Establishment - Part 6
"Twilight Sparkle?" Chrysalis poked her head around a shimmering corner of the under-hive. She didn't spot the unicorn she was looking for, but she did find her "number one assistant." Stepping into the room that held the sum total of knowledge Chrysalis had gathered on her kind, the changeling queen smiled. "Spike, where is Twilight?"
"TWILIGHT!" Spike at least turned his head, shouting down a hallway that led out of the library. "She will be coming soon. Now, where is… ah, the S section." The baby dragon wheeled a little cart laden with books.
Distracted from her search for Twilight, Chrysalis watched Spike find the spot he was after and start rearranging the books. "What exactly are you doing? Sorting them?" She strode over, towering over the dragon.
"And building a catalog. Twilight likes her books sorted and easy to find. And since the incident with the frogs—seriously, don't ask—we aren't going to risk any knowledge being lost." Spike gave a firm nod.
Chrysalis reached for one of the little cards the dragon had made and lifted it up. "You have read all these?" She cocked an eyebrow when Spike nodded. "Name the different types of changelings that you know of." She set the card down on one of the books.
"Farmlings, gatherlings, guardlings, infiltrators," Spike had his little hand up, ticking claws off one by one, "dreamlings, underling, bruteling…" he trailed off. "Is everything alright?"
"Ahem, uh, the dreamling and bruteling, where did you read about-" Chrysalis stopped as the dragon trotted to the other side of the room, pulled out a book and wobbled his way back over with it. Not recognizing the tome, Chrysalis carried it to the table and set it down. The world seemed to fade away, Chrysalis' snout was buried in the book and there was no coming back.
Twilight returned to the mini-library, two little bouncing nymphs still at her side, chirping away. She saw Chrysalis and leaned down to the little changelings and lifted her hoof up to her snout to indicate silence. Lighting her horn, she levitated one, then the other, carrying them over to their mother. "Hello, my Queen." Twilight bowed, then blinked a few times when she hadn't been acknowledged. "Uh, Queen Chrysalis?"
"She has been like that since she opened the book, look at her eyes moving." Spike walked up on the other side of the big changeling. "I thought she was using some kind of spell, but she keeps asking for more books." He gestured to a little pile he had made to the side.
Realizing she might have found her equal when it came to bibliomania, Twilight grinned widely and set two suddenly chirping nymphs on Chrysalis' shoulders.
The world flooded in around Chrysalis again, her meditation-like state was broken in the most delightful way she could imagine. Dropping off the chair, rolling to the floor and levitating the two little drones up, she nuzzled each. "Who let you two out of their sight?"
It was absolutely impossible for Twilight not to giggle at the sight of the "conquering Queen" squirming on her back with two of her offspring. "That would be me, Your Majesty." Twilight stopped as Chrysalis looked directly at her. "Sorry, did I offend…?"
"No. Please just call me Chryssi." Chrysalis rolled over, setting the nymphs on her back. "I came down here to ask if you would be attending the afternoon's work on the charter?"
Chrysalis gave Twilight a grin that told her all she needed to know: she had missed the morning work on said charter. Panic flooded in around Twilight, she suddenly felt like she was drowning. "I-I-I'm sorry!" She dropped down in a huddle, bowing all the way to the floor. "I had a bad-"
"You had a nightmare sent to you, that was probably quite accurate. Soft Clack told me everything. I imagine Princess Luna was trying to warn you that changelings are monsters, that we can enslave ponies with very little work, that with all the types of drones at my disposal I wouldn't even leave you the release of your dreams?" Chrysalis tapped her notes she had scrawled, particularly on "dreamlings."
"She… was she really just trying to warn me?" Twilight lifted herself up from her submissive pose, her brain skipping between topics quickly enough that she had forgotten why she had even dropped to her belly. "I don't know what to do! I need to talk to my friends, but they are going to think I am under your mind-control, aren't they?"
"Any who go there are. I fear for the few drones I have living there, but I have to hope that your friends will keep Princess Luna from doing anything we would all regret." Chrysalis pulled her notes closer. "But this might help to relieve you from any further nightmares." She tapped at the short-horn notes.
Scanning the notes, Twilight tilted her head. "These 'dreamlings' can control dreams? Like Luna does?" She was still scanning, the rough notes were not particularly easy to follow, but she had learned short-horn writing in school.
"I think so. There is one way to find out." Chrysalis tapped the top of the notes, a series of squiggles that none but a changeling queen would be able to understand. "Why don't I make a few?"
Twilight was stunned at the plan, that Chrysalis would just… make new changelings. "But, what about all the…" she paused and started running calculations in her head. "How long will it take for them to gestate and grow? Will we be able to have them help experiment while still nymphs?"
Chrysalis couldn't help but blush. "Well, the time it takes them to grow depends entirely on their food. In my mother's hive, drones took nearly a full year to mature from nymphs." Chrysalis floated one of her squirming offspring from her back, holding them up to tickle their belly. "I could raise a grub to adult in weeks with the love we have down here. But it is better to go slowly, to teach them. From what this says, dreamlings are quite different to all other drones."
Reaching to the notes with her magic, Twilight looked at Chrysalis before lifting the papers up to read. This is amazing, they could even help ease Luna's duties… She found herself leaning against Chrysalis as she read, working through the condensed short-horn quickly, but rereading the whole document a second time.
"Your thoughts?" Chrysalis waited until Twilight looked up at her to ask, not wanting to interrupt.
"The information is sketchy, but it does show lots of hope that we could at least spare some ponies from nightmares. What do these symbols mean?" Twilight left unsaid that she really didn't want Princess Luna "educating her" anymore on changelings, but she did poke her hoof at the marks at the top of the first page.
"Those are… it is hard to explain to a pony… or even a drone." Chrysalis realized Twilight was still leaning against her, and suddenly colored. Getting up, she lifted up her two chirping little nymphs. "That code is a recipe, a set of… instructions, how to build a 'ling." She nuzzled each of her little ones. "There is… a lot about a drone that makes up those squiggles. Their intelligence, their strength, magic, even flight." She passed over another sheet. "This is for another new 'ling Spike found," it was almost impossible for Chrysalis not to beam at how the young dragon puffed out his chest in pride, "this one is much different. These two strokes, are physical strength. Notice the dreamling has neither?"
"So couldn't you just add them all together?" Twilight looked between the two, trying to imagine it as a new language, or new way to write mathematics.
"There is only so much you can put into a 'ling. My little underlings for example. Not the smartest little darlings, but rock solid. I wish I could push them to be a little smarter…" Chrysalis' face suddenly fell into a mask of pain, so much so that her two nymphs flipped around in her magic and swam through the green energy holding them to nose and nuzzle at their mother. "My mother showed me why we do not do this. She said the drone she would make would not live through nymph-hood. She lasted barely a week."
"What happened?" Twilight reached up, instinctively putting her forelegs around the much larger mare's shoulders.
"She made an underling, pushed them to have more magic, not even a lot." The comfort of her little ones helped carry Chrysalis through the moment. "She didn't grow right, Chirp was happy, she loved life and wanted to be as big and strong as I was, but she couldn't, she wasn't even able to be an underling." The tears came quickly, they practically poured from Chrysalis as she relived the memories. "She-she told me it was a lesson every queen learned, that their nymphs were not playthings."
Twilight squeezed a little tighter. "Who came up with the variants already known?" She found a little nymph snouting at her own mane and had to smile at the empathic little "foal."
"Bad changelings, very bad. I can't imagine how many died to find these patterns, but I don't intend to meddle. Tonight I will lay the first dreamling I have ever had, and a group of ten brutelings."
~~~~~+++++~~~~~
Cadance lifted her head and smiled at the open doorway. "The two mares I admire most." She grinned and started to pour some drinks for Chrysalis and Twilight. "Was the morning pleasant?"
Chrysalis was the first to respond, perking up at her friend's presence. "I spent most of the morning arranging for my drones, but then I found out there was a pair of intruders in my hive." She tilted her head toward Twilight, walking in behind her with Spike on her purple back. "Needless to say, a pair of my bravest warriors subdued them and brought them to my attention."
Giggling, Twilight took a glass of juice from Cadance. "What she means is, I found her private library on changeling lore, needed to use the little fillies' room, and found the nursery instead. There were eggs, little squirmy changelings, grubs I think you call them?" She waited for Chrysalis' nod to continue. "And then a pair of nymphs wanted to play."
"Brave nymphs!" Chrysalis giggled and took her own drink.
"Brave warrior nymphs." Twilight conceded the point. "When I finally gave up looking, I returned to the library to find a fellow student studying hard, aided by my number one assistant."
"Spike is now all of Equestria's number one assistant." Chrysalis lifted her hoof to her brow, marking off an inexpert, but completely believable, salute. "Really, I wish you could teach Musty how you sorted those, he would love to attack the royal library and get all the books sorted and cataloged."
"And then you came right back here?" Cadance realized it was up to her to try to bring some order to the silliness. "Well, I hope you are all ready for more work. We have the basic duties of the ruling pony government defined, and that is why Princess Celestia is out for the afternoon, reassuring everypony that things are okay."
"Oh! Do we get to define our High Queen of Chirping?" Twilight waved her hoof in the air, trying to get Cadance's attention. All she got was a cushion tossed at her.
~~~~~+++++~~~~~
"Right, so our plan is…" Sweetie Belle was so sure of herself, until she reached the part of her speech that she completely forgot. "Uh… line?"
Scootaloo couldn't help giggling at her best friend, her wings rubbing together to produce a few little chirps. Beside her, Bright was looking around at the combined group of changelings and ponies.
"Sweetie, remember, Operation Complete Confusion?" Apple Bloom trotted over to her friend and stood beside her.
"O… Okay." Sweetie looked to Apple Bloom, then to Derpy, Swift, Scootaloo, and Bright. "So our plan is Operation…" A whispering hit the little unicorn's ear and she brightened. "Operation Comprehensive Constipation!"
"Let me explain it…" Apple Bloom lifted her hoof and Sweetie Belle tagged it, walking over to the watching adults, taking the spot on the end beside Scootaloo. "Okay, Operation Compre… now you have me doing it! Complete Confusion. We already saw how confused things became when Princess Luna realized Derpy knew nothing about any changelings, so we are going to extend that."
"Oh, is that what it is?" Sweetie cut in on Apple Bloom's speech. "I thought you wanted me to make up a backup plan."
"No, this is the only plan." Apple Bloom waved at the chalk-board—covered with notes and scenarios—with a hoof. "The plan we spent the last two hours coming up with. The plan that you named!"
"Oh, that plan!" Sweetie Belle leaned across to Scootaloo. "I thought she meant the plan where we were going to get our cutie marks in deforestation. No more trees!"
"Remember, Big Mac wouldn't let us have the saw." Scootaloo rubbed Bright's little spiky mane. "I think we should listen to Apple Bloom now. She is turning as orange as her sister."
Bright rolled to her side and started poking at Sweetie's foreleg, eventually earning a giggle from the filly as they started playing hoof-a-cake.
All eyes but Bright and Sweetie's turned back to Apple Bloom. She looked back and half-shrunk down behind the podium. "That… that is kind of it. If we can make enough ponies be suspect, then they will have to suspect everypony in town of being a changeling."
"Even Princess Luna?" Scootaloo smiled up at her friend. "Because that would make an awesome part two of the plan."
Swift had, more or less, been amazed at the details the fillies got into with their plan, but this new bit of deviousness had him staring at Scootaloo.
"Something wrong?" Derpy's eye had caught the astonished changeling's reaction.
"Yeah, just realizing how amazing it is to be working under a queen again." Swift grinned, showing off more than his usual two fangs.
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At Scootaloo. If things settle down and you can reveal what you are now to Rainbow Dash....will the resulting prank spree cause so much chaos that Discord will break free again?
Met up with Luna, and now they're toast.
I'm still here, and they're all ghosts.
I guess... I'll train... this Mare...
And I was singin'...
Bye, bye, Miss American Pie,
Drove my Chevy to the Levy,
But the Levy was dry
And Princess Luna,
Drinkin' Moonshine and rhye,
Sayin' "This'll be the day that I die.
This'll be the day that I die...
I feel like Celestia, Cadence, Chrissylis and Twilight should just march up to Ponyvill with the Guard and Changelings and tell Luna to stop being silly and come back to Canterlot. She can have some cake if she comes quietly.
queen chrysalis... do you plan on trolling princess luna with a copy of the new government charter?... it could be good for a laugh if you can have someone relay her reaction
Are... are the CMC going to incite changeling hysteria?! Oh boy...
7792803 I am sure it will not impact Luna at all!
7792170 I still say send Twidork carrying the Elements, hand them out, and go "okay, zap me!" Of course, the Elements might punish her for that one time she stole a bite of Celestia's cake when she was a filly...
I fully expect Twilight to have completed decoding the methodology behind the changeling formulas and written Twilight's Changeling Cookbook by 5pm tomorrow.
when it comes to - when it came to
nymphood - nymph-hood
There was eggs - There were eggs
Hmmm... I doubt that Princess Luna will see dreamlings as anything other than an immediate threat. It could tip her into acting prematurely in a knee-jerk retaliation.
Still, you've shown us how clever this Chrysalis can be so I have confidence that nothing too awful will come of it.
7793320 Fixed, thanks! And oh yes, Luna will see all her worst fears start to come true when the dreamlings are employed. Chrysalis might be clever, but the only opposition she has had to deal with so far has been ponies.
7792170
(Oh and donuts, lotsa' donuts.
)
7793320 Will somepony just give Luna a mega cup of Espresso and tell her to wake up out of dreamworld already?
edit: this could be taken as a question to Luna in jest I spose.
Oh dear, the CMC are technically planning on spreading disharmony, well, intentionally this time. Luna will go mad! In possibly multiple ways!
To Luna: how far do you think the conspiracy goes?
Keep going! ;)
There should totally be changelings specialising in languages, called Lingolings.
... Why do I foresee Cadance and Celestia walking in on Twilight and Chryssie lost in books for hours regularly?
More d'awwww~
... Very good call there, Mac.
Luna: Are you suspicious of "Bulk Biceps"?
7793495 The conspiracy is in the air you breath, the water you drink, and the food you eat. Prepare for the chaos.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/12/1/486563__safe_solo_twilight+sparkle_meme_animated_princess+twilight_image+macro_book_caption_reading.gif
7792803 I hope it isn't going,to involve McCarthyism...
Their plan is going to backfire.
Spike forgot one type of changeling. The one standing infront of him: queen.
Had she asked for types of drones....
9414546
To be fair he did trail off b4 he finished wen he reached dreamling and bruteling upon noticing chryssie's expression