Time to Start Getting Ready
Nightmare Night came and went, the foals were a menagerie of different things, so much so that saying what they all dressed like would take way to long. The most notable outfits were Novel as a literary character (as to which one, the only ones that are entirely sure are Chrysalis herself and Twilight), Dusk as a stone armored guard, Satin as a doctor, and Violet as a jeweled violet. The rest of the girls were a variety of the kinds of outfits usually seen over the holiday. Rainbow and Rainboom, almost most predictably, at so much candy they went into what are commonly known as sugar comas the following day, the apple foals gorged themselves stuffed on a variety of candy covered apples (to the surprise of no one, not even their family), Flower spent half the night gathering sweets dressed as a bunny and the rest of the night with her mom in the tradition her mom had for the holiday. Twilight and Seeker spent time with Chrysalis and roughly half her girls gathering sweets for half the night before jumping over to join Spike and the rest of the girls in gathering sweets, when Twilight took the girls seemed really enjoy the haunted corn maize for some reason (to the joyous bewilderment of the Apple family). Pinkie's family turned their grounds into a haunted dance hall, with some hidden treats all over the complex, Emerald sniffed them out in a matter of minutes (much to Pinkie's delight, Emerald's method also made everyone happy a trained medical doctor was in the building, after said doctor had managed prevent their own potential heart problems from the sight). After providing all the ordered outfits Rarity closed down the shop and helped and ran something akin to a haunted gallery on the grounds around her business, her daughter and husband spent some time placating sweets with her friends' children for a few hours before returning to help out in any way they could.
Of course, Nightmare Night had ended days ago, and as expected all of Chrysalis's girls absolutely enjoyed it. An event like that is always a good chance for changelings to practice their natural ability to change their form. Chrysalis should have been feeling good about everything, but for some reason, she felt something was off. Most of the foals were with their father, as was usual by this point. The primes were at school, seems the meetings Twilight held over the years with the staff for Ponyville's schools was working out well. Emerald was with Rarity, said white mare had been very insistent on having the filly with her for this particular day. So now Chrysalis was enjoying a stroll through the park in her late autumn outfit, which happened to be a green fall dress with a lavender colored scarf and knee socks.
As she made her way through the park she felt a familiar presence, one she did not like. Chrysalis made sure to act like it had been an almost negligible thing and casually made her way to one of the more secluded parts of the park. Thankfully the place chose to head be devoid of anyone else when she arrived. She went over to the bench and waited.
A few minute the sound of a set of hooves could be heard approaching. Chrysalis knew it was just a proxy, a drone from the hive of her sister that would be used as a means of communication. She had always feared, and hoped against, the day she was found. It didn't matter that she probably knew the accords from memory better than this approaching queen, or that her caution against potential threats to her new home. All that mattered now was that two queens were about to enter into a conversation, Chrysalis couldn't help remembering all the times she had moved queens into check against her sisters.
“Well, it seems you chose a pretty poor disguise, Chrysalis,” came a maliciously attractive voice dripping with a condescending attitude, “it took us a while to find you, in truth, we should have probably started looking for you in these sorts of places.”
“Nymph, this a displeasure,” said Chrysalis from her perch, not even bothering to look in the direction of her conversational partner, “and this isn't a disguise, it's how I look now. I stopped going around that way years ago, it's an influence from my mate, we're building a family, it might be small now, but in the future, it could grow much greater.
“It's cute how you think of your drones as indispensable, but I guess the Defective Queen can't stop thinking of the castoffs she collected any other way.”
“That hive has been in the grave for years now, I'm growing my new hive. My mate has given quite a bit, and he's good with the foals too. Tell Vespa, Culicidae, and Cicada that I'm calling a meeting in Ponyville, the giant crystal castle that seems a bit like a tree, one of Equestria's rulers lives there and I'm on amicable terms with her these days. The rest of Equestria's rulers will likely be at the meeting as well. Chances are you won't be able to keep this meeting or the one I called for unknown to the other hives, so do as you please with how the information is shared, we'll likely have spies from numerous hives listening once they catch a whiff of a shadow of whispered rumor regarding the meeting. I'm done hiding, done running, it's time to actively shape the future as best I can on terms that none of you have considered before. If none of you want to come then I'll entice you by saying this coming meeting I've called will work towards deciding the future of the Changelings, that may not mean anything to you, but you can't take a chance that it's an idle boast either. I'll set terms, that are simple and straightforward, in regards to the meeting. You only bring two visible enforcers or guards with you to meeting, you come in true with no proxies to act as a decoy while at the meeting site, you do not involve any ponies that are not part of the meeting itself in any activities in or around any of Equestria's communities, you don't anyone off while they are speaking, you are to visibly show respect for everyone in the negotiations and its chamber regardless of your personal opinions, all changelings will adhere to the Accords and take time to genuinely verify claims in regards to the Accords.”
“A long list, but all seem simple enough. How much time to we have in regards to the meeting?”
“Two weeks should be enough time to get all affairs in order and make it to the designated the point.”
“You're lucky that accords prevent your death right now, I'll inform the other queens of our conversation.” The sound of buzzing arrived her ears shortly after, a few minutes later Chrysalis let out a sigh of relief, she'd dodged a big shot for the moment.
**********************************
It was a half hour later and Chrysalis was in Twilight's castle having tea with the lavender mare, she was waiting for the right moment to tell the lavender alicorn about what had occurred a few minutes earlier. After a few sips of her tea she realized there was no right time for something like this. Twilight was probably going to blow her top, and possibly Chrysalis into a wall, over this news.
“Twilight, I didn't just come here for social call,” said Chrysalis carefully.
“I'm kind of disappointed about that,” said Twilight, “what do you need?”
“My sided of the the family is finally coming to 'visit' us,” everything about Twilight froze, even her magic flickered erratically around what she grasped with it. “I found one my sister's drones wandering the park, I lead it to a secluded part of the park and laid down some ground rules for a meeting.”
“How long do we have?”
“I set for two weeks, but chances are they'll get her in disguise before then. I'm sorry, but I set your castle as the meeting site, I just kept thinking much of a bad impression it would be if the meeting was held in Canterlot or the Crystal Empire. You'll want to inform all the princesses about this, we're going to have serious issues no matter what. I always knew their arrival would be bad, but I thought at the very least we can mitigate the damage in a place that could have minimal impact across the nation, Ponyville has gotten a bit of a reputation over the years.”
“You have a point there,” said Twilight, “and honestly, a few not-so-friendly changelings popping up in town will practically be well within the norm for Ponyville's community at this point. Some ponies might think of it as an inevitability at this point on account of how friendly you've been over the past few years. My palace is probably the safest bet anyway, I'll send word on this development.”
********************************
It was a bit later back at the colony grounds, the castle to be specific since all the changeling foals in the colony proper were sleeping and Chrysalis was sure Spike would be having some very loud words with her over the news. A prediction she was very unhappy turned out to be true. His pacing in a circle around her during her entire explaining was also not a good sign, thankfully he waited until she finished talking before he began his very loud ranting response.
“I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS, I THOUGHT YOU WERE JUST BEING PARANOID WHEN YOU SAID YOU FEARED THAT THEY WOULD FIND YOU HERE, THANKFULLY YOU WEREN'T HURT. YOU WARNED US ALL IT WAS LIKELY TO HAPPEN, IT'S BEEN FIVE YEARS, AND WE THOUGHT AT THE VERY LEAST YOU WOULD BE IN THE CLEAR ABOUT THIS SORT OF THING. I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW STUPID I WAS TO DISCREDIT YOUR CONTINUED PRECAUTION AFTER THE GIRLS TURNED THREE, BUT YOU COULD HAVE POSSIBLY AGGRAVATED THE SITUATION WITH A CONFRONTATION, I'M GLAD YOU DIDN'T. WHAT CONCERNS ME IS THE DECISION YOU MADE WITHOUT CONSULTING ANY OF US, I'M GLAD YOU LET TWILIGHT AND I KNOW SO QUICKLY, BUT WHAT WERE YOU THINKING CALLING OUT FOR A MEETING WITH THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR PRACTICALLY TRAUMATIZING YOU WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG? EVEN IF THEY DO ACCEPT IT WITHIN THE ALLOTED TIMEFRAME WE'RE ALL PRETTY SURE IT COULD BE A TRAP THAT USES YOUR CHOICE OF LOCATIONS AS A VENUE SOMEHOW.”
“Feeling a little better? You know why I did it, and I'm sorry I made the decision without consulting any of you, I just wanted to mitigate the damage before things got the point where would likely spiral out of control.”
“I get all that, but it's still a bad idea. Thankfully we know the changeling playbook because of you. You've always been so cerebral, even I doubted what you said early on, but I was at least willing to give the benefit of a doubt to let you prove your honesty. I was sure you'd be like the rest of your family, just more willing to bide your time. Of course that all changed pretty quickly after you shared that memory spell with Twilight, a spell like that meant if you had a long-term plan anyone who saw that memory would have as much knowledge of it as you did.”
“That and I would have likely waited over a decade to execute it, but I genuinely had no interest in those sorts of plans when we met up in the colony grounds for the first time, and the distinct deviations the girls showed from other changelings in their development just seemed to wipe any lingering aspects of that line of thinking from my mind. I've said it before, but I like saying it again, if I had been your position I wouldn't have trusted me either.”
“And yeah, I'm feeling better now, just needed to get some stuff out of my system.”
“I thought so, hence why we are so far from our sleeping brood. It is time to return to them. Don't worry, I'll explain everything in detail before meeting is set to start. Besides, some of them will probably send proxies to barter the time to something soon or later than the initial time frame.”
Spike gave a nod and they both headed back to the colony proper, but still gave his mate some disapproving looks on the way home.
*****************************************
It was a few days later with Twilight and Princess Luna meeting with Chrysalis, who had Focus Crystal and Violet Emerald close by, at Canterlot Castle, Celestia would be joining them later after attending to her duties. The tension in the air wasn't very high, but it could still be felt by just about anyone that passed by the chamber being used as a meeting hall. Luna was not happy about the news when Twilight had passed it along, and Celestia gave an impassive look the entire time the letter was read and it's contents discussed.
“I am having trouble believing your 'kin' would be willing to have a meeting on your terms,” said Luna with a bit of growl to her voice, which for some reason caused Focus Crystal to giggle while Violet Emerald showed signs of being a bit distraught.
“It was not my intention to do something that would cause you any discomfort,” said Chrysalis as she passed Focus Crystal to Luna while doing her best to comfort Violet Emerald.
“Wasn't it Spike's turn to take the girls to school today,” said Twilight, “who is watching the rest of your brood?”
“Cherri volunteered,” said Chrysalis, “there's still a few weeks until school starts for the older foals, and they seem to respond well to her despite the frightening wake-up fiasco months ago.”
“Alright then, why did you call a meeting if you knew they would either twist the offer to their benefit or try to barter the time of its start in every direction?”
“It's more of a show of courtesy, at least by changeling standards, when a queen calls a meeting it's usually more like a demand of the other hives. They try to see how far they can push things for their favor before the time limit set has run its course. It was also my way of seeing just how many changelings are really in the Ponyville area, a call for a meeting tends to draw the out of the woodwork quite effectively. As of now, I've encountered ten different changeling proxies, two from each of my 'family's' hives that have made 'requests' for everything from a change in time and venue to the number of visible military drones permitted. Chances are there will be more than the visible number hiding in plain sight, maybe even as what appear to be Equestrian guard and military ponies. I know my assistance over the past few years have helped, but even the best detection systems can be circumvented.”
“True, we'll be as careful as we can,” said Twilight.
“How is it you were able to tell you were dealing with changelings? Maybe if we could find a way to duplicate it we could have a better chance,” said Luna as she entertained Focus Crystal.
“Changelings have a natural ability to sense each other, it's a carryover from the time before we developed the ability to see in complete darkness, it was probably kept because we can sense each other changelings through dense material concentrations or go out to forage for food, changelings have a policy of not feeding on other changelings, something about how getting emotions from another changeling tends to cut the strength of emotions we tend to feed on.”
“That actually makes a lot of sense,” said Twilight, “and since it's been part of your biology from before any of you can remember there's no way for you to really know much about it.”
“That and ability doesn't work for finding changelings that are no longer alive, which means the ability is probably lost when we pass on as well.”
“Even if it wasn't the case we would not condone such research,” said Luna, “no matter who or what they are, the dead deserve respect.”
“Question,” said Twilight, “why did Focus Crystal have a positive reaction to Luna's anger?”
“When ponies have their emotions run a bit higher than usual their ambient magic flares for a short period,” Chrysalis, “we've already established she has a strong attraction to the higher natural magic fields around her.”
“Which means she picks up on short-term increases in magic highly effectively, and since she has only come to identify high magic signatures as being safe she probably associates higher magic as something to be happy about. We really need to find a way to teach that's not always the case.”
“Unfortunately,” said Luna, “such lessons require her to truly experience such thing, we cannot create a lesson plan for one has their mind's development at a point that cannot properly discern the difference between a simulation and the genuine article.”
“That and her magic sensitivity would be able to tell if such things were no real danger,” said Chrysalis, “we'd have to have her experience it all without spells to ensure her safety.”
“Speaking of progress,” said Twilight, “have you made any towards determining the development rate of your foals?”
“Yes and no,” said Chrysalis, “Spike and I have determined that the changelings with more cognitive-oriented abilities, like Crystal, have their intellectual development progress at a rate that puts a five-month-old, much her now, have an intellectual equivalent on par to a one-year pony foal. That said her emotional development seems to still be on par with a pony infant half her age and physically she's developing at around the same rate as the average pony foal. That all, said the more physically oriented changelings, like Dusk, seem to be developing at a rate where their physical development is just a few months more matured than a pony of the same age, with their intellectual development being almost a full third slower than a that of a pony the same age and intellectual development equal to a pony infant their age. However, changelings that seem to be designed to have a higher sensitivity to emotion, like Satin, seem to have an emotional development that almost a full two years ahead of a pony of the same age, with the mental development of a pony of the same age and physical development considerably slower than that of a pony of the same age. Emerald seems to be a bit of an oddity in that regard since she's the only one of her known type thus far we can't really gauge her developments properly, or determine which basic classification she falls under.”
The other two mares blinked a bit, after regaining her composure Twilight said, “I honestly didn't expect that much data to be gathered over a five month period, but the fact that certain kinds of changelings have different types of development rates is fascinating.”
“And could prove useful in negotiations,” said Celestia as she entered the room, “of course the fact that most changelings have a development so accelerated that these sorts of observations would be next to impossible might not leave the impression we would like should this information be shared with the changeling hives.”
“Furthermore, the more academic queens, of which are very few from my last assessment, would probably say these sorts of observations only work in regards to my hive and thus have no real bearing on any other hives. Also, almost all, if not the entirety, of the queens observing and taking part in the delegation would most likely scoff at the idea of changelings having any sort of emotional development.”
“An excellent set of points there,” said Luna, “from what we do know about changelings as a whole, queens are unwilling to even entertain such concepts and will likely determine Chrysalis's hive has a further need for elimination, regardless of whatever contributions they might hold.”
“They'll also be in denial about a new kind of changeling if we just tell them, it's more probable of them to believe such claims with an example present, which means Emerald is going to have to be present during the meeting.”
“You want to subject your daughter to...” started Twilight.
“Of course not,” said Chrysalis, “but her presence is required so that they can confirm that she is a type of changeling they are unfamiliar with. Queens don't like having to teach anyone, especially their workforce. However, there is one thing queens have to teach other changelings regardless of the type of changeling they are.”
“What would that be?” Inquired Luna, thankful the five-month-old filly in her arms had finally nodded off.
“Masking their identity,” said Chrysalis, “and when I say that I mean to other changelings, queens will sometimes use their magic to make themselves appear to be some other kind of changeling in their hive as a hiding method when they become aware of an invasion int their primary colony, but the ruse doesn't work as well without another hive member making themselves appear to be the queen. That it's a common tactic for a number of queens to have one of their own hive act as a spy within another hive, and masquerading as a different kind changeling works well to that end. The main problem they have is having to actually teach their drones how to do it, that hand it has a tendency to take a minimum of twenty years for a drone to master the technique enough play infiltrator. On top of all that, some of the longer standing queens, like Arachne, can actually 'see' through the ruse and determine what kind of changeling they're actually dealing with.”
“None of your girls are that old,” said Twilight, “you've been hiding from them for the past seventeen years.”
“A fact I'm counting in this case,” said Chrysalis, “they'd think it was a bluff regardless, mostly on assuming that I have my prior hive to assist with this. With enough practice a queen can even tell the true age of the changeling she's dealing with. Even though I extended the invitation to my 'mother' and 'sisters' I'm pretty sure some of the other queens will find a way to be in the meeting area if not inviting themselves to session entirely.”
“If this is mainly hive politics why are we being involved in it? I mean I understand you wanting to have it in a location where no changeling queen has expressed power, and I'm happy to host it all given the other venue choices are far less viable currently, but I still can't quite understand why the princesses of Equestria need to be part of this 'summit' you have planned.”
“Officially your involvement is to act as neutral parties in the discussion, unofficially it's because you all have some vested interest in the outcome of this coming meeting, and I could really use the moral support. We're going to have decide where all the foals will be for this since can't keep most of them too far from us and it would probably be a good idea to have the older and more responsible foals looking after the younger. Focus Crystal and some of the other foals might be prone to wandering the halls despite being warned of the dangers, if that should happen I just hope they remain safe.”
“Care to elaborate on that one,” said Princess Celestia.
“As you know changelings naturally feed on emotions, mostly positive ones. However some of the queens, at least one of my sisters, have developed something akin to a high on feeding on some of the core emotions like fear and disgust, and will have some members of their hives go out of their way to collect them.”
“We'll tell the guards to be on high alert for that sort of thing,” said Twilight.
“While a sound plan that isn't entirely a good idea,” said Chrysalis, “the kind that give them the greatest kick, as it were, happen to be core emotionally energy collected from the very young, since the emotions of young foals tend to be the most pure.”
“That actually makes a lot of sense,” said Luna, “and a deplorable practice!”
“Which I never took part in, mostly on account of the logistical issues I calculated at the time. My line of reasoning is quite different now. They're also going to be assuming I'm putting on an act, mostly because sincerity and honesty are quite foreign concepts to changeling thing.”
“Don't worry,” said Celestia, “whatever may come of this you can at least be proud you did all you could for a better future for as many parties as possible.”
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This meeting is going to be a cluster fuck of epic proportions.
7243309 you're probably right, I just hope I get the jumbled mess down in a way that is effective at conveying it.
KO nice chapter, something tells me that te visit is not gonna go so well.
The stakes are ass-kissing high!!!
I want to see Queen Arachne at the meeting if only to be able to call out any that claim Emerald as a fake.
I also imagine one as old and experienced as you've written her to be would be at least curious about a queen becoming fully associated, let alone integrated, into pony society.
7245920 I actually do have plans to have Arachne show up to the meeting.
An hive with only 24 members can't work well, is the couple going to make others. Are we going to see new sex scene in the near future?
7483582 More are planned to come along, as for more sexy fun times between Chrysalis and Spike, that's still in the works. The only reason Chrysalis is keeping it so small right now is because she has support from an external nation state and due to the fact her offspring are developing slower than changelings usually do she wants to make sure she has some members around a teenage level of development before knowing more are on the way. Because you are right, the size is nonviable for a self-sufficient hive. A minimum of 50 to 60 members is needed for something like that.