Chapter 28 — Tastes of Plans and Tools
NOW
Crystal
For changelings, the essence of who we were, our thoughts, bodies, memories, and connection to others, was intrinsic to our magic. I had always believed some traumatic event caused my imprisonment in this crystalline vessel of mine, which disrupted my magic and therefore led to my amnesia. I had theorized that binding with Nymph would provide a proper outside framework for me to access those memories that I could not access innately.
I was right, of course, and what I saw was… interesting.
I cannot say I was not expecting it. It tied everything together quite nicely. The feelings of betrayal and my knowledge of changelings, rangers, and memory spells were all explained by the memory that had come back to me. Even the importance of Canterlot had been explained. This was going to be ground zero. Canterlot was the last major city left unconquered by the Badlands Hive, and there was no doubt that Requiem was making plans to correct that.
I needed to make preparations. I needed tools and a plan.
All things in due time.
I had recovered from the binding ritual much sooner than the other two. I had tumbled out of the holster pocket I was sitting in onto the carpet. Nymph and Lily were still sprawled out on the floor where they had fallen, motionless save for the rising of their chests. I could feel their magic as easily as I felt my own vast reservoir of energy, seamlessly intertwined and effortlessly available.
Amore was looking at the ground and fiddling with her hooves, occasionally sneaking glances up at the prone bodies, but while I tasted worry on her, there was something else. Paralysis from indecision. The acidic bite of fear.
She knew something.
I reached out to her similarly to how I had reached out to Lilywater and Nymph. I had to nip this in the bud quickly, lest it lead to unforeseen complications.
“Greetings.”
She jumped, letting out a short shriek as she looked around frantically. “Who is that? Where are you?”
“I am Crystal. I would just like to talk to you for a moment. If you speak normally, I can hear you just fine.”
“I umm… okay,” she said, though she still shuffled uneasily from side to side as she continued to scan the room. “What did you need from me?”
“You know, don’t you. About Miss Overwatch. You’ve figured it out.”
“Oh. Well I uhh…” She grimaced as if tasting something unpleasant. “She’s… she’s a changeling, right? It’s just with all the shapeshifting talk, replacing ponies, the pods, the sheer idea that hugs help, I thought that maybe she was a uhh…”
“You are indeed correct, though I do suppose it would be pretty obvious to you, Miss Cadence, Princess of Love.”
Her eyes widened. “How did you know my name?”
“You are hardly an inconspicuous individual, even disregarding your paper-thin disguises. If the changelings had a patron saint, you would be it. I would be highly surprised if you did not know about the changelings.”
“I, well, I suppose I’ve had some experience, yes. Most of it was… was good,” she said, looking fondly into the distance for just a moment before clearing her throat abruptly. “But for umm… for Overwatch, did the real one actually die?”
“I was not a personal witness, though she bears scars from the incident even on her base form.”
“Oh.” Cadence pursed her lips. “Do you know her real name? How old is she? You said she was a lot younger than she looked, right?”
“Her real name is Nymph, though I would be cautious about using it. She is fourteen.”
She gasped, recoiling a little. “Fourteen?” She looked down at the sleeping unicorn with a strained expression. “I can only wonder how she’s coping at that age with… everything.”
I paused. “She… does what she can.”
Cadence sighed and turned her gaze to the other sleeping pony. “So what about Lily? And you? Are you also—”
“You do not have to worry about Lily. She is a merpony, through and through. As for me, I… was one.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Was?”
“Like I discussed with Celestia, it is an internal affair and one that I intend to resolve as soon as possible,” I said, putting on my calm diplomatic voice. “I ask that you please do not reveal this information to Celestia. I fear what may happen should she attempt to intervene without knowing the full consequences of her actions.”
Cadence crossed her hooves with a pout. “I… alright.”
Overwatch groaned from her spot on the ground, and she squirmed uncomfortably on the ground. Lily seemed to come to at the same moment, though she simply curled up more and started sucking on her hoof.
“Ahh, so she wakes.”
Overwatch pushed herself up, rubbing at her forehead. “Oh Celestia, my head,” she said, her eyes blinking quickly as they tried to readjust to the bright room. She soon spotted where I sat on the ground, and her eyes widened a little. “O-oh, Crystal, I uhh…” She swallowed. “I think I saw—”
Cadence stuck her head in, suddenly much closer than was comfortable for the young changeling. “Oh gosh, I—” she stopped to clear her throat. “Can I see you in your base form?”
“Ah-buh-wuh?” Overwatch could only stare back, her mouth agape.
If I could bury my face in my hooves, I would. By the sands, she was such a sucker for kids. “It is fine. She knows about changelings. You may drop your disguise if you wish.”
“I uhh, weeelllll,” Overwatch said with an embarrassed grimace.
“Please?” Cadence shot back quickly with doe eyes. “It won’t be bad. I’ve seen changelings before in their natural form.”
“Only if you don’t tell the Princess,” the unicorn shot back with a scowl.
Cadence rolled her eyes. “I already promised Crystal that my lips were sealed, now c’mon. Do it, do it!”
“F-fine.” Overwatch let out a deep sigh before letting her disguise drop with a flare of green fire. Just as before, she lost half a head’s height with her transformation, her thick scarf draping over her more like a poncho than a neck warmer.
The disguised alicorn squealed. “Oh my gosh, you’re so adorable!” she said, reaching out to start pinching the nymph’s cheeks. Lily raised her head at the commotion, her expression clueless.
Nymph pouted, pawing feebly at the hooves pulling her face about. “P-please no.”
Cadence’s hooves scooped up the small changeling, hugging her around the barrel. “Let’s get you some cute outfits! I know the perfect place we can get some!” she said, snuggling her impromptu stuffed animal gleefully.
“Oh sweet Celestia, no,” Nymph said, her ears pasted against her skull and her eyes wide in horror as she stared into the distance.
“On the topic of outfits, I thought you would like to know that I caught her staring at lingerie a couple of weeks ago.”
Cadence gasped, the corners of her mouth curling up in welcome surprise. “No!”
“They grow up so quickly,” I said, adding a sniffle at the end for dramatic effect.
“Nooooo.” Nymph buried her head in her hooves. “I can’t believe you remember that.”
“I have a very long memory.”
Overwatch took her head out of her hooves and looked at me with a concerned expression. I cursed internally. It is very possible that she had seen the same memory I had or something to that effect, and now she knew who I really was.
Lilywater rolled her neck as she got up before stretching out like a cat, complete with a wide yawn. “Ahh, so we’re bonded now, aren’t we? Strange. I don’t feel any different,” she said, clearing her throat and running through a few basic scales.
“Say what?” Cadence calmed down a bit, looking in confusion at the merpony, who had maneuvered her way into deep baritone. “Bonded?”
Lily nodded excitedly. “Crystal’s my Heart Gem now! Overwatch’s too!”
Cadence simply raised an eyebrow, her mouth open wide. “Huh?”
“Merpony lingo. Do not mind her.”
Lily hummed, bringing a hoof up to her chin. “Cor, I wonder what I can do now. Maybe somethin’ like uhh…”
She began with a middle tone and held it, bright and pure, closer to perfection than any tuning fork. It was about what I expected from such a talented singer, but her eyes, normally a hot pink, had shifted into a deep blood red. I was so distracted by the change in her eye color that I nearly missed what sounded like a second voice holding another note, but neither Nymph nor Cadence were singing.
Another second later, a third and fourth voice had crept in, and I realized that all of the voices were coming from Lily, each of them holding a different note.
Nymph’s mouth fell wide. “Is she… harmonizing with herself?”
Lily stopped with a little wheezing cough, and she thumped herself on the chest. “Oof, ‘eld that a little longer than usual, but ‘ey, I can sing in chords now!”
She went up and down through another scale, each individual step made up of four different notes, before perking up and clapping her hooves together. “Ooh, maybe I can sing the Song of Silence now! I ‘ad it memorized for a while, but it was always sung with a full choir and I could never get others to ‘elp me out. Called me crazy, they did!”
Nymph and Cadence gave each other nervous looks, though Lily continued on regardless. She started out with her own voice again in a warbling noise without structure or sense, but as the other voices joined in and she began retuning herself, it became harder and harder to hear her.
It was not just Lily who got quieter either. The ambient sounds of the chirping of the birds, the blowing of the breeze outside, even the breaths of the others in the room had faded out. Only a few seconds passed before all sound had ceased, despite Lily appearing as if she were launching into an operatic solo, singing at the top of her lungs.
Nymph mouthed something as she prodded Lily with a hoof, and the background noises rushed back in an instant as Lily stopped and looked at whoever had poked her.
Cadence shuddered. “Oh Celestia! That’s so amazing and also just a little creepy at the same time.”
Lily clapped her hooves together again, bouncing up and down excitedly. “Ooooh, that was so good! I have so much music prepared. You ‘ave no idea ‘ow many songs I’ve written! Might be able to finally sing ‘em all!”
Nymph furrowed her brow. “Wait, you’ve been composing songs you couldn’t sing? Who even does that?” She blinked. “Besides Lily, I mean,” she added quickly.
Lily huffed, crossing her forelegs and pouting. “I was a bit of a dreamer when I was younger, I was. None o’ the elders would let me get anymer to ‘elp me sing any of my songs,” she said, grumbling under her breath for just a moment before perking back up. “‘Ey, what ‘bout you? Feel anythin’ different?”
“I, well—” Nymph frowned. “I can kinda feel my magic being weird. It’s like… not all in one place?”
“You will have to start using your magic before you get used to it. Of course, I can always help with any spells you cast as well as with spells you do not know.”
“Spells I don’t know?” Nymph narrowed her eyes on me, though her seriousness was mildly put off by her youthful appearance. “Like the spells I saw my queen casting?”
I stayed silent, waiting as she took a deep breath, massaging her forehead as she gathered up her courage. “That was too vivid to not be a memory, which means that…” She lowered her hoof, keeping a level gaze on me. “Are you… Queen Chrysalis?”
“...Which memory did you see?”
She blinked. “Wait, so you are Queen Chrysalis? But then the queen I saw was… but then… Oh shoot—” Nymph suddenly dipped into a deep bow, eliciting a startled look from Cadence. “My apologies, My Queen, I didn’t know!”
“Neither did I until just now, though it does clarify a great many things in my life.”
She lifted her head again. “So wait, what does this mean for…” Nymph brought her hooves to her head again and groaned. “I’m so confused. What am I even supposed to be doing anymore?”
I stayed silent. Just what did this mean?
Preparations first. My end goal was to oppose the traitor and retake my crown, and to do that, I needed power. More than that, I needed autonomy, which meant I needed to escape this prison of mine first. In the end, I needed a body of my own, one capable of standing hoof to hoof with a queen.
I remembered the completed memory spell that Requiem had used during my final moments, the one that allowed the traitor to steal my body and my power. It was a mere rune off of what Nymph was already using, yet it allowed for a… transference of assets in all sorts of directions.
It seems I already had my tools, but now, I had a plan.
“For now, we complete our mission.”
She let out a resigned sigh, her ears drooping. “So we take out the other queen?”
“Indeed we do. Let us not ignore one problem for another.”
Nymph rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof and frowned. “So about that, how are we going to stop a queen? I assume negotiations weren’t in the plan when you suggested the binding ritual.”
“We can try talking if she is amenable to such, though having a backup plan is always preferable. In any case, you know that queens are not invulnerable. Though you have a lot more strength than you may think, you may not be able to go up against a queen like… like a broodmother might, even with the same boost in magic reserves.
“So we need to weaken her first, and we will do that by taking advantage of their hivemind.”
Nymph tilted her head and furrowed her brow. “Aren’t we already doing that with my memory spell?”
“Not in the same way. Ever heard of the downfall of Queen Spectre? She attacked another hive with a near infinite army, but a simple curse spread out over her forces eventually affected the queen herself and led to her downfall. We take advantage of her link to her hive to weaken her, and Lily will be instrumental for us to do so. Once we get Lily into an advantageous position, we confront the queen.”
“Just one last run, right?” She took a deep breath, letting out a groan as her posture slumped. “I’m so tired. We’ll see how it goes.”
“So we shall see. We have time for now to rest though, so take advantage of it.” I snorted in amusement. “I would still be careful though. Not all threats are so far from home.”
Nymph stared at me blankly before suddenly turning around, just in time to see Cadence levitating over a huge wardrobe with a wide grin. The doors to the wooden vault swung open, revealing a mass of colorful ribbons, lace, bangles, flowing skirts, thin blouses, and innumerable dresses that had threatened to burst out in an avalanche of cutesy fabric.
“W-wait,” Nymph stammered, backing away slowly, “when did you—”
Cadence shrugged. “You were hemming and hawing, so I figured you were talking to Crystal, so I took the time to dig out some of the old outfits I got from my foalsitting hours over the years,” she said pleasantly, pausing a moment before adding one more line. “I have another few dozen chests of old clothes too. I was never that good at throwing away old stuff.”
The young changeling stared back in stunned horror.
“I expect pictures.”
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Let's play dress-up!
oof
I bet Nymph is screaming the word TRAITOR in her mind, either that or WHY ME?!!!
Cadence the saint patron of Changelings. And her having good experiences with them? Now that sound like an interesting thing to expend on.
Yay update!
Hahaha, Those last words, oh, thats evil! So very very evil!
Wonder whos saying that last line?
I don't know about Cadence.. she seems hazardous to health. Nymph doesn't have ze magiks
Well, guess it's time for her to pay homage to the Princess of Food, by way of adorable changeling dress-up.
9489264
If nothing else, she'll get fed well (I wonder if a changeling can feed too much and get ill?) from just being in the same room as a squee-happy Cadance. Granted, the dressing up part makes it a two-edged sword. As for our silly merpony, I imagine she'd be the one to make a song that actually nullifies sound.
So Crystal finally learns the truth. Very excited to see the climax getting closer and closer
Me too, actually!
If I remember correctly, there was a point (when Nymph met Celestia I think? where you made major changes to the plot that differed your original plan. Will you reveal what the original plot was going to be at some stage, say after you've finished the story?
9490750
A big part of that "rewriting the script" was that I had completely lost the script for a really long time and never picked it back up again, though I'll definitely post a bunch of stuff that I had originally planned, but that just never made it into the final thing. There's a lot of fun stuff, certainly, though the story does tend to make some things less... easy to implement as it goes along.
Hello darkness, my old friend. I've come to talk with you again.
Maybe she can also sing the "Song of Sleep".
This was so adorable. And shows off a lot of cool stuff I hope to see more of soon.
That reveal of who Crystal was is quite something, and Lily is even more crazy OP.
Song of Silence indeed. That has some really cool applications.
Can't wait to see Nymph in dresses
And the truth is revealed.
... And Nymph is doomed.