrival having come sooner than was previously expected. Xadre and Tolesc are from Zimbobneigh, and they are in Equestria to negotiate living conditions and immigration concerns. They've shown extreme disdain for changelings in the past, so I'd like to see what they say when they think I'm not listening. If you would just leave the talking to me, so they don't expect anything?" I didn't really get it, but okay.
Soon enough, the 'dignitaries' arrived, a couple of camel looking folk. They had sweeping robes of blue and black, like something you'd find in a fantasy game. All swirling runes and sorts embroidered on the hems. They both looked friendly enough, wide smiles plastered across their faces as they both drew a foreleg across their chests and bowed. So far I couldn't see this going south. Good.
"Gooreetinks, Miss Soolestia. Eet ees a voonderful oonar to be har," The male counterpart said, his voice dripping with an accent I couldn't place.
"Eet ees gyood to haff yew, Chanceller Tolesc." Well that was odd. Now it was Celestia talking in the broken accent.
"Come now Princess, I've said time and again, that you don't have to stoop to our language. We are perfectly willing to speak Equestrian whilst within your borders." Tolesc said, in perfect English without a hint of accent I could place.
Celestia gave a slightly confused look, and this Tolesc character gave a short laugh.
"My. Ap-ol-o-gies. Celestia. You. Do. Not. Have. To. Try. To. Speak. To. Me. In Our. Lang-ua-ge." He was talking in a slow, deliberate sense. Wait, so they were speaking yet another foreign dialect? Apparently one that Celestia wasn't all that familiar with. "I. Am. Per-fect-ly. Com-fort-able. Speak-ing. Eques-trian. I. Know. How. Hard. It. Is. For. You. To. Foll-ow. The. Fast. Pace. Of. Our. Lang-ua-ge."
"As long as you are comfortable, Ser Tolesc."
"Vee harr cyoomfortable regardless. Plus this way," He switched back into the accentless dialect, "The ugly little cocroaches won't know how we feel about them. Disgusting little insects, pretending to be ponies." he directed towards his companion, who stifled a giggle.
He walked up to Queen Insectum, and did another bow. "Heet ees a pleesure tyo finally meet yew, Herr Insectum. You abhorrant blight of an abomination."
"I have killed for less a slight, you hump backed foal." Queen Insectum stated, her voice dripping with venom.
"What? I...how..."
"Multilingual translation spell." Celestia stated, all hints of humor washed from her voice.
Tolesc cowered away, and Celestia took a step forward.
~------------------------------------------------~
Well, that went well. The ambassadors apologized profusely, and ended up signing whatever the Center asked them to. All in all, it ended well.
I was led around after that, and introduced to my 'co-workers' that I had been 'working with' for the past 'few years'. A griffon by the name of Thrash, a naga(half pony, with the bottom half of a snake) by the name of Wilting Glory, an earth pony by the name of Black Anne Blue, and a changeling called Balaan. They were all rather nice, introducing me to the workplace. I apparently was a 'clerk', whose main job had been paperwork. Just like home.
"And this, purple one, is the watercooler. It allows us to sustain ourselves with its precious liquid." Wilting Glory said, gesturing to the water cooler in a comedic fashion. "We don't really have a lot going on here. What you see is what you get."
"What we have is AWESOME though!" Thrash almost shouted, flinging an arm around my neck and hoisting me up.
"Leggo, leggo, can't...breathe..."
"Sorry lil' buddy, forget my own strength sometimes." he set me back down, and proceeded to smooth out the feathers on his head. "Can't help being as AWESOME as I am, though. It's just in my nature."
"Ignore Thrash, he's an idiot." Black Anne Blue said, waving her hoof dismissively. "If you ever need to ask us anything, don't hesitate. We're here to help!"
"The bonus stipend that has been awarded to us for our co-operation also has this one willing to assist." Balaan was...well he kinda sounded like a robot. Toneless, emotionless.
"Geeze, really Balaan, do you have ANY tact?" Wilting Glory whined at him.
"This one is simply being honest. Is not Honesty a crucial aspect of magic? That is, at the least, what all have told this one."
"Gaaaaaaah, there's honesty, and then there's saying what doesn't need to be said."
"Is that not simply a lie of omission?"
"AGH, you are impossible sometimes, Balaan."
"This one is simply Balaan. Always possible, always Balaan. To be impossible would make this one, one that is not Balaan."
Well I couldn't fault his reasoning. It sounded sound to me. They certainly were a quirky group, arguing back and forth like a well knit family. They seemed like the best of friends, joking and messing with each other. Thrash picked up Wilting Glory, and started throwing her up in the air despite her protests. This all continued for another hour, until Queen Insectum declared that she had to leave. We all said our goodbyes, and eventually left the CCR. Celestia pulled me to the side, and handed (hoofed?) me something.
"A... medal? Whats it say, if anything?"
"This is a badge denoting your position in the government, if you accept such a position. After seeing the effectiveness of whatever spell is attached to you, I believe your presence would help immeasurably in any upcoming functions. The language barrier is one least easily overcome, and as it stands a magority of the heads of different unions and countries have yet to all meet together due to this barrier. I plan on inviting all those that are able to attend to the next Grand Galloping Gala. " She floated a golden ticket out of thin air, placing in in my hoof as well. "And I would be most grateful if you would attend as well."
"That...still doesn't answer my question, Princess. Whats the medal say? And whats this position of whatever you're talking about?"
"My apologies, young one." Son of...were they ALL going to start pulling age on me? "It says, Negotiation is Understanding. I am asking you to take the title of Royal Diplomat of the Diarchy."
Well. That's...um...how the hell am I supposed to respond to that? Guess there's really only one thing to say. I never had much in the way of titles(save for a time in high school when the nickname 'Wade the Gay'd' circulated before some poor girl named Cindy accidentally had a period soak through her pants. That bit of gossip went around for a whole freaking year.) so actually...this might be kinda cool.
"Well, I can't really refuse, can I? I happily accept."
I held out a hoof, and we shook on it.
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5174420
Why?
Would you mind elaborating on your opinion?
Flufflepuff! <3
even though he didn'the say it I feel like some things going to go wrong. Also being promoved to be a diplomat? I suspect Celestia to subtlely use/encourage Wade to be a spy what with his powers and all because even for a cover backstory there was no reason whats so ever to give one with no qualifications and little experience with other races that job.
P.S you're using those parentheses a bit too often, while good for displaying inner thoughts it gets in the way of the story at large and is jarring used too much. Showing and not telling would be prudent too.(not all the time mind you but most).
What is going on here?!
5177000 I made a bunch of edits that apparently didnt save. I keep stumbling across them. And since I already corrected them, my brain just derps when I skim over them again. Thanks for catching that.
(Negotiation was left as Negotion for a couple days...)
5177017 haha! I'm sorry to hear about the editing probs ! Keep up the awesome work! I'm looking forward to the next chapter.
5175645 Yes?
5179950 I'm a fan of flufflepuff. I was trying to make a heart <3 because I can't acess the icons from my phone. It gets wonky
5179969
<3
E>
5179979 *nods* yeah that's what I was trying to do.
5179983 Whats your opinion on Chryslpuff?
5180004 adorable even if I have to completely force myself to ignore obsessing over the mechanics of such a relationship
5180027 I meant the morph, but that was my next question anyway.
5180040 ah. As for the morph the only bit of confusion for me is the body type. Fluffle is soft and almost indestructible, cryssy is hard. So.....I was expecting something similar to tire flesh( a bit of the give but tough and hard)
5206224
it makes me laugh so hard and is very good, very good. Thank you. (Bonus points if you get the reference)
So I just read through this whole story in one day (at least what you have so far) and I'd like to give you my impressions.
First of all I love most of it. The animorphs stuff really takes me back to my child hood and how you tie it into the mlp world and his abilities are just splendid. I especially love that he's acquired a few of the mane 6 morphs. All in all everything you've done up until a point just kept me reading chapter after chapter. This was however right up until I reached the chapter with Auric and right at that point my interest and understanding went out the window. I don't want too seem rude it just seemed to come out of nowhere and blindsided me.
The story is still great and well written just with the changling/auric/dante stuff I felt like the story kind of lost it's focus (or at least what I felt the focus you were going for was.)
All that being said I still enjoy the story and I'll keep on tabs with it to see where it goes.
I'm enjoying this still...
5209394
sTILL fLUTTERBAT, YES. iN MY OWN OPINION, fLUTTERBAT LOOKS JUST SIMILAR ENOUGH TO fLUTTERSHY TO BE EASILY MISTAKEN AS hER JUST TRYING OUT A NEW HAIRDOO OR SOMETHING.
...
Oh, hello there caps lock. Screw it, I have a party to organize, I don't have time to fix that. You get the gist.
5208642
I felt it nessasary to get it out of the way as soon as I could that changelings are NOT the bad guys in this universe, but that people are still kinda worried about them. I actually do have a point to it, and I hope it ends up entertaining you, the reader(s).
I believe it would be Zimbabneigh, the original being Zimbabwe.
Sounds like J'zargo to me. Can't say why. Just feels like him.
Considering what I believe to be the truth from what I read of the Robin crossover, I do believe Celestia is doing just that Wade.
Best chapter so far for me, we get Chryssie, Fluffle and those three quirky and awesome CCR employees. And a griffin finally.
5211215 i am just like you i love to read but i read what i want and not what im told because im a rebel spy
(star wars reference im somewhat a fan of that, no i AM A FAN) thanks for being a writer you made me want to keep reading your stories
