32 - All Hail the Queen
Silver followed after Stand, fretting over some recent life decisions along the way. He should have fought harder to leave his mares at home, but they weren't his mares. They made up their minds, and here they were. He took a soft breath and steeled himself, resolving to see this through to the best possible outcome. "You know," he said conversationally, "Fast Change is a huge fan of changelings."
Stand looked over her shoulder, "Really? I find that difficult to believe. She fought fiercely."
Did they really have a pitched battle that he slept through? "She is a loyal member of my herd, and was protecting herself and us without a thought, but it's true. If you'll let her go, I can show you."
Stand In turned around, "Let her go, as in leave the hive? Are you mad?"
Silver shook his head quickly, "No, I just mean so she can stand and speak, right here."
Stand peered at Silver a moment, "You best not be deceiving me." She waved a hoof, and Fast was set on the ground. They freed her of the gunk and she quickly scrambled to her hooves.
Silver advanced on Fast, giving her a soft nuzzling, "Fast, why don't you show them how good you are at changeling magic?"
Fast looked confused a moment, "Chang... Oh! I can do that. Bring your best and let's see who's better." Her expression turned to confidence as she looked at Stand In defiantly.
Stand In huffed, "I'll be your sparring partner. We'll start simple. Earth pony stallion." No sooner said than Stand In became a dark maroon earth pony stallion with a smiley-faced flower for a cutie mark. "Your turn."
Fast clopped her hooves even as she began to change, turning between one clop and the next, and she was a spitting image of Rough Draft. "Earth ponies are fun, so strong and durable."
Stand In gave a soft nod, "Alright, let's bring it up a step. Breezie." He became a she as she was engulfed in bright green flame and emerged as a tiny fluttering breezie.
Fast squinted, "You're skipping a few steps! Breezies are hard." She returned to her birth form, and her horn glowed powerfully as she focused on the change. With a stink of ozone and a loud crackle of power, she shrank down to match Stand. "Hello!" she squeaked in her tiny new voice.
Stand tilted her head one way, and the other, "Very good." She became a changeling again, "I already did unicorn. You do a changeling."
Silver felt a knot form in his belly, "No!" He leaped on Fast, pinning her to the ground with ease, her being so small at the moment. "Anything but that, please."
Stand scowled at Silver, "It was just getting interesting. Very well, I concede that wife has good taste. If she will behave, we will let her walk with you." She turned and prowled, remaining in changeling form.
Silver felt Fast become her usual size just before she shoved him off. She nudged him with a hoof, "That hurt."
Silver sat up quickly, "Sorry, I'm just... I'm afraid you might actually become one, if you tried."
Fast wrinkled her nose, "Well I didn't. Thank you for getting them to let me go." She moved to follow Stand, and Silver quickly caught up.
"To your left, you'll see the feeding pods. It's not too late for you to get a much closer look," spoke Stand In, indicating rows of pods. Most were empty, but a few were glowing a soft green, the heads of ponies visible within.
Silver shivered softly, "Do you need to be in a feeding pod to be useful? That drone that woke me up seemed quite eager to get a personal taste without it."
Fast raised a brow, "What do you mean by that?"
Stand In replied before Silver, "While it is, technically, possible for a lone changeling to feast on your pathetic love, the pods allow all of us to profit. That drone was being greedy, and will be punished." She whistled shrilly, and a drone descended from the swarm to stand in front of her. Stand In slapped the drone across its snout, "Don't do that again. Pods are for feeding everyone." The drone whimpered before retreating, tail between its legs.
Silver glanced around nervously, "You didn't put my parents in there, I hope?" Not that he had seen them.
Stand In shook her head, "Special guests." She gestured at a large sealed door of stone, "Here we are. Watch your mouth and say your prayers. Your life is in Her Majesty's hooves now." With an unseen prompting, the several members of the floating swarm approached, pulling the door open obediently, revealing their Queen perched on a soft cushion.
Chrysalis raised a brow at the group, "They're here? Without complications? Stand In, double rations."
Stand In beamed with delight, saluting and dashing off into the hive.
"Hi," said Silver. Smile and wave, it usually didn't hurt.
Chrysalis raised the other brow, the first falling, "So cheerful. As if your life didn't hang on my whim. Who is that beside you? She should be shackled."
Fast took half a step forward, becoming a large manticore as she advanced, "I am Fast Change, his wife. If you think about hurting him, I'll rip you apart."
Chrysalis laughed, a strange sound that echoed as if two ponies were speaking, "What nerve, what love! Put it aside. Your shape-shifting trickery is no match for mine. I, queen of the changelings." She rose to her perforated hooves, "When my agent first reported you in that nowhere town, I thought she had defected, or was drunk."
Silver rose a brow, "Where?"
Chrysalis tilted her head, "You didn't notice? You've had an uncanny knack for spotting my children since then. No matter. You did not reveal her, and she let you go. My agents later reported you came into contact with a rogue queen."
Silver was getting all the more confused, "You know about her?"
Chrysalis huffed, "Of course I know about her! As if she were nearly subtle enough. Harmless, but worthy of monitoring. You brought Luna's attention down on her, and yet, she still lives. She still smiles when you are mentioned. You have outed my children, yet protect another." She leaned forward, resting her head on her hooves, "Friend, or foe? You are almost as dangerous either way."
Silver squirmed a little, "I don't hate changelings. The one that was caught, I didn't even know he, or she, would be there. I offered them a chance to come clean."
Chrysalis shook her head, "Any good drone would rather die. They were wise to not accept your offer, as naively innocent as it seems to be, but your presence cost me a very talented captain. He had managed to remain hidden close to Celestia," she said the word with clear disdain, "for years."
Silver nodded slowly, "Well, I mean it. I have no beef with changelings for existing."
"No beef?" asked Chrysalis, "What a curious term. Minotaur or griffon in origin..." She looked to Fast Change, "You. What do you think?"
Fast shrugged her shoulders, "I think he's too damn nice. I don't know how one pony could be so allowing. I'm hopping mad that you have us, and our wife, captive." She became her usual unicorn self, "Could you give her back to us, kindly?"
Chrysalis considered this even as the swarm brought down Night and set her before the queen. "A bat pony? How rare. And a herd? I thought those went out of style a century ago."
Silver advanced a few steps, "She's a lunar pegasus, and, please?"
There was a bright flash, then there were two Night Watch's, and no queen. Both rushed to Silver before they seemed to notice each other and gave one another a shove.
"Get away from him, you shape-shifting demon!"
"I'm the real one, you're a changeling hussy!"
"Safeword," said Fast, looking almost bored.
The Night on the left said, "Tuna casserole." Then she leaped for Fast, hugging her and being hugged in return.
The Night Watch on the right frowned, and returned to being the Queen, "How did you know that would happen?"
Fast snorted, "You're not the only shapeshifter. Me and Night work out special keyphrases, just in case."
Silver wondered why he never learned a keyphrase, but put the question aside, "Alright, now that we're all introduced. What can I do for you?"
Chrysalis advanced, circling around Silver, "I want to feed my people, of course. We could start with your little herd, but you present a mystery worth digging into. How do you spot my children so easily?"
Silver shrugged a little, "It was obvious, to me. Their magic is a very specific shade of green, so is the flame when you change shapes."
"Flames?" asked Chrysalis, confused.
Silver cursed internally as he realized the flames were not normally visible. "I can see magic."
Chrysalis gave a slow nod, "And you can see changeling magic, and you just say what you see. Is it that easy?" Silver nodded. "I see. This is good."
Silver tilted his head, "What makes it good?"
Chrysalis suddenly pounced, pinning Silver to the ground and bearing her sharp teeth at him, "When you die, they won't replicate it, of course!"
Silver squealed like a filly as his surprised mind grasped randomly for a spell. His horn flashed, and a small cloud appeared over Chrysalis before starting to rain gently upon her. Chrysalis stepped free of him, laughing, "You truly are pathetic."
Night advanced, adjusting her glasses, "Where are his parents? We want to see them, now!"
Chrysalis looked towards Night, "And if I do not?"
Silver sat up, "I really don't think you want to do this." The Queen frowned at him, but he continued, "You just want what's good for your people. This whole... thing. You're desperate, and you're angry. Ponies have what you need to be healthy, but they won't give it up, so you demonize them in your head to make them out to be terrible people, so you can be terrible back at them, and not worry about it."
Chrysalis prodded Silver in the ribs, "Stop trying to analyze me. I happen to quite enjoy being malicious."
Silver shook his head quickly, "But what if there was a better way? Do you have to pull from a pony so hard that you damage them?"
Chrysalis's prod turned into a solid shove, "Who are you to lecture me!"
Fast stepped over him, "He is an official diplomat, with Celestia's ear, and Luna's heart."
Silver nodded in agreement, "I can't promise it, but would trying hurt?"
Chrysalis scowled, looking displeased at Silver's words, and yet, not stopping them yet. Silver hoped that meant she was considering them, and a peaceful solution may yet be reached.
"Let's look at Shining Armor," said Silver, "As an example. He's recovered quite well, and has plenty of love to share with his wife. You may be..." he wobbled a hoof, "Parasites, forgive the term, but you're sentient, and that means more. You don't have to damage your host."
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5778115 Chrysalis is a fan of tradition!
I see silvers real talent is starting to show.
I real super chapter good work.
Harts Fire
5778155 Lyra didn't even know it was real fire. Diagnosing properties by sight alone is hard.
There are two spaces between "that" and "he."
You don't really need the "colored" there, but if you want to keep it then it should be hyphenated with "maroon."
Likewise, "smiley-faced" should have a hyphen.
She "clopped" her hooves, but changes between a "clap."
The "heads" of ponies were visible within.
Her "shape-shifting" trickery.
She uses "agents," which is plural, but then says that she thought that "she," was defected or drunk, in the singular.
Nuts, more real-life calling me away. I'll do more editing, and post a review, tomorrow morning.
5778253 It's not by sight, though - it's a basic principle of spellcasting. If you're forming a spell as you pass out, the spell is released, rather than fading away.
5778253 5778253 And when suddenly shoved in your face, nah. I, out of character, can't really blame Professor Thetics for freaking the hell out and acting.
Neither of them were nice to each other. Apologies have been given. Chocolate was eaten. Maybe they can become friends. Isn't this good enough? As pointed out, half the unhappy things Thetics said was true or dang close to the truth. Silver was getting a lot of bennies. Whether or not he 'deserved' them is inconsequential, cause, again, not like Thetics knows.
He was pretty reasonable. He could have told Silver to fuck off and never bother him again, instead he gave him a re-test, and even congratulated him on doing it the right way. They departed on good terms. I rather liked the scene. It wasn't saccharine sweet or needlessly venomous. They aren't best buds instantly, but the matter is set down gently.
5778272 Edits applied! I eagerly await.
5778278 Right, but if it's not under pressure, you don't care if it gets released. (And there aren't any basic principles of spellcasting. Magic isn't real, so everyone makes up their own rules)
5778278 That depends on the spell. In the fireball's case, the spell was already formed, the fire existed, the pressure that held it existed, and was being held together only by ongoing effort.
An invisibility spell, on the other hand, is more active, and passing out would make it blink off.
5778299 I love making up rules!
"since she was" ("being" implies that Silver is the small one)
Breezies can get crushed by acorns. How did he know that he wouldn't kill her?
How refreshingly direct.
He probably still has nightmares about being mind-raped for a week. (I apologize for my coarse language, but it must have been horrible)
5778367 He acted, rather than, you know, taking the time to think it through, though it was also possible taking time to think about it might have left Fast Change becoming the newest changeling (queen?).
5778281 Yes, at this point they should both probably try to forget the whole thing. They both made bad first impressions, but it's been too long to worry about who was wrong.
5778372 Eh, I think the fear of crushing someone would be more instinctive than the fear of them using too much of the wrong kind of magic, and instinct wins when you panic.
5778387 There has to be a fear first. The idea of something as fragile as breezies as presented in the show is beyond belief. How does that even work? Worse species ever.
5778387 Oops, addend. He isn't scared of her changing in general. He's pretty sure he has her on a good balance for that, but the idea of her specifically changing into a changeling felt like it'd be jussst the thing to trigger something awful.
5778415 Even without a knowledge of breezies (and he has seen the show) instinct would tell you something that small would be fragile.
5778461 Wasn't he also theorizing that it wasn't necessarily a permanent transformation anyway?
5778145
Okay, it was clearly partially Thetics's fault for starting it and making a mistake in handling it, sure. More on this later.
Omitted he used a paralyzing spell? I said it twice. One of them is right at the beginning, but I admit I revised the beginning a little while you were presumably composing the reply, and I reverted what I could remember, but perhaps that was what I could not remember to revert, but I remember clearly me mentioning the paralysis spell later in my post in the first draft of it, so there's no chance that was changed.
You're right, Silver didn't use either of those methods to gain access to the school. He was cheated in on his behalf, but that doesn't mean he didn't cheat, and it was in a way that was related to his contacts, since he got the benefit directly from having contact with Princess Luna. It's not very different. But Thetics didn't know any of that, and was just running off his first bad impression of Silver.
... Privilege as a social justice construct? Oh god hold on let me look at our old posts. Okay, you started the using the term institutionalized discrimination first, and the term privilege first, so I don't have to apologize for misleading you. I think we've been talking past each other, though.
I am not using either of those terms in the way that social justice does. When I use the term privilege, I am meaning that he has privileges, as in a child having the privilege to stay up late, not that he has some ephemeral poorly defined social force backing him. When I was using the term "institutional" I mean as in the institutes rules are leveraged against him, as in... say... the law is advantageous to you, or you have been given a position that frees you from the need to follow the laws, or even that you have influence on an official (corrupt or not) who can use official powers to advantage you, not as a catchall for "everyone feels this way."
If I meant racism, sexism, transphobia, classism, or any kind of discrimination like that, I would have said them, or discrimination, not privilege.
Carrot Plate's mother attacked him not because he was a "common" pony, but because he accused her daughter of assaulting him and she was protecting her daughter's reputation, whether or not she knew her daughter actually did it. However, there is certainly a powerful element of classism in the nobles as a whole, even if Carrot Plate's mother has more reasons than that to hate Silver. There is a reason I never complained about her comeuppance, even though Luna basically abused her position as a princess of dreams to manipulate her into breaking the law and having her pay a significant penalty to Silver.
That is the part of the story where there is classism and discrimination. The aforementioned "institutional discrimination" as defined by social justice.
Thetics accused Silver because Silver was improbably young, not because he had a bad reputation or was of a lower class. There is literally no evidence that he hated Silver because of the same reason that the nobility does, or even for the bad rumors of him and Carrot Plate. All he knew was that Silver appeared, is a diplomat for a previously undiscovered civilization (if he even knows that) has no official qualifications (his qualification for being diplomatic by proving himself with Nicky is top secret, and Thetics wouldn't have been able to figure that out by searching for information) joined his school at an improbably young age, and is commonly doing unconventional things like having to memorize the alphabet, or not memorizing spells that someone who doesn't know what they're doing would have to do under the classical way to learn magic. It's nonsense to say this is part of "institutional discrimination" when none of the signfiers are there, just because someone else is classist against Silver, and because he was set in his original negative opinion of Silver as too inexperienced to work in the school.
He didn't give Silver a chance to explain himself either, but it's not "institutional discrimination" in this case. Just normal judging someone based on your first bad impression of them and refusing to change between seeing them two times. It's a bad attitude to have, but not "institutional discrimination."
Does the fact that Thetics was nonlethally attacking Silver, in plain view of others (so there's no way that he could start attacking him overtly without public backlash) mean that Silver was justified in suddenly panicking and escalating to lethal force? Because that's what happened. What happened after that was Thetics panicking in response to Silver apparently intending to kill him. Would the two seconds the fireball takes to form be enough time for Thetics, who is not an adventurer, to keep a level head and think it through? I don't think that he deserves more blame than Silver for panicking when he saw that fireball.
He didn't deliberately set off the fireball any more than Silver deliberately summoned the fireball to blast Thetics with it.
Silver was only temporarily detained as a direct punishment of his actions, and Celestia was almost heavily punished for doing that little to him. If Silver didn't bail her out by paying out a bunch of cash, she would have had terrible diplomatic relations for a very long time, but I think it would be stretching to say that Silver having to pay out is a punishment for his recklessness, other than possibly karmically. So, effectively, Silver was not punished beyond being detained for a shorter amount of time than everyone else was hospitalized.
If Thetis has any real culpability, it would be for the paralysis spell, not for his actions once Silver summoned the fireball. If you want to demand punishment, demand punishment for that, not for his speech, not for his panicked mistake once Silver summoned the fireball itself, but for his use of the paralysis spell, because that is what he definitely did maliciously wrong.
But, you know, it might not be out of line to punish Thetis for his mistake either, within line of how badly people in Equestria are punished for making mistakes. I'd wager that that is a fairly low amount in this equestria, probably retraining, probation, official censuring, etcetera.
No, a prank isn't a crime, nor is it a punishment, but it was still a dick move on Silver's part, and one that was worse than embarrassing and accusing Silver in conversation.
Okay, picking up where I left off (finally!).
Celestia's name should be capitalized.
For consistency, if nothing else, I'd put a hyphen into "shape-shifting."
Even if it is a password, I don't think you need to capitalize this; the "Casserole" can have a small "c."
5780986 All fixed! Do hope you enjoyed it.
A more abbreviated review this time, since I'm eager to move on to the recently-posted chapters.
I liked the contest between Fast and Stand In, mostly for establishing that the changelings have greater shape-shifting abilities naturally than Fast does, even with her natural talent and studying. That strikes me as being very much as it should be. Moreover, the issue with Fast deliberately polymorphing into a changeling was intriguing...enough so that I wish Silver hadn't stopped her until it was too late. The idea that she accidentally let some corruption in before she realized it and before her husband could stop her would have been a great way to introduce a new plot-thread down the line. That was a missed opportunity, to be sure.
Chrysalis' deviousness was on full display, and it was great to see. I like that she had spies everywhere, and knew not only about Silver's personal history, but also about Nicky. That she was so aware of so much made her out to be a truly threatening force, rather than an impotent creature nursing a grudge that she couldn't do anything about. However, the scene slipped up when it looked like she was about to kill Silver - simply put, she had no reason to back off when she did. His attempt to ward her off was comical, and comically feeble, but I can't figure out why she didn't shrug it off and then just go for his throat again, since there was nothing stopping her and every reason to simply end his life once she'd determined how he could pierce their disguises.
Hopefully I'm about to find out in the next chapter.
B-B-BREEZY? BREEZY? BRRRREEEZZZZZZZZZYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZZZZYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
i.imgur.com/auHQdK8.jpg
The sadness army still has heart city but I'm leading a counter charge right now.
fireball or anything to do with fire.bugs pop in the heat. well those with shells or carapaces. or i might just have exploded them with my mind. anyway kill it with fire! so ironic i'm a pyromaniac,but i am no arsonist. no matter the rumours.
Stand peered at Silver a moment, "You best not be deceiving me." She waved a hoof, and Fast set set on the ground. They freed her of the gunk and she quickly scrambled to her hooves.
Correction:Stand peered at Silver a moment, "You best not be deceiving me." She waved a hoof, and Fast was set on the ground. They freed her of the gunk and she quickly scrambled to her hooves.
6318175 Fixed!
Should probably be Queen and Changelings.
I suspect he means sapient here, but he may not know the difference.
7157791 Naw, sentient as in thinking, talking and intelligent not like a animal.
7274227 Then it should be sapient. Sentient just means that it has sensation and consciousness (like every animal on Earth). Sapient means it can think and reason (like humans).
True, true. It's in her acting in which she outshines you.