Chapter 34
Why am I here?
That was my main thought as I looked around the table. All three princesses, Shining Armor and Queen Chrysalis were all gathered around the round table.
And what was even stranger was that it was 'Queen Chrysalis' that requested my presence so I was sitting on HER side of the table.
At this point, I just think the changeling queen likes fucking with me.
Luna looked amused at it, but hid it well. I'm not sure anypony but Celestia, Princess Cadance and Queen Chrysalis and myself noticed and I'm pretty sure the last two cheated by feeling the emotions.
...Okay, so Shining Armor was the only one not noticing it. That had sounded a lot more impressive in my head.
“Absolutely not!” Princess Cadance exclaimed, her wings flaring, “You will enter the Crystal Empire over my dead body!”
“If that is what it takes to keep the swarm fed,” Chrysalis countered with a sneer, “It is a price I'm willing to play.”
Shining Armor snarled and got up only for Princess Celestia to speak up calmly,
“Enough.”
She may have said it calmly and softly, but it seemed to echo through the room, leaving silence in it's wake.
Shining Armor sank back down.
“Cadance, the changelings need emotions to feed of.” Princess Celestia said, turning to her niece, “It have come to our attention that as things are, they are unable to gather enough to sustain their hive without their old methods. If this peace is to last, this needs to change. Relocating the hive to the Crystal Empire would allow them to live like any other pony, without needing to feed off of the emotions of ponies around them.”
Princess Cadance looked at Celestia, “And I must protect my subjects, just as you do, auntie.” she sighed, “You gave the Crystal Empire to me to rule and I will do so. The safety of my subjects is paramount, they have lived through enough as it is. I will not allow that thing to jeopardize that.”
Honestly, after what Chrysalis did to her and Shining Armor, I didn't blame them for not wanting anything to do with changelings.
But this was not about them. They would have to put their personal emotions about it to the side if this was to work.
...Damn it. I just figured out why Chrysalis wanted me here.
That sneaky fucking bug. She knew I saw changelings as people and spent personal time around them, one in particular. She knew I would end up on her side in this and she wanted me here as a 'humanizing' element for a better word.
Shooting her a quick glare, I found her smirking slightly, looking down at me.
Yeah, yeah. Gloat all you want.
“So this is about Queen Chrysalis?” I asked, “You refuse to allow her access to the Crystal Empire?”
Cadance looked at me, “Yes.”
“What about the rest of the changelings?” I asked her as I put a hoof on the table, “Would it be possible to establish a hive in the Crystal Empire where the changelings could live while their Queen remained here?”
“Absolutely not!”
That one came from both Chrysalis and Cadance at the same time.
Perfect. A solution they are both unhappy with. The definition of compromise.
“I can't believe you are taking her side.” Shining Armor exclaimed as he stared at me, “You know what she did!”
“I'm not.” I sighed, “I'm taking the side of 'let's prevent xenocide'. Because if things get desperate enough, big buggy here and her swarm will fight to preserve their lives rather than starve to death. They will lose of course, but a lot of ponies will die in the process along with the changelings. All of them, dead. Would you want that to happen? For the changelings to go extinct? A entire race of beings, of people, dead? The Queen here, I could understand. What she did the Princess Cadance and you are unforgivable. But would you sentence every other changeling to die for what she did?”
There was silence across the table.
...Picard, I am not. But hopefully I got the point across. I have to stop taking cues on how to act from Star Trek. Oh well, as least as long as it's not Janeway or Archer I should do okay.
“...No. Of course not.” Princess Cadance said quietly, folding her wings again, “But I have to protect my people.”
“And I must do the same.” Chrysalis said in the same tone.
I glanced up at the Changeling Queen and for the first time since the first time I talked to her, she seemed... tired.
“So compromise.” Luna injected, speaking up for the first time in the meeting, “This wont be solved today, but perhaps there is some way we can make this work. Be it allowing a hive without Queen Chrysalis in the Crystal Empire or allowing teams of changelings to gather power from the Crystal Heart to bring back to the hive here. But in some manner this needs to be solved and fast.”
Looking around the table, I glanced up at Queen Chrysalis again. She looked to be back to normal. Calm, almost sneering.
Yeah, that won't make this easier. I elbowed her in the side.
The big changeling twitched and then glared down at me and I motioned her closer so she lowered her head to hiss at me,
“What?”
“Apologize to Cadance and Shining Armor.” I whispered, “You haven't and you need to. Won't help how they feel about you, but the gesture will make this easier.”
“What!?”
“Do it.”
“I did what I did for the swarm!”
I glared up at her, “So do this for the swarm too. I don't give a fuck if you mean it or not, buggy. Offer reparations if need be, you need this more than they need you.” I hissed back.
Chrysalis showed her sharp teeth and almost growled at me but instead she pulled back and turned to Princess Cadance, “I would like to extend apologies for my actions up to the invasion.” she ground out, “I was trying to keep my changelings safe. We would like to offer... reparations for the suffering caused.”
Cadance didn't look impressed.
...Well, I guess it's a start.
Stats
Page generated in 0.036 seconds
Total duration
956 users online
1,385,774 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
This will be fun
Any notions that Cadance would be an independent ruler is beginning to dissipate.
6860694
Yep. Cadance is an Equestrian puppet ruler.
I say he should`ve brought up the holocaust and what the Nazis did in WWII. That would've finished the entire negotiation problem. But it would bring up some questions about him as well.
Am I the only one getting the wibes of an odd setup for Chrysalis to somehow become in love with out lovely protagonist? This would create an interesting love drama...
this looks to be the begging of a beautiful thing.
Awesome work, first the Gryphons and now this, are we seeing the birth of an unwilling ambassador?
"Very good, now seeing as all the heads of state are here, I would like to bring up something that was in my soup the other day and how a certain individual in this circle, not naming names, Celestia, took it upon herself to let him out without so much as a post-it note on the fridge,.....discuss!"
6860761 I don't see it. She is doing it to manipulate and her what she wants for her hive.
Would be an interesting twist, admitadly. And seeing Luna and Chrysalis fight would be epic. Unless the herd thing flies here.
6860694 The Equestrian Mussolini
From what exactly? From bug eating excessing enregy comming up from a magical rock?
Not to mention, the crystal empire just came back from the past. The population's reaction to the changelling could be different depending on how much was known about changelling back in the day and how were the relationship.
Heck! Some now hive-less infiltrator might still be there peacefully hiding in the empire...
6860838 That's why I said I was getting wibes.
6860743
Just been like
"My species has done something exactly like what you are proposing only intentionally, millions died because of a single man's prejudice."
"Could you live with the death of the hive on your hooves Cadence?"
Good chapter loving it still.
'feed off.', or 'feed off of.'.
6860694
6860739
Let's be fair: the "Crystal Empire" seems to be smaller than a single Equestrian city like Manehattan plus culturally and technologically outdated; also, its citizens are still recovering from the effects of Sombra's rule.
Do you think Cadence has enough assets to be truly independant from her auntie?
Too OP.
Too Over-Professional
6860563 thanks
6860964
In the alternate timeline, the Crystal Empire, in the state it returned in, had enough resources to wage war against Equestria, capturing a huge territory and forcing Equestria to adopt a state of total warfare; Equestria's ENTIRE economy had to be retrofitted to fight the war, and they were still losing. Now consider that Cadance would usher in increased economic stability while bringing in the medical/agricultural/technological advances made in the last thousand years. If anything, the empire would have been even more self sufficient.
6860964
If push comes to shove, I doubt the Crystal Empire could become totally independent, there's too many ponies and not enough resources without drastically dialing back the "creature comforts".
I'd also like to know what the citizen's opinion of changelings are. While the Princess and Shining are obviously hostile, we have no idea what the average crystal pony thinks. For all we know, they're "meh" about changelings and would be content to share the place with them in a "live and let live" peace. Heh, wouldn't that be a subtle smack in the snout for the royal couple? Your own ponies extending the olive branch while you'd rather stab Chrysalis with it. I predict there will be bugponies in the Empire despite Cadance and Shining's extreme reservations. Mainly because Celestia will not want the changelings to return to their old ways, thus pressuring those two to let them at the Crystal Heart. And the secondary reason is that genocide is something they all want to avoid.
If teams were allowed to enter the Empire, could Lord Page offer the idea of a 'Love Car' such as how humans when transporting fuel by trains had a large container to put it into, a similar concept though on volume depending on how big it needs to be added as a regular thing for trains going to and from the Empire.
Perhaps the Hive pays for transportation costs of cargo moving/weight, since they could liquidize Love. Also what would happen if Chrysalis presented an offer to take Equestrian's worst pony offenders in the prison system to be guarded and fed on? If being able to maintain a safe environment while also making sure none die or become emotionless husks, that would be a big trust step that could also work in changeling favor of providing options that could relieve some issues. Because admittedly there are crime issues and normal methods may not work on those who ignore love and tolerance. (or have more evil cutie marks.)
Wow. Tough crowd much?
On another note, it would be funny that the reason why she doesn't allow a hive without a queen is that she's a grounding Anchor for them and their hive mind. Because who else could reel in the more 'opportunist' types from ruining it for others? Or Changelings who lost those wanting to seek grievance or vengeance against Cadence? Though the other ponies tend to ignore that a Changeling is a different Evolutionary path and likely genetically ingrained culture/idea on how things do or go, also it would be funny if Skitter was a young queen of Chrysalis.
Page's discomfort is the sweetest ambrosia to Chrysalis.
6860761
I can't see Chrysalis falling in love, no. I can see her manipulating the negotiations so she's in a political marriage to Page, in a measure of 'screw you' to the royal sisters and a measure of holding something Luna cares about close.
I can't believe that Cadence and Shining Armor are proponents of xenocide towards changelings.
6861483
They're young, traumatized, and above all, pissed off. Right now, they don't care what happens to the Changelings because they aren't seeing them as people. It's called dehumanization, and it's what allows otherwise decent people to do horrible, terrible things.
6861573 SO they're gonna be xenocidal towards all changelings because Chrysalis decided to invade?
This is very interesting. I do wonder through, are there other hives? If so, do you need any? You are welcomed to use my Shadow Hive.
6861612
Decided to invade and was supported by her entire species in the endeavor, so yes. As far as they're concerned whatever happens to them now is their own fault, as long as they don't have to pull the trigger they don't have to feel bad about it. Emotions aren't rational, and rarely make sense, they just... are, which is why they're so often seen as an obstacle to overcome.
Page is starting to remind me of that 40k fan made chapter, The reasonable marines
Ahh... Star Trek: The Next Generation. Home to possibly one of the best captains of the whole Star Trek franchise!
6861681 Which is rather horrifying when considering Cadance has the ability to manipulate other people's emotions. Remember that arguing couple she arbitrarily manipulated to 'love' each other while knowing none of the circumstances?
6864161
Blasphemy! He is the best captain
6861681
You're wrong about the not pulling the trigger part. Laying siege to a city is just as much killing them through privation and disease as is assaulting the city. By depriving the changelings of food you are committing an action that would lead to genocide.
6866251
Cadence can only reinforce and draw attention to certain emotions, She can not make them out of whole cloth. She would be unable to force ponies to love lings when there is only fear and hate.
I get the feeling I'm the only person in the universe that liked Voyager.
The Crystal Empire wasn't invaded like Canterlot was. the cyrstal ponies probably won't have the aversion to changelings that Canterlot ponies do. That would make it much easier for them to gather love openly.
7101289 I liked it too, though the contortions they went through to keep janeway from jumping straight home got odd sometimes, resulting in inconsistencies in moral outlook.
The episode where janeway became a lizard was just plain weird.
Just do it!
Yes you can!
7418453 C'mon you old cunt we talked about this.
....
Yes I know she's a prissy bitch, but do it for the love.
....
Wha-... Kinky, now just apologize.
oh, that Chrysalis is such an idiot! you'd think that someone who feeds on Love would have realized that making EVERYONE hate her is a bad idea...
7418453
Don't let your dreams be dreams. Yesterday you said tomorrow. So JUST DO IT!!!
Oh he did not just diss Janeway. That's one strike against you blank.
8484884
your avatar pic represents your displeasure towards the Janeway diss perfectly.
Any war in the world now in front of you! Because always one and the same. Make the first shot, despite the fact that you have not considered right right, you do not know who will die! You do not know whose children will scream and burn! How many hearts will be broken! How many lives are resilied! How much blood is shed until the fortune do not do what it was worth doing from the very beginning - to sit down at the table of negotiations!
-12 Doctor
9989602
хе ю го, бра
"Because it's always the same. When you fire the first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die. You don't know whose children are going to scream and burn. How many hearts will be broken. How many lives shattered! How much blood will spill... before everybody does what they were ALWAYS going to have to do from the very beginning! SIT. DOWN. AND. TALK."
Not all fables begins with "once upon a time", sometimes they starts with "I'm not a politician"
Love it!!!!
I laughed at this
pay
Page, defender of all snuggelbugs!