chapter twelve
Changeling Heart and the New Moon
chapter twelve
The pegasus had come come crashing out of the blue, though the sky was more gray, the way it was drained of colour. Likewise he was of a blue coat, running to gray. His mane and tail, both tightly trimmed we’re bristly and tended to a smoky purple. It’d be as easy to believe he were another pony covered in fine dust than naturally such muted colours, but he was.
Two changelings stood by his side, each keeping a hoof to him. Not really a hold, not at all, but a gentle reminder that it could become so easily if he made them. For their part, they didn’t look all that certain with themselves, stealing glances at the others, and their Queen.
He watched Luna with some bewilderment, meted out with tense readiness and willingness, as if the position he were in were quite the opposite of what it was. For his part the pegasus had eyes only for Luna, and it was when one saw those that it made up for his apparent lack of colour.
It was all in his eyes. They were silvery, prominently so. Not silver, no, but colours seemingly came and went with the slightest change of lighting. They were quite clearly the glimmer of corroded copper, then a cloud would shift across the face of the sun and they were obviously more like damp steel, and then the sun would breach through its bounds and they’d be so certainly the tint of iron fillings livening with rust.
The silvery backdrop was always there, but it was the only constant. The eyes didn’t change colour, it just seemed that no one elses’ could decide quite what to make of them.
Luna dwelt on them for a long moment. She’d seen them plenty of times before. Usually there was more of a smile to quicken them, quicker still when a sly edge visited them as well, as if sometimes he’d pondered something out that she hadn’t, and it amused him.
His feathers were crumpled and in sore need of preening. He’d been flying for some time, and either neglected chances to maintain himself or had found none. Her own supple blue feathers she knew fared no better. They were probably even worse for her mad ascent through greedy thorns, but still she rode the air with sweeping strokes of her wings, graceful as ever. The little shreds of skin cut from her stung painfully and itched even more so, worse still was that she could show none of the discomfort.
She had to have poise, here was her chance with everybody - even Chrysalis - just a little bit stunned and waiting on her to make the next move. Luna had a chance at having a commanding moment. A chance to set this mess right, even if it were only a single little messy piece of a much, much larger messy situation.
Command. Elegance. Foresight. Luna needed these now, and so tried very hard to emulate her sister.
“Wax,” Luna said to her pegasus, though the questions and emotions of her word were lost within the much louder, much more neutral word of a princess speaking to all.
The pegasus bowed his head, a gesture the changelings shuffled to accommodate. “My lady liege.” From the corner of her eye, Luna caught Chrysalis rolling hers. It stalled Luna’s momentum, but she rallied. The slow, swooshing strokes of her wings as she addressed the crowd below helped nicely.
“You may stand down.”
“As you wish.”
Luna descended slowly, both to be easy on her wings and for appearance. Chrysalis awaited, and those damnable teeth gleamed as much as ever. Luna braced herself for what must come next.
She’d not eaten much lately, and what she had tasted didn’t bear remembering. Worse still was the pride to be eaten now.
All she wanted to say was a muttered apology and be done with it, but Luna’s internal Celestia fretted and rewrote for her a fitting speech, one becoming of her station.
“Queen Chrysalis. I acted rashly, and have wronged you and your people. Do you accept my sincere apology?”
“No.”
Luna opened her mouth.
She closed her mouth.
Luna looked to her internal Celestia, who only shrugged and came up empty. Luna looked to Wax, who also shrugged. All around them blinking changelings watched. They were still an audience, truly, but one nonetheless spread out into good pouncing position, just in case.
“...no?” It was all she could say, and the royalty had fled from her voice.
It wasn’t supposed to go this way.
As she liked to do, Chrysalis entirely disregarded the myth of Luna’s personal space and strode up to her, neck to neck, mouth to ear.
“You attacked my people. You attacked me. What did you expect?”
It was a bad feeling to deal with Chrysalis at any time, but entirely worse for Luna to do so and know unwaveringly that she was the one in the wrong. Ponies were the good guys...even if Luna was acutely aware of how very much so she wasn’t exemplary as one. Even so, she tried, didn’t she? Chrysalis liked being bad.
It didn’t seem fair.
Luna crumpled, just a little. “I’m sorry,” she muttered, staring at the ground all the while.
“That’s better.”
What? Luna said nothing, being speechless, but that was her thought as she whirled about, only to see Chrysalis walking away, quite content with herself.
“Your need for drama keeps getting you in trouble, little moon. You should keep that in mind.”
Entirely at ease, the Queen of changelings sauntered up to the now-confused pegasus and his equally confused captors. The flash of green fire lit up her horn and Luna’s muscles tensed, a shout ready on her tongue.
Both ponies winced, but it was only a small thing, a silver necklace of sorts the Queen pulled away from Wax with a snick of snapping metal. How hadn’t she seen that on him before? Luna wondered, but it was cut short by curiosity.
Chrysalis held up the trinket. It was more like a collar than a necklace, to be fitted snugly to a pegasi’s neck so that it wouldn’t jingle, jangle or downright fall during flight. From the centre hung a single protrusion, like the small hand of a clock, ending in a tiny crescent moon, all black.
Well, hung was the wrong word. That implied it pointed at the ground. Rather, it pointed at Luna, swiveling about on its little hinge in open defiance of motion and gravity, never faltering in its fixation on the princess. Chrysalis moved it this way and that, just to test it.
It was, truth be told, a little embarrassing for Luna. She kept wanting to sidle away from the thing’s attention, knowing it’d be futile to try.
A faint, persistent yellow light sheathed the miniscule divining rod. It was tiny, negligible as illumination went, but still something of an enlightenment. Certainly, life had just gotten complicated. More complicated, anyway.
The Queen’s interest in the thing passed. The collar was given to the nearest changeling without a second thought as Chrysalis turned back upon Wax.
“And you are?”
The pegasus looked to Luna, who nodded dumbly. The changelings holding hooves to his side shuffled away. With the Queen’s attention upon him, being physically held was simple redundancy.
“Wax, of princess Luna’s guard.”
“And you’re out here, all alone?
Wax just ignored her, and stepped promptly towards his princess.
“Sorry, my fair lady. I thought I could find you sooner, but Equestria is big.”
Luna smirked. “What’d you two do, take a map and say ‘I’ll search this half, you take the other’?“
Wax cocked his head. “Pretty much the case, in fact. Wane would be here too, but the little collars only react when they are near enough you, so we took separate ways to expand our search.”
Luna’s hoof met Luna’s face, but between the two a smile crept out. “You didn’t ever think I didn’t want you to follow me?”
“We did, my lady Luna, except we needed to find you to find out if you didn’t want us to find you.” Wax winked, the silvery tint to his eyes overlayed with burnt gold. “You left no note or anything.”
Luna sighed, though it was an honest deep breath too. “You hardly follow my orders anyway.”
The pegasus made a face. Dozens of changeling faces, including the Queen’s, turned back to him from Luna, as if a small white ball rapidly bounced back and forth between the two.
"We always infer your orders, my lady. Those we follow very precisely.”
“I didn’t give you any orders.”
“...we predicted new ones.”
“And how did you do so this time?”
Wane and I, we came upon the window to your chambers - ”
“The curtains billowing out into the midnight wind?” Chrysalis interjected with a lopsided grin.
Wax didn’t lose a beat. “Exactly that, and we thought to ourselves, my brother and I, that the window was no way for a little late night sojourn, more of a big one really, and we also thought that somepony, if they were of a mind to make for such a dramatic exit wouldn’t fly off into the darkness and then circle around the castle and go in a different direction. So we had a good general idea of what direction to predict our orders in, if you will, my lady liege.”.
He looked about once when he rose from a bow and asked quite cheerfully, “Are we traitors now? It’s just that Cruithne was sulking, entirely miserable when we had to leave her at the castle. She misses you terribly.”
Chrysalis cut in, though she didn’t need to, Luna was a bit speechless. The Queen smiled like a barracuda in a beauty pageant. With a glint of cobalt blue, Wax stared those teeth in the eye.
“I wouldn’t have expected that kind of talk from a royal guard. Or for you to be so calm with the dreaded changelings all around you.”
“My fair lady Luna’s guard, not ‘royal guard.’ All two of us are autonomous. And I am loyal to Equestria and the thrones.”
“But you’d betray it so casually?”
“I’m just more loyal to Luna, is all.”
“Nobody is betraying anybody,” the princess said stiffly.
“That’s good, then,” he said. Wax’s voice took on a drunken quality. When he next blinked his eyes, they were slow to open. When they did, they had a polished marble hint veined through the silver.
They rolled back a bit, then he wobbled on his hooves. “By your leave, fairest midnight, I think I’m going to pass out now. Nighty night...”
He hit the ground with a soft, damp thud. The crowd of changelings blinked guiltily.
“You know,” Chrysalis said, “I’m actually having fun with all this.”
“...fun?” Luna parroted, for she could think of nothing else to say.
Every part of Beetle disliked every part of Luna. She was dangerous, and pompous. Unpredictable and wild, and strange. He trusted her as far as he could throw her, and the changeling knew he couldn’t even lift the alicorn to try that, though he would have liked to throw her indeed.
Of all the changelings, his negativity towards her was the most thorough, and most consistent. If there was no actual hatred there, well, there was no love lost either.
Perhaps it was the absolute monotone to his feeling that allowed the frowning male to lay the blame, in its entirety, on the princess. Certainly he was the only one of them all to willingly slow down and keep an eye on Surreal. He had a vague notion that the Queen had some idea for her. At least, he hoped she did.
He didn’t even like Surreal. She shared too many of the same faults as Luna and...he let the rest of his train of thought go careening off the tracks. Beetle grunted acknowledgment to whatever it was she’d said now. He had little patience with her chattiness; she was speaking as blisteringly often as once every ten minutes.
The wide-eyed, blinking and - most importantly - silent child made for the better half of his company. The little thing had been a half-decent umbrella as well, when it had been raining. It wasn’t now, but even if it had been he’d have left the thing nestled snugly in the wings of Surreal. He had to admit she was the better carer of the two, probably one of the better ones of them all.
Unlike Beetle she actually cared beyond a simple sense to keep the child fed and sheltered. Even the words they used underlined the difference in opinion.
Surreal kept calling it ‘her’ and ‘child.’
Beetle kept calling it...well, ‘it.’ A thing, more or less.
Besides, caring for it kept her focused. Kept her distracted, somewhat. So even if it had rained again he would’ve - probably - left Surreal with his impromptu umbrella still.
If only she wouldn’t talk so much. And so loudly, it seemed. It was getting on his nerves.
Which was why, when they caught up with the others at the overgrown field and Surreal screamed, Beetle lost his patience. He kept his rage carefully under pressure until the young changeling was safely in his magical grip and set aside under a low-hanging cedar bough before shoving Surreal over and dragging her back into the trees, his magic clamping shut her jaw.
She screamed, wild-eyed, into the muffling constraints of his grip. Her own magic lashed ineffectually against his, and her body churned a furrow in fallen leaves.
“Stop it,” he hissed, as much to her and her struggles as to the filmy glaze that had settled once more over her eyes.
The fervour that took her burnt through Surreal’s energy quickly, but there’d been little strength behind her flailing, even at the height of it. For good measure he left her panting on her side a minute longer.
“They’re fighting over there!”
“We’re over here,” he replied emotionlessly.
Surreal struggled to stand, but overbalanced and toppled the other way to make a fresh indent in the blanketed floor of the forest. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked as she glared.
Beetle said nothing. Surreal growled as she stood, then blinked and looked this way and that.
“Where is she?”
Beetle said nothing.
“Where’d you put her?” she asked, more frantically. The little female tried to shove him from her way, but the effort was futile. With only a slight shift to his stance Beetle stood firm, and Surreal slumped to her knees.
There he left her, glaring, and there she remained until he returned a short moment later, child in tow.
“You left her alone? Do you even care what happens to her? What’s wrong with you?” Surreal hissed.
Beetle said nothing. The child turned its big, heavy eyes to his own. He looked away.
A minute passed in painful silence. Surreal’s breathing steadied, for the most part.
“They’re not fighting anymore,” she said, her voice drained of emotion.
Beetle simply turned and walked on, and Surreal skulked after.
There stood the last trees, and there were his fellow changelings, and his Queen. There was Luna, and further on a pegasus, who collapsed as Beetle neared the others. He’d never seen that one before, but really didn’t care very much for whatever had happened. The Queen Chrysalis was still in control, beyond that it didn’t matter. Beetle had enough to deal with and no shortage of things to test his temper.
At the edge of the trees, all alone, Surreal hesitated. Grimacing, she scurried after them.
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You may want to emphasize the scene transition to Beetle and Surreal with more space or a border thingie, like ===== or something.
Other than that, Shit is getting even real-er.
*Helix observes Luna carefully throughout the story* My, the Luna here is very weak-willed indeed! *chuckles* My meager natural abilities could twist her to my will. With those granted me by Lord Discord, she would crumble in moments. Her mind is in chaos, and I, as one of the Elements of Chaos can hold sway over unstable minds. My element in particular, Insanity, is quite adept and warping those who lack strength and stability in their thoughts.
You know, I'm actually surprised cutting parts of her soul out didn't leave Luna more stable. Given that they were the parts causing her conscious pain. Or at least the ones she thought were, people don't always know themselves as well as they think.
Still, like I said, your version lines up pretty well as a more serious realization of the personality displayed on Nightmare Night.
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I do like comments such as this. In fact, I like comments on general principles, but such as this; even better.
"You know, I'm actually surprised cutting parts of her soul out didn't leave Luna more stable." Maybe it did. I won't say, 'cause I can't, 'cause even I don't know. I'm just the story's middle man. I've got my suspiciouns, but CHatNM has me writing on a need to know basis. Still, I trust the story.
"Or at least the [parts] she thought were, people don't always know themselves as well as they think." This is as common as you think, maybe even more so. Being a princess hardly changes the matter at all. If anything, it gives the matter even more perogative. 'Princess' has more letters than quite a few names...double that of 'Luna,' if you catch my drift.
Celestia, on the other hand, matches it eight for eight.
"Still, like I said, your version lines up pretty well as a more serious realization of the personality displayed on Nightmare Night." It's always good to get confirmation that, indeed, I'm not completely off the wall in characterization. If there's one thing I worry about in this story, it's that the two lead roles are personal favrouites of mine, both quite unexplored by canon. That gives me a freedom with them, but also a certain wariness aswell.
...If this comment gets any longer, it'll be bigger than most chapters of CHatNM
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weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/shit-just-got-real.jpg
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Ahem. It just got
*shades*
Surreal, thank you very much
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Glad to hear it. If there's one thing that Nightmare Night established its' that Luna is temperamental and melodramatic. Okay, that's two things. Don't get me wrong, I'd be pretty offended about a holiday created to treat me as the devil, but everything she did from when she was mad (Nightmare Night is cancelled. Forever!) to when she was happy (Huzzah!) was over the top. The thing is, Luna's canon personality wasn't really established until relatively recently, so a lot of people probably have things they or other fans built up in the meantime stuck into their views.
On an unrelated note, it's a good thing you worked an explanation of how this guard found Luna right away early into this chapter, since last chapter left me wondering how he knew Luna was besieged if she was invisible (he'd know changelings were swarming around, yes, but not that Luna was in the middle of it without that amulet).
I'm really not sure where all this is leading, to be honest. Are they going to take her home? Ransom her back to Equestria/Celestia? I'm puzzled.
my favorite variation on that expression was in an Iron Man comic book: a villain called Titanium Man says to the KGB: "i trust your so-called 'people's panel' as far as i can throw this building...without my armor!"
Yeah, he dgaf.