Chrysalis yawned wide, showing off her impressive fangs before she leveled a bored gaze at Silver, "Are you done? Your ideas bore me to tears."
Silver's ears fell. This wasn't how it was supposed to work.
She pointed at the three non-changelings, "Take them away, throw them in a pod. They'll be more useful there." A small cloud of changelings quickly swarmed into the room, grabbing the three. Night tried to fight them, throwing a changeling to the ground before whipping around to catch another in the mouth with a hoof, but for each she injured, three took their place, and she was soon pressed down under the mass.
Fast become a bear, throwing Changelings aside like rag dolls, but two could play that game. The changelings become great beetle-like creatures, wrestling with her evenly, but there were more of them than her, and they forced her to the ground.
Stand In landed before Silver, "I don't think I have to tackle you."
Silver shook his head, feeling hollow inside, "No."
Stand In smiled, "Good. This way. You know where we're going."
The door to Chrysalis' room slid shut once Silver and his herd were led out of it. Stand In glanced back, then leaned in, whispering in Silver's ear, "Your ideas did not bore me."
Silver twitched the ear, "I thought you ran off to get food?"
Stand In snorted and said nothing more as they marched through the hive back to the pods. "I have this," She said to the others, "Return to your duties immediately!"
The drones scattered, leaving Stand In alone with the three outsiders.
Fast hopped up to her hooves, "That was your last mistake!" She charged forward, only for Silver to get in the way. "Move it! I'll squish her like the bug she is."
Silver frowned at Fast, "The last 'friend' of mine to shove me out of the way stopped being much of a friend. Please trust me."
Fast bristled, but settled down.
Night was looking at Stand In with more curiosity, "What do you have in mind?"
Stand In smirked, "Right to business, good. Queen Chrysalis has cost us much. Before her we were hungry, but we survived. After her, we were exposed, and many died. The ponies know of us far too well, and living quietly has ceased to be as easy as once it was." She pointed at Silver, "You're not helping, and yet, you are helping. Confusing 'human', you may yet be our salvation."
Silver approached and sat on his haunches by Stand In, "Do others feel this way?"
Stand In raised a chitinous brow, "Of those capable of considering it, yes. The drones don't care. They have difficulty thinking beyond direct orders, poor saps."
Silver nodded slowly, "Alright, here's what we'll do."
Stand In huffed, "Now you have great plans?"
Silver nodded more quickly, "Yes! Listen. We have friends who will break into here and break us out. Bring us to Rough and Trixie, let them take us away. Once we're out, meet us, you and anyone else that wants out, and as many drones as you can reasonably liberate. Once you're in our custody, I'm extending my diplomatic rights to make you, uh, refugees, that's the word. Refugees of the human nation. We can then negotiate with Equestria for you to gain refugee status there."
Stand In peered at Silver quietly a moment, "That's insane, the good kind. Better than the cackling drivel that emerges from the 'Queen's' mouth. We are doomed if we stay, so you have our faith for now. You've been forthright so far."
Night slipped in closer to Silver, "She's not wrong, that's crazy."
Silver shrugged, "But is it illegal?"
Night shook her head, "Technically not? But they should be shipped out to your homeland immediately, which we can't do!"
Fast smiled, "Then we'll just have to make sure it works."
Silver nodded at Fast, "Exactly."
Stand In pointed down a tunnel, "If you're done whispering, this way." She lead the group past the feeding pods to a smaller room. It was dark and moist. As soon as they entered the place, Stand In backed out, "Wait here for your rescuers." The door slid shut with the sound of some kind of mechanism.
Silver and Fast both lit up their horns to see. The sudden muffled squeal of Trixie reached their ears, making them look up to where Trixie and Rough dangled by a length of the same green snot, bound in place. Rough appeared to be asleep, but woke up when Trixie began thrashing around.
Fast sprouted wings, becoming an alicorn, at least in shape. She quickly soared up to the captives and broke them loose. They fell immediately, but were caught by Night's surprisingly strong wings, set on the ground gently. Silver rushed up to the two with a broad smile, "I'm so glad to see you!" He then noticed they were still gagged and helped free them of the last of the green gunk.
Rough threw a leg over Silver, squeezing him, "You've returned the favor!"
Silver laughed in the hug, snuggling up to his pony-self/father happily, "You have no idea how worried I was."
Trixie shook herself off, "Trixie is glad to see you too, but are you not trapped just as she is?"
Silver moved to nuzzle up to Trixie next, "We have a plan."
Night pointed at Silver, "He has a plan. It's as crazy as his plans tends to be."
Fast nodded in agreement, "Well at least half of it should work out. We have backup, and they'll bust us out."
Rough perked a brown ear, "What kind of backup?"
Night adjusted her glasses, though one lens had shattered in the rough handling, "The warlocks."
Trixie recoiled, "The warlocks? They're practically a myth. You are joking with Trixie." She looked to Night, "I see you still have your babysitter, but who is that one?" she pointed at Fast.
Night frowned a little, "We're his herd, Mom."
Trixie went stiff, "What? This?" She looked back at Silver, "What happened after you were last spoken to? Are you still a magical pariah?"
Silver shook his head, "I got that squared away, mostly. I'm a diplomat, and we came to rescue you, with the warlocks, for real."
Rough Draft looked baffled, "I don't know who those are, but you sound confident in them, so let's wait."
He settled onto his belly, and Silver curled up beside him. The larger earth pony made him feel safe. Fast smiled at the sight, "You are too adorable with your dad. Oh, he's my dad too now. Hi Dad!"
Rough Draft looked up at the alicorn-shaped Fast Change, "Uh... I don't recognize what princess you are."
She shook off her wings, becoming a unicorn, "Sorry, shapes are my thing. I'm Fast Change. Nice to meet you both."
Trixie looked hesitant, "How do we know you're not a changeling spy?"
Silver waved a hoof meekly, "If she's a changeling spy, she already won. She has my heart."
Fast flashed her teeth, "I think that was a sweet thing to say. If I was a changeling, I would take my time with you, my little love stud."
Night cleared her throat, "Be that as it may. Silver withdrew from school, but was invited back. He is currently studying magic control with the warlocks."
Trixie looked shocked, but increasingly pleased, "Our colt, a warlock... Trixie didn't mess up after all."
Silver tilted his head at Trixie, "You never messed up. You were a great mother, and a teacher, even if I did end up going my own path at the end. I don't plan to stay with the warlocks. War isn't what I want to do."
Trixie leveled a hoof at the prone Silver, "Then no more fireballs. What possessed you to cast that spell, and where did you even find it?"
Night covered her face with a wing, "The moron made the spell, then got himself into deep water with it."
Trixie tilted her head, "When did you have time to research a spell? Did you even know it would work? Did you just... What?"
Fast waved a hoof, "Deep breaths. This is his thing, his talent. That stallion can slap together a spell in a stupidly short time."
Silver nodded slowly before drawing out his book of spells, "I still don't have all the symbols memorized, not my thing. I'll probably always be casting from a book, and I guess that is a significant handicap, but the flow, the... overall mechanic. I love it."
Trixie reached with her magic, gently taking the book when Silver let go and sitting down to read through it. "Your hornwriting is terrible, but these spells, Trixie admits that they appear solid."
Silver smiled, "Well we're stuck in here... how about I prove it. Do you have two spells memorized you can write down and I'll mash 'em together."
Trixie turned to a blank page, and Silver offered a quill. She tapped her chin a moment before jotting down two short spells, "Here you are." She smiled, "She would say make her proud, but you have already done that."
Silver warmed at her words, and took his book back, looking over the two spells curiously, "I see... light? A pattern, some sound... What do these do?"
Trixie tossed her mane, "Is it not obvious? The first is my show-starting fireworks. The second is my ursa major illusion. Simple spells."
Bobbing his head, Silver got directly to work, an idea hatching in his mind as he made wild scribbles on the paper, adding, then crossing out, just to add again. He referenced his older notes and cheat sheets on symbols before coming back and tweaking the spell some more. "Assuming the ursa major fits in like so..." he muttered to himself as he copied part of one spell into his new concoction. "And done! In theory. Sometimes it takes some tweaking afterwards."
Trixie raised a brow, "Show it to her. Trixie must see this with her own eyes."
Silver played the magical song over his horn before lights exploded from him. The motes arced upwards before brilliantly exploding a second time, revealing a picture of Trixie combating an ursa major. Each image was a different color, creating a fantastic spread of hues.
Trixie clopped her hooves together. There was little that could please her as easily as a grand display that featured herself. With a quick tear of magic, she took the page with the spell right out of Silver's book, "Trixie will keep this."
Rough Draft shook his head, "Unicorns. So you're happy with a horn?"
Silver nestled up with Rough gently, "I am, but I'm under no illusion that horny ponies are best ponies."
Fast burst into titters as Night rolled her eyes, "Well he married me and I am his first wife, so he's not entirely biased to unicorns."
Silver nodded at Night, "Night Watch is the rock of the herd. She holds us together and grounds us, when our unicorn quirks would otherwise make us float away or into trouble."
Trixie gave a soft smile, "That sounds like Rough Draft. He has been a perfect gentlecolt for Trixie, and helped ground her as well."
Rough Draft looked to Night Watch and they shared an understanding look between them. It wasn't always easy being the foundation of a household.
Fast flopped down, curling with Silver and Rough, "Nothing to do but wait."
And so they waited.
awesome chapter \o/
5779432 Glad you liked it. Any fave parts?
5779445 The changling dissing the Queen Lol and Night and Fast are still my fav characters <3
Aw, my lovely Queen is a crazy cackling maniac. :<
It just means that we, her fans, should shower her in our love!
*unintentional phrasing ftw*
5778253 it's been stated that Lyra is just a student of that magic school, not a professor.
5780149 I'm fairly certain she would not be objecting to love showering of any kind.
5778299 The pressure is an aspect of the spell, but the idea that a held spell will be released rather than just dissipating is a basic principle. There's nothing to indicate that it's specific to a fireball unto itself.
5778302 A spell that has to be consciously maintained would no longer be maintained, sure, but surely it's well-understood among spellcasting unicorns that a spell that's been formed but not released would be released if the user loses consciousness.
5780615 The fact that the fire was released, instead of being actively channeled, is the reason there were no fatalities, possibly including Silver.
ok now we have a little group of changelings that want to find a better life and silver is doing his job helping them.
Ware are we going next?
Harts Fire
5778844 You seem to be moving the goalposts quite a bit here. Leaving aside that you edited your previous post to add the part about Thetics striking first with an unwarranted paralysis spell (at the beginning at least, which is what I was referring to), your insistence that someone else unknowingly cheating on Silver's behalf is still "him" cheating strikes me as backward. If he didn't know that it was happening, then how was it his fault? Moreover, that particular line of reasoning is purely academic - as you admit, Thetics didn't know any of that. His entire line of reasoning was baseless suspicion that he presumed to be true. That's discrimination, out-and-out.
Insofar as it being institutionalized discrimination, of course it is. Don't forget that Thetics called Silver "filthy" when he was going on his tirade against him - that has nothing to do with his being young; it's an insult regarding the quality of his character, which is understood to be lacking compared to the "non-filthy" ponies. This is thrown into sharp contrast when he talks about sending Silver outside of "these august halls." That's a clear signal that he thinks Silver lacks the intrinsic qualities worthy of being admitted. In other words, classism. He goes on about Silver's age and connections also, but that doesn't undercut the fact that he's clearly rebuking Silver's right to be a student there simply because of who, and what, he is. So now that we've established beyond any possible doubt that Thetics does represent institutional discrimination.
Insofar as the justification of Silver's actions goes, there is a credible argument to be made that Silver reacted to the attack with appropriate force, even if it was lethal. If you believe that you're in imminent danger of harm - and you're unable to retreat, as Silver was - there's no principle that says that the degree of force you use to defend yourself must be proportional to that being used to attack you. If someone comes at you with a knife, you can absolutely use a gun. Silver's failing was from the fact that his weapon put innocent bystanders in danger. He was entirely justified in attacking in response to the attack that was levied against his person, even if he used greater force than was absolutely necessary to defeat his attacker.
The question then becomes why does this principle also not apply to Thetics reacting to Silver's fireball. After all, wasn't he also simply defending himself? The answer here is a resounding "no." That's because Thetics is the aggressor - you cannot claim self-defense when you escalated a situation by attacking another. Ergo, Thetics was not "simply defending himself" - he bears culpability for the outcome of what happened, particularly since there's a strong case to be made that he should have known that rendering Silver unconscious would trigger the fireball's release. That doesn't mean Silver gets off freely for conjuring it in the first place, but the lion's share of the blame falls on Thetics.
Despite this large amount of blame that he bears, Silver is the one who took the bulk of the blame in terms of public perception and personal treatment. When the governing body promises you immunity from arrest and prosecution, and then does so anyway, they're in the wrong - Celestia's "punishment" in that scenario was entirely brought upon herself, since she gave her word regarding Silver's status and then broke it as soon as she felt like doing so. She's entirely to blame for any diplomatic penalties her country suffers for that. Thetics, for all that he's responsible for what happens, suffered no penalties whatsoever besides the injuries that he deservedly received, and a light talking-to from Celestia.
Likewise, Silver's prank on him later was not out of proportion to what Thetics deserved - humiliation and shame cannot be quantified, and Thetics deserved what he got for what he'd heaped on Silver up to that point. Again, he initiated that conflict (though that second time was much lower), so he cannot complain.
They became great "beetle-like" creatures.
The door slid shut once Silver and his herd "were" led out of it.
There are two spaces between "up" and "two."
When it's used in the same manner as a name, the way it is here "Mom" should be capitalized.
Again, this should be "Dad!"
There should be a space between "mash" and "'em."
He referenced his "cheat sheets."
Okay, so Chrysalis didn't execute Silver immediately because she wanted to feed off of him. That's...still something of a stupid reason, since his abilities are a direct threat to the changelings, but it's also an understandable reason. When food is scarce, nothing should be wasted, and since she doesn't have any real reason to suspect that treachery is ahoof or that rescue is incoming, her decision makes sense.
It's also intriguing that Stand In wants out. Given that the only types of changelings we've seen are drones and queens, I have to wonder of Stand In is a young queen herself - a "changeling princess," as it were. Certainly, she's much more of a forward-thinker than Chrysalis is, or perhaps she simply has ambitions of her own and is looking for a venue to flex them.
Of course, I do love Silver's plan to flex his diplomatic status to bend politics in his favor. That's the sort of brilliant, political drama that I just eat up; good thinking there, Silver! While it's technically true that, as refugees of the "human nation," the changelings should be shipped off to Silver's country of origin, there's something of a way around that - Silver can ask Celestia for a proper embassy, rather than being stuffed into the guest quarters of the palace. In practice, he'd simply be asking for a place to live and for the changelings to live with him, but that would nicely solve the problem (well, sort of - contrary to popular belief, diplomatic missions do not automatically enjoy extraterritoriality, and are not considered part of the guest nation's soil. Rather, such places have special privileges in that regard granted by the host country, usually as per (standardized) treaties. Still, the end result would be largely the same).
Of course, that's going to put the changelings under Silver's jurisdiction for the foreseeable future. In essence, they're his problem now, and he's going to have to work with Stand In for some time to come...a possible addition to the herd, there?
It was nice to see that Trixie and Rough are okay, and that Trixie seems to have calmed down some since Silver's incident with the fireball. As much as I love drama, it's also nice to see that everything doesn't have to keep blowing up - literally or metaphorically - all the time.
5781084 What danger is his ability to identify changelings in the middle of their hive?
I think you may like the next chapter! But I could be wrong. These chapters shaped up quickly, meaning your input comes after the fact. Does it feel different?
5780778
As requested, I have removed this response.
When did Rough Draft come to rescue Silver from a changeling hive?
You did that on purpose.
5783421 Rough has taken some lumps and proven his devotion to protecting Silver since he was David. He is a true friend.
I laughed to hard at that i think.
5951939 You shouldn't laugh at the truth!
Rough threw a leg over Silver, squeezing him, "You've returned the favor!"
What favor? I can't remember.
Silver played the magical song over his horn before lights exploded from him. The motes arced upwards before brilliantly exploding a second time, revealing a picture of Trixie combatting an ursa major. Each image was a different color, creating a fantastic spread of hues.
Correction: Silver played the magical song over his horn before lights exploded from him. The notes arced upwards before brilliantly exploding a second time, revealing a picture of Trixie combatting an ursa major. Each image was a different color, creating a fantastic spread of hues.
Silver nestled up with Rough gently, "I am, but I'm under no illusion that horny ponies are best ponies."
How horny can one guy get
https://youtu.be/Bz1n6xa9ZaE?t=55
6318735 Fixed!
6318997
I believe that you were right the first time. Assuming you were talking about the orbs of light going higher and not the music; it would still be motes and not notes.
7655835 Fixed, take 2.
Fast is the type of daughter-in-law every father-in-law should be nervous around, and every husband be entertained thereby. Her effervescence, forwardness, and near lack of concern around Rough and Trixie is just so entertaining. I love it!
The typos are the darkest form of dark magic
Moist. Blech. I hate that word. Freaking moist.
11252627
Perhaps even supple?