chapter seventeen
Changeling Heart and the New Moon
chapter seventeen
Luna entered her private chambers with the sort of shaky relief akin to when the big needle is finally pulled out after a blood donation. She’d managed the worst, certainly feeling drained for her efforts, and definitely looked paler than usual. It had been fortunate that the crowd had not shifted across that discreet line into a mob; none of them had become violent. Even more fortunate - because it had been all the more likely - neither had Luna lashed out.
Her chambers were spacious. Quiet and away from the busier quarters, she was thankful for the reprieve. Luna sometimes wondered if her sister had always intended these rooms for her, but had never had the nerve to ask. Like so many other things, such a topic rested in the uncomfortable range of matters that were too close and yet too far for both of them.
She opened the doors only to get a torpedo of black and brown fluff in the face.
The culprit of such savagery was Cruithne, who mauled the princess with eager cuddles and yips of excitement. Luna toppled right over backwards, skidding across the polished stonework of the floor into the opposite wall. Happy barks filled the halls.
It should not be possible for a creature that was soft, friendly, and stood barely at knee height against Luna to manage such a feat, but always has it been the prerogative of dogs everywhere to substitute enthusiasm and excitement for physical attributes like velocity and mass.
Compounded by a week of anxious waiting, the poor animal had been wound up to a level of anxious tension only usually found in clockwork siege engines. Another few days and the dog very well might have exploded from the strain. Twice.
Luna certainly felt as if she was suffering a doggy detonation anyway. She couldn’t see for the hairy face or hear for the keening yelps, whichever way she turned her head there was the tongue, eager to lavish her with the saliva of love.
She managed to shove Cruithne aside with a friendly push and stood, the dog barely touching the ground as she danced through Luna’s legs.
“Yes, yes. I’ve missed you too.” In her excitement Cruithne jumped up on the bed only to jump down again, only to go back up, mess up the leap and fall in a fluffy heap that wriggled to right itself.
It’d been a surprise to the resident ponies when the chocolate-eyed little puppy had first arrived, and set upon the castle with gleeful, innocent havoc. Yes, Celestia’s own companion was well known to be keen on mischief, but a phoenix was just that; a resplendent and noble creature for a resplendent and noble princess.
There was a look to the thing that the masses could really approve of. A sort of thematic style. They’d assumed that it would be right and natural for Luna to follow similar vein of thought.
She’d got a dog. Just a dog. Even if Cruithne could be very expressive with tufty eyebrows which, on close inspection, didn’t actually exist, that was hardly worth raising an eyebrow of one’s own over.
What kind of companion was that for a princess? That was what they would have said, not Luna. She’d never really gave a damn for anypony else’s opinion on the thing. They weren’t the ones getting the animal, and she wasn’t going in for the image. Beyond that, she shouldn’t have cared.
All the same, Celestia’s full-hearted approval had bolstered Luna’s flagging confidence and she’d kept to her stance on the matter.
The suggestion that she give Cruithne away in favour of a dark and mysterious bat, being ‘so much more fitting for one such as yourself’ had been put to her once. Only once. Retellings had blown the story of her reaction out of proportion, but suffice to say nopony would bring it up a second time.
All Luna wanted, she realized, right now, was a simple walk in the quieter corners of the garden. Of course, whichever corners Cruithne visited ceased to be such, but that only added to the appeal. The dog’s simple, unapologetic joy had a terminally infectious quality, and Luna smiled.
The gardens were a regular haunt of the well to do, but such ponies favoured the evening, and rarely then without making a big show and dance about organizing it into a soiree of some sort or other. For the moment, Luna was the only pony amidst the hedges and flower beds.
Magic made a leash redundant, but even at that she always let her pet roam as they walked. Cruithne only wandered away to get Luna to pay her attention - like a small astral body her orbit of the princess was erratic, but invariably centred around her all the same.
Cruithne bounded around a corner, barking furiously at something. She was a great fluffy coward, but was always compelled to put on the show of it; she sulked terribly when something ignored her display.
Putting a bit of bounce to her step, Luna followed after.
“It’s just a squir-” but it wasn’t. Not at all was it a squirrel, though the names were similar.
A pony the pink of carnations with soft, magenta eyes shied away from Cruithne, turning a hopeful, fearful eye to Luna.
“Hi. Is he going to hurt me?” she asked, nudging a gesture towards the germane shepherd.
“She. And no. Just pet her.” Surreal hesitated, glanced once more to the dark alicorn, then tentatively reached out a hoof. The tail wagged, saying: I am your friend forever now. Yes!
Once she thought about it, it wasn’t that surprising that changelings would be skulking around, keeping an eye on things for their Queen. The same couldn’t be said for Surreal so easily. She was...different. “What are you doing here?”
She hesitated like one genuinely trying to come up with reasons for their actions.
“Sneaking?”
“You’re not doing it very well,” Luna said a touch sharply.
The false-pony’s brow creased. “I’m, uh, spying on you. Yes. You. For my Queen.”
Luna didn’t know what to think. She’d already woken up with the changeling overhead, and that had been more than enough for one day. “Well then. You’re a bit forwards for a spy. The point is that I don’t know you are doing it. Go before I take you in.” She probably would have made the offer to any changeling, seeing as she hardly needed paranoia to run rife, but sympathy for the strange little changeling made it a certainty here.
“Wait. You can come find me. Where I stay.”
“Why would I do that?”
Surreal firmly pushed the dog’s affections away and strode closer. “Because...” again her brow furrowed, “because I can talk to you and to my Queen. You, I mean she, she could use a line of communication that Celestia won’t get her eyes and ears into.”
The apparent pony beamed with satisfaction. Luna had to admit it, it was a good reason. This was her endeavour after all.
Luna smiled. “Alright then. I shall consider it. I’m sure you’ll be glad to see me more, you seem quite attached to me.”
The princess’ attempt at banter had anything but the intended result. Surreal pulled away as if threatened and trembled. “Attached? No! Nobody’s attached. No! I...I...” A dull glaze crawled across the magenta eyes and the changeling stilled, unspeaking.
Cruithne whined and nudged at Surreal. After a moment, the changeling blinked, and seeing the dog, pulled away.
“Is...is he going to hurt me?”
The hotel was erupting with panic. Or at least, the manager of it was. She had quite enough panic to go around. Two guards had come to escort the Queen of changelings, but her penthouse was empty.
The quivering mare wailed an undulating note of woe. The nearest guard shooed her away with a grunt; all the while she moaned. “We’ll all be ravished in our sleep!” she cried.
If panic was contagious, the manager had the sort found in the pits of deep jungles. Nopony needed to say that Chrysalis needed to be found before it spread. Their swift, methodical actions belied nothing of their mounting worry, as it grew so too did the loud slams of each door on each hall.
“Spread the word. Nopony in, nopony out. Not ‘til she’s found,” one snarled as he passed another by the flight of stairs. This could be it, the moment when it all came apart. When diplomacy failed and the higher-ups stopped dithering, when the guards could take out their grudge, dust it off, polish it up and seriously prod buttock. They could feel it in the air - how they acted here could decide the coming battle.
It was all a bit anti-climactic when they actually found her. She was reclined on a big couch.
“What?” she asked testily. The other changelings lazing about the room stilled and blinked at the intruders reproachfully. Nobody likes a slammed door.
The guard who’d lead the charge found himself more and more alone by the second. In a way that didn’t actually involve motion, the ponies behind him seemed to sidle away. A fly in a web had more freedom than the guard did in Chrysalis’ gaze.
“Er...” he began. Guards don’t usually say much, but they’re normally a rather succinct breed. There’s really not many ways to mix up words when the entirety of them are ‘Stop, you!’
All the same, a few ready-made shouts had lined up, eager to make a name for themselves. Every guard in his crusty heart wants to the opportunity for a one-liner, if just once.
Yet on the heels of an impatient yet entirely reasonable ‘what?’ something like ‘time for a change!’ lacked a certain essential something.
All eyes were on the hapless guard, but his own had caught his comrade in the corner of his gaze, whom made a nigh imperceptible gesture, one that said: I know that feeling. So close. Next time.
It was even a pretty good one-liner, for something thought up between bounding strides and stairs taken three at a time. All that effort, wasted. He grunted.
“You’re not to leave your rooms,” he said.
“Oh? I didn’t know. I’m so sorry. Hate to cause you any trouble.” There was a certain kind of perverse honesty in the openness of her sickeningly sweetly spoken lies.
The guard huffed. “And you’re to go to the castle. The princess demands an audience.”
Chrysalis stood and stretched, grinning all the while as the impetulant guard eyeballed her. Some of her actions were for show, but the truth was that she had a lot of body to stand up and lot of it to stretch. She might’ve lived in a hole in the ground, but this silly pony building brought confined spaces to a whole new level.
She made up for it with the fun of keeping her supposed watchers on edge. If one of them went and did something irrevocably foolish, well, that was just another angle to exploit. Ponies held themselves in such a vaunted perspective.
“Settle down. I can take myself there, I know the way. If it spares your egos a bit, I’ll let you follow me and we’ll all just pretend you’re in charge. We’re good at pretend.” Chrysalis flashed her fangs at them.
In a voice no softer, yet more compassionate, she turned to her own. “Keep an eye out.” Chrysalis thought for a moment. “If it all gets a bit excitable: explosions, flashes, that kind of thing, come find me.”
Nopony laughed. No changeling blinked.
“Oh come on, that was funny,” she grumbled. All eyes, those with pupils and those without silently refuted her words. Chrysalis sighed. “Let’s just go then.”
They were at the far end of the hall when the door to the stairwell presented itself, and Chrysalis hesitated. A guard sniggered at her plight.
She didn’t see which one, but let it slide. Truth be told, she was amused with the sound. They had her alone now, away from her subjects, which in their little heads probably meant a good thing. What it actually meant was that the Queen of changelings had less collateral to worry about, and therefore fewer compunctions. She outnumbered them one to four.
With a healthy cackle she flung back her head and burst into flame. Magic and wind whooshed over her in emerald fire. A change didn’t have to be so dramatic, but the way her escorts startled made it so much more satisfying.
As before, the drastic change in size left Chrysalis momentarily dazed and her eyes out of mutual focus. She felt the hoof touching her before she saw it, but even that was too much.
A grim and grizzled guard glared. As she met his gaze her eyes slowly drifted back together into focus. All traces of humours withered and died. The ghosts of her fangs had settled in her eyes, and they stabbed at the guard ponies’ resolve. The other’s looked on in their uncertainty.
“Take your hoof off of me,” she said with an icy edge, made all the more eerie by the new voice accompanying her changed form. “Unless you want everybody in Canterlot to see how good you actually are at restraining me. How many ponies out there are just desperate to find out where you’ve hidden us?” Slowly, definitely, the hoof fell away from her newly gray flank. A nasty snort was as close to an admission of defeat as she was going to get. It was all Chrysalis needed.
They closed around her reduced body, yet keept their distance as if she hadn't changed at all. It would look strange to passersbys, but not half so much so as the Queen of changelings sauntering around the city streets. It was a good form for anonymity. Gray and blonde - colours more tempered than most ponies, yet not really muted. Chrysalis preferred wings to horn in disguise, if she had to choose at all. Mobility could be much more reliable than magic in so many ways. Besides, not many saw her magic, and what few did tended to not remember it.
Though she’d let these ones keep the memory. As they entered the empty gardens the gray pony whirled about without warning, incinerated in place in a whirlwind of flame. Chrysalis hoisted each of the ponies into the air in her magic, smiling as they struggled in futility against the tethers of translucent green fire.
She meant to shake them up a bit, that’d teach them for sniggering, but a hitherto unconsidered thought presented itself.
She drew the most frightened of the lot closer, and uttered two words the young guard would never forget. “Which princess?”
He gulped. “Luna.”
Chrysalis nodded to herself, and distracted from her moment released the guards.
Which princess, she thought, the words playing across her mind. That kind of thing was important. She could see it leading into some nasty miscommunications if she didn’t keep it in mind. And of course, the Queen of changelings wouldn’t want to foster misunderstandings.
The guards hadn’t left, though she’d half expected them to have. “Go...guard something. That’s what you do,” she said distractedly.
“You’ll get yours,” the older guard muttered as they took up positions at the edge of the greenery.
She smiled for him. “You know, that’s exactly what I was thinking.”
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Oh my.
Man, the guards are just out of their league. Wonder how long you can draw this out.
1344468 I use my laptop
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Queen_Chrysalis.png dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Luna_apple.png
1345275
Where did you get these and how do I do the same?
1345382
Sry, just got back, You can have them on Mozilla fox and google chrome, download here, remember though, use it through google chrome or mozilla,(preferably google chrome)
oh and download the tampermonkey app too.
This chapter feels short. Checking the word count, it isn't actually much below average, so I can only assume it's true because not a lot happened. We did get Surreal lying to Luna (which will probably bite her when Luna tries to use her for secret communication which she's supposedly there for) but the rest was mostly characterization and nothing particularly new to this story, though hardly bad.
I can see why you wanted to end it on that line, though.
1346912
this is kinda a transition chapter. it's awkward in length and content and kinda needs to exist to allow movement between the plot without it being heavily jarring.
1347310
Oh definitely. It just feels a bit cut off. But I suppose including Chrysalis talking to Luna might make it go over the author's preferred length.
As an addendum to my previous comments, this is a particular quirk of stories released in serial format, be it on the web or in a magazine, that transition chapters feel more awkward than when one is able to read the whole story at once and simply follow the chapter with whatever it is transitioning to.
of course that made me think of that song...
Tough crowd.
They are so it off their league.