When Chrysalis finally has the chance to secure a peaceful future for her Swarm with Equestria she leaps for it, but the old prejudices of Ponies die hard, and with an Assassin who has already struck once on the prowl, who knows what will happen
Well he's feeling Dickish, plus Barbed makes reference to the fact that she's under protection of the Hive and Equestria has done nothing but harm her, see the phrase "given to us" also her mother and father are dead, making her legal guardians Moss Blanket & Chrysanthemum, until she's of age she's considered a ward of the Swarm and not a full-citizen of Equestria, it's more like a dual citizenship, but she's also a walking reminder of the guards failure, Shining doesn't want to deal with it at the moment, and he's pissed off so for that moment she's a citizen of the hive, she can still go back to Equestria if she wishes with no legal "complications", once she's 16, although she might go back in to the medical system, it's a deep hurt not mentioned so spoiler, but that'll be addressed in a side-story after I finish the main one, if I get round to the side-stories at all, mostly because would you want to write that morass of sad?
Back to the salient point, Shining is attempting to make Barbed look bad, while brushing off the duty of punishment to Barbed to make him look worse in the eyes of of the other guards; low level manipulation & favoured officer mindset, he's justifying it to himself as he was sent to "aid", not take charge, plus there are other things that are not clear yet that help explain Shining's extreme hatred to changelings, might not ever really find a reason to insert them into the story other than a couple of nods and winks, but Shining was hurt multiple ways by the invasion and has a really, really low view on Changelings due to it.
Shining has a lot of reasons to be angry, and while fully acting out here might be frowned upon, Celestia, Cadance, and Twilight were all badly hurt by the invasion, so they are far more likely to understand and back him up, he wouldn't be fired unless he somehow manages to declare war, get all of his guards killed, and kills the Ponies given to the hive for healing, you know the most extreme of fuck ups. Acting unprofessionally, take a week off, without pay, oh and the castle's been looking musty & dirty, here's a cleaning rag, have fun.
6760987 Oh, Barbed too. Maybe hoofcuff the two of them together and stage a fake manstallion-hunt for them so they can do the grudging-buddy-movie-bonding thing.
I want to respond, but I can't without some kind of spoiler, I can only say hope you enjoy the next few chapters, and that's a spoiler given the context.
Hmm, like it so far. Changelings would be awesome for dealing with mental problems. And, to be honest, people who help others do it because it seems right to them, makes them feel good or they get paid for it. I don't really see how changelings getting love in return would be any different.
I kinda checked the ending of the original fic beforehand, seemed horribly depressing to me, but you make it better with this, actually giving some good and making Celestia seem less cold, making the few years of isolation more of a test to see in changelings would behave themselves and not outright condemning an entire race indefinitely.
I wonder what would Shining do if he met some changeling children.
Changeling children (Hatchlings, Grubs, Nymphs, Larvae, Pupa, etc, etc) are a plot point here, they don't have the love to have any.
Better Worded, they have such a narrow food source (the love hotel which has a small clientele, the Resort which harvests lightly, the pony residents and staff who live there, and the ponies who are there for healing (See Kick-Back, Soft-Touch, Clockwork & Gilded Gears) at most there are 40-50 permanent Ponies, and between 20-40 visitors at any point, that's enough to comfortably support about 250 adult Changelings, or 20 Changeling Nymphs, gestation, maturation, and Castetigation (Choosing a caste such as Drone, Infiltrator, Soldier, Behemoth, Builder, etc, etc) takes a massive amount of Emotive energy in a remarkably short time (3-5 years), and they just don't have the love in storage.
A lot is running on this diplomatic summit, just the 1% chance of re-integration is enough to make Chrysalis bend over backwards, smothering her pride and "I know what's best attitude" as much as possible.
Why would Soft Touch not be an Equestrian citizen? Or is Shining just being particularly dickish?
6760676
Well he's feeling Dickish, plus Barbed makes reference to the fact that she's under protection of the Hive and Equestria has done nothing but harm her, see the phrase "given to us" also her mother and father are dead, making her legal guardians Moss Blanket & Chrysanthemum, until she's of age she's considered a ward of the Swarm and not a full-citizen of Equestria, it's more like a dual citizenship, but she's also a walking reminder of the guards failure, Shining doesn't want to deal with it at the moment, and he's pissed off so for that moment she's a citizen of the hive, she can still go back to Equestria if she wishes with no legal "complications", once she's 16, although she might go back in to the medical system, it's a deep hurt not mentioned so spoiler, but that'll be addressed in a side-story after I finish the main one, if I get round to the side-stories at all, mostly because would you want to write that morass of sad?
Back to the salient point, Shining is attempting to make Barbed look bad, while brushing off the duty of punishment to Barbed to make him look worse in the eyes of of the other guards; low level manipulation & favoured officer mindset, he's justifying it to himself as he was sent to "aid", not take charge, plus there are other things that are not clear yet that help explain Shining's extreme hatred to changelings, might not ever really find a reason to insert them into the story other than a couple of nods and winks, but Shining was hurt multiple ways by the invasion and has a really, really low view on Changelings due to it.
6760759 He's gonna get his plot fired if he doesn't figure out this 'diplomacy' thing.
6760837
And Barbed has such a great diplomatic ability?
Shining has a lot of reasons to be angry, and while fully acting out here might be frowned upon, Celestia, Cadance, and Twilight were all badly hurt by the invasion, so they are far more likely to understand and back him up, he wouldn't be fired unless he somehow manages to declare war, get all of his guards killed, and kills the Ponies given to the hive for healing, you know the most extreme of fuck ups. Acting unprofessionally, take a week off, without pay, oh and the castle's been looking musty & dirty, here's a cleaning rag, have fun.
6760987 Oh, Barbed too. Maybe hoofcuff the two of them together and stage a fake
manstallion-hunt for them so they can do the grudging-buddy-movie-bonding thing.6761593
I want to respond, but I can't without some kind of spoiler, I can only say hope you enjoy the next few chapters, and that's a spoiler given the context.
Shining is a throbbing dick, what a surprise.
Hmm, like it so far. Changelings would be awesome for dealing with mental problems. And, to be honest, people who help others do it because it seems right to them, makes them feel good or they get paid for it. I don't really see how changelings getting love in return would be any different.
I kinda checked the ending of the original fic beforehand, seemed horribly depressing to me, but you make it better with this, actually giving some good and making Celestia seem less cold, making the few years of isolation more of a test to see in changelings would behave themselves and not outright condemning an entire race indefinitely.
I wonder what would Shining do if he met some changeling children.
Cya
Raziel-chan
6843789
Changeling children (Hatchlings, Grubs, Nymphs, Larvae, Pupa, etc, etc) are a plot point here, they don't have the love to have any.
Better Worded, they have such a narrow food source (the love hotel which has a small clientele, the Resort which harvests lightly, the pony residents and staff who live there, and the ponies who are there for healing (See Kick-Back, Soft-Touch, Clockwork & Gilded Gears) at most there are 40-50 permanent Ponies, and between 20-40 visitors at any point, that's enough to comfortably support about 250 adult Changelings, or 20 Changeling Nymphs, gestation, maturation, and Castetigation (Choosing a caste such as Drone, Infiltrator, Soldier, Behemoth, Builder, etc, etc) takes a massive amount of Emotive energy in a remarkably short time (3-5 years), and they just don't have the love in storage.
A lot is running on this diplomatic summit, just the 1% chance of re-integration is enough to make Chrysalis bend over backwards, smothering her pride and "I know what's best attitude" as much as possible.
One of the big points on the whole "You eat our love" is just how blasé the Swarm is about it, they tell the ponies that they are food to them, and that's not exactly a nice sentiment to hear; try walking up to someone else and going "You are my meal for today", broken nose and police at your door. Barbed Retort is kinda sarcastic about the whole thing with the words "A farmer cares for his harvest", but that's one of the points that needs to be taken into context. They do need to care, they want to eat well, they want to have positive emotions to feast upon, they want to have an Elysium where all is honey and milk, but the word "food" carries a bunch of negative connotations when a sapient creature is the food presented, even in a weird emotional context. Ponies are nervous herbivorous herd creatures and Changelings are predators, any attempt at integration is gonna have teething problems to start with simply due to this.