Fading Suns: A New World

by David Silver

102 - Meeting Threads

Bon Bon trotted down the ramp, pausing only when she felt something inside of her, a gentle reminder that she was going to become a mother. Both a sort of peace and anxiety washed over her in a heady mixture.

"Bon Bon?" There was Twilight, hurrying in the opposite direction. "Good that you're here. Is Gregor available?"

Bon Bon pointed back where she had just come from. "Right in there, but if this is about... today's incident?"

"It is," firmly stated the princess. "We cannot--"

Twilight's statement was interrupted by a hoof. "We need to talk." Bon Bon switched which hoof was raised, pointing away. "Let's do that before you go give Gregor a dressing down, please?"

"This... is kind of important."

"So is what we're going to talk about," stated Bon Bon with a gentle firmness. "As your wife, I insist."

"As my..." It was easy to forget little things like that. It wasn't as if Twilight and Bon Bon shared romantic feelings of that nature, friends though they were. "Right. Right..." She turned away from the ship and its guards, starting to trot along with Bon Bon. "What is going on?"

Bon Bon led the way back towards the entrance of the landing pad, reaching up to remove her translating collar and toss it in a bin on the way. "Take yours off too."

Twilight raised a brow as her horn glowed, removing her collar, but tucking it away rather than setting it down. "Something you don't want the humans hearing?"

"Many things." Bon Bon trotted on without offering more until they were entirely off the landing pad. "If you're here this quickly, it means Starlight didn't do what I asked, which shouldn't surprise me."

"What did you ask her to do?" Twilight shook her head softly as she trotted alongside. "Did they kill her?"

"They tried." Bon Bon paused and raised a hoof to just beside her head, flat-side up.

A tiny form hopped free of her fluff onto the hoof, a wee tiny version of Chrysalis. Bon Bon extended her hoof towards Twilight, holding the little form before her wife's eyes. "But, as you can see, she's stubborn."

"As if I could be slain so easily," huffed the tiny shapeshifter. "They came too close for my liking... What are you going to do about them?"

"Me?" Twilight's ears were trained on the little changeling. "Wait, you're asking me to handle this? That isn't like you."

Chrysalis growled, though being so small it was hardly menacing at all. "My choices are... slim. It will take a long time for me to regain what they took from me, if I even can... I..."

Suddenly she was being drawn away, Bon Bon raising Chrysalis back to her own head. "Let's finish this talk somewhere more secure and less in-the-middle-of-a-street, huh? What they did was barbaric, and wrong. I did mention that to them. Right now I have a creature that is, as far as some others are aware, dead. We need to be aware of that."

"You didn't say what you told Starlight to do." Their walk resumed, speeding quickly into a light trot. "She arrived at the castle in tears. I left her a mess in Spike's care. What happened obviously shook her to the core."

"Pony Sentimentalities," grumbled Chrysalis in Bon Bon's ear. "As if she was that upset to lose a sworn enemy."

Bon Bon frowned softly. "She never saw you as half the enemy you saw her as. Even if she did, she wouldn't lie to Twilight, who she looks up to so highly."

"Pardon?" Twilight hadn't heard half the conversation, leaving her confused. "I came here to get their side of the story and do what I could to ensure this never repeated. Equestria will not stand idly by and allow such violence." She clopped a hoof down mid-walk, throwing off the beat of her trot. "Laud is recovering, as you know."

"He will want this update, as soon as he's able to get it. Speaking of that." Bon Bon glanced towards the hospital. "Any word on how he's doing?"

Twilight shook her head. "Did you want to stop by there, or should we... drop off our things first?"

"Drop off our things, yes." She glanced over her shoulder and back towards the castle. "A weight on my shoulders, as it were."

"You're not subtle," noted the little voice.

"You're not large," retorted Bon Bon, heading for Twilight's castle. "So can you reverse this trick? Do you have to eat a lot?"

"It will take time. This isn't like shapeshifting to a small size, which I could do quite well. Most of me was dead and gone, so this is my actual size right now." She hissed softly, her little tongue tickling Bon Bon's ear. "Eating would help, both love and mass in equal amounts. Look, this never happened before. I can't exactly say how this will work."

Twilight suddenly crashed into Bon Bon from the side, misstepping as she tried to hold her ear close to Bon Bon's to hear the conversation. The two of them flopped to the ground in an ungainly mess.

Bon Bon kicked, nudging Twilight away and scrambling back to her hooves. "Be patient. Once we're home we can have a nice little chat."

"But you're talking to her now," noted Twilight with a little huff. "I wanted to hear."

"As a grown pony, you'll have to show some patience." Bon Bon advanced with a twitch of her tail. "She said that she's never been this hurt before. She doesn't even know if she can get back to being full-sized or not, but she's eager to try. I can't say I blame her. Being smaller than a breezie is not where I'd want to be."

Twilight rubbed a hoof against her cheek, the other three advancing her forward. "She's going to need food, and she's an unreformed changeling. How are we going to feed her that? She's hardly in a position to try seducing anycreature, not that we'd want her to."

"Speaking of that... Where is Thorax?"

"Yes, where is that 'son' of mine?"

"Someone call for me?" Landing with buzzing wings, Thorax joined them on their trot. "Hiya! Where did you put Chrysalis? I'm supposed to talk to her, right?"

"That's Queen Chrysalis," fumed Chrysalis, though only Bon Bon could hear her. "Tell him!"

With a twitching ear, Bon Bon smiled up at Thorax. "Your sense of timing is on point, come with us. We took her to the castle." The very same they were just arriving at. "How did it go with the other changeling?"

"He's scared, but I fed him and I think he'll come around." Thorax looked satisfied with his work. "He needs a little alone time, but I'll stay for a little while. Poor thing was so hungry."

"He was terrible at his job," grumped Chrysalis. "If he did things better, I would have been able to feed him more."

"I doubt that." Bon Bon waited for Twilight to open the door before trotting inside. She went right into the map room and sat beside the map. "Alright, here's your stop for the moment."

Like a flea, Chrysalis leaped free of Bon Bon and landed atop Ponyville that seemed sized almost right for her. "Is this a joke?"

Twilight squinted at the tiny form of the former queen. "One moment." Her horn glowing, she wove a floating pattern in the air. "Try speaking now."

"You do not order me!" came Chrysalis' booming voice. "Oh, that's better." Her voice had come down, realizing it was being amplified. "Now then, Thorax, come here!"

Thorax's ears fell. "Mom?" He advanced on the table, looking down at the little speck that she was. "What happened to you?"

"Those stupid humans happened to me," she hissed, trying to kick over one of the illusory Ponyville houses to little avail. "They attacked me, and this is all that's left." She raised a hoof to her tiny chest. "Unacceptable! I'm starved, feed your queen, now."

"You're not my queen," noted Thorax, even if he didn't sound as sure as he should have been.

"Impudent whelp, you will do as I--"

His hoof came down just beside her, easily shaking her off her footing. "You're my mom, and I care about you, but we don't have a queen anymore. I'd rather we didn't have a king either, but they kinda insisted, so here I am." He laughed nervously, drawing his hoof back. "Are you hungry?"

"I just said that." She waved a tiny hoof up at him. "Feed me!"

"Feed me...?" He rolled a hoof slowly, prompting her.

Her little eyes narrowed. "What are you waiting for? Feed me... now?"

Twilight coughed into a hoof. "It is traditional to end requests with 'please'."

Thorax was holding a glowing bit of energy. "You're hurt, and scared. I'm not trying to make it worse." Though she hadn't said please, he offered his glowing hoof towards Chrysalis.

Who was perfectly happy to lunge for it, sucking up the love being offered, her little wings buzzing with satisfaction. "Mmm, yes. That feels much better." She sat down on her haunches, letting out a little breath of relief. "Yes... Perhaps not quite as sweet as when I was draining you dry."

Thorax frowned, that memory surfacing. "Why would you bring that up?"

"You can't blame someone for thinking of past meals while eating," huffed the queen. "Now that I'm not starving, perhaps I can..." Her small form burst into flames, revealing a cat-sized Chrysalis. "A step better..."

Thorax inclined his head at the still tiny Chrysalis. "Don't force yourself. You've been through a lot. For now, why don't you and the other changeling both learn how to live the new way? You won't be alone."

Chrysalis scowled at the very idea. "That's nice, so." She turned to Twilight. "What are you doing about those humans? They can't be allowed to run amuck! How am I supposed to take over when you have these things just slicing creatures up into little pieces?"

"What's going--" Starlight's eyes fell on the little Chrysalis and came to a sudden halt. "But..."

"You!" Chrysalis took flight, buzzing angrily towards Starlight. "What kind of nemesis allows their rival to fall to any hoof but their own? You are literally the worst."

Starlight backed a step, confusion plain on her face. "But... they... how?"

Thorax interjected himself between the two. "Calm down, please."

"She was very upset," noted Twilight. "She thought you... died, and was a complete mess."

"I'd be upset too if I heard you were hurt." She smiled a little wickedly at Starlight. "--assuming I wasn't involved. Really, letting the humans do your work, and not even at your command. What sort of victory is that?"

"How are you alive?!" blurted Starlight in almost a scream. "I saw them cut you! Blood... everywhere! Changelings can't fake-bleed, right?" She looked towards Thorax, trembling. "Right?!"

Bon Bon sighed softly. "That is exactly what I said not to say."

"You." Starlight thrust a quaking hoof at Bon Bon. "You are not my boss. She is." the hoof moved to point at Twilight. "And I told her everything. So there, what are you gonna do about it?"

Thorax was looking from pony to pony to changeling. "Emotions are running really high right now. Maybe we should all just--"

"--I've already heard everything, except what she told you to say." Twilight let out a slow breath. "No more secrets, not in this room. Let's get the whole story now. What, exactly, happened? Step by step." She pointed in the direction of the landing pad. "I'm going to have to go over there and lay down the law and I can't do that without having all the information. No more secrets today. No more lies. Just tell me exactly what happened."

She pointed at Chrysalis. "We'll start with you. Tell me what happened today, from your point of view. No opinions, just the facts."

Author's Note:

Twilight demands to be brought up to speed at last. All the players but Spike and Laud are present. Perhaps some forward movement can be made. Growth: Chrysalis is in the same room with Thorax AND Starlight and hasn't inflicted violence upon either.

Written early for patreons who got this ahead of everyone else. Want to get early chapters, or even your own story written? atreon!

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Comments

[A.P.O.N.I.]

Ah, Chrysalis. Frustratingly little happened this chapter, mostly because Chrysalis gotta Chrysalis.

[tsaukpaetra]

Technically, since Bon Bon is Twilight's spouse doesn't that kinda actually make her your superior, Starlight?
Silly Chrissy, still being haughty despite her position. That increased size must surely be draining that donated love, she really does need more biomass to consume if she wants to actually grow back. Makes for an interesting case though, she's probably the only one who can pull of such a physical reduction in mass and stay alive.
Keep going! ;)

[David Silver]

10205266
Wife of the boss is an awkward position. Were this entirely a matter of royalty, perhaps, but Starlight was never under Twilight out of Royal position, but as a student and friend. And 'wife of your teacher' is not the same thing as 'your teacher who is also your boss.'

[David Silver]

10205228
I do hope that means I wrote her well.

[alfonso_rd_33]

Growth: Chrysalis is in the same room with Thorax AND Starlight and hasn't inflicted violence upon either.

Then again, she was "smaller than a breezie" when Thorax commuted, and the size of a cat when both were in the same room, and Chrysalis doesn't do "smöll"

[A.P.O.N.I.]

10205303
Absolutely. I am certain from her portrayal how annoyed she would be at how adorable I find her.

[keroko]

10205195
Pretty sensible. Of course, 'relatively small' is still pretty dang huge if we're talking moon-sized.

10205316
Eh, take your victories where you get them.

[Booster Spice]

Laud really needs to be able to talk with them before Twilight goes off again. She thinks humans are scared and brutal now, but thats nothing compared to a consensus to deal with Demon Chrysalis by loading up an old merchant cargo ship with all the nuclear waste or equivalent they can, then detonating the engines, drive, on or above the surface.

Especially given Gregor has the patience of the Pope, compared to others in his cloth who seem to have the patience of Freddy?

[Reese]

I enjoyed the chapter, and didn't spot any typos in it. :)

[Dipti]

Yeah Laud really needs to give the ponies perspective on what Demon means to his people. Things such ss dead planets, kingdoms lost and atrocities to disgust the most hardened of killers.I myself would be unmoved on the stance demon=dead.