Chapter 8
"Why?"
If there was a question that could strike terror into the hearts of parents all over the world, it was that one. Millet looked at Chrysalis who was intently staring at him, her hooves at the side of the little heap of almond flour in front of her. It had been the first thing she had said on her own initiative after the little play they had put up.
"Why what, little bug?" He hoped it wasn't one of those incredibly complicated questions he always deflected on Master Sottile.
"Why did you do that… that theater thing?" She glanced over to Celestia and Luna, who had stopped digging little mounds in their flour and listened up.
There was a chance that it was the easy kind of question, thank Harmony. He only had to give an answer to satisfy her for another couple of hours, and then it would be bedtime. Tomorrow the issue would be directed at Master Sottile and he would be safe. "Well, it's a tradition. Laughing at it brings good luck and a peaceful year. That's why it's done every spring. And getting angry at it is a bad omen, and when that happens one should be careful and do things one does against bad luck."
"Oh." Chrysalis looked down at the table in front of her.
Now was the perfect moment to distract them. He put the bowl of eggs on the table and said, "Now we are going to add some eggs. Do you fillies know how to crack them?"
Chrysalis was the first to ask, "How?"
"Well, you have to be careful doing it, and there are different ways to do it. I will show you the earth pony–"
"No. How does it bring good or bad luck?"
And now the other two had become curious too. Millet sighed internally, he sometimes forgot how sharp the fillies could be. It was like when Willowbark was a foal all over again. "Well, it's tradition. Everypony knows it."
"How?"
Millet liked his life. He had a lovely wife, two wonderful foals, one of which was well on his way to become a master apothecary at a very young age. He didn't want for anything, he had friends, he had a wonderful home. He had accepted a long time ago that he wasn't the learned type of stallion. He wasn't stupid, far from it, but for him, the present and the future were far more important than the past. What had happened, after all, couldn't be changed. But even he, in some rare occasion, missed not being more knowledgeable. Like now.
"Let me think about it for a moment." He pushed the bowl aside and leaned on the table. Maybe that was one of those riddles one could resolve just by knowing ponies.
Something tugged at his tail. He looked back and saw Radish sitting there and munching on it, a satisfied grin on his face. Millet smiled and picked his colt up. He held him close and far enough from the eggs to avoid disaster while he thought about the question.
"Well, the play is a joke, it's ribbing in stupid things. If you get angry at it then you will get angry over other stuff." That sounded about right, he was on a roll. "If you get too angry then it's bad because then you'll get angry with your neighbors and you fight with them. And if you fight too much the Concord will take notice, and then you'll have to do something about it, but if you are so angry that all that happened then you won't think straight. And that brings bad luck."
Chrysalis seemed to be deep in thought, while Celestia and Luna looked at each other, their ears half lowered. Luna whispered something to her sister, who hissed something in answer. After another couple of exchanges of that kind, the small earth filly turned to him and asked, "Millet, how much fighting is too much fighting?"
The temptation was great. This was one of the moments where he could probably get a couple of weeks of tranquility and oddly well-behaved fillies. And then it would explode anyway, it would all start again and the menace would be diminished. Why was the truth so inconvenient at times? "Don't worry, little ones, you're–" Well, the truth could be adjusted just a bit, maybe. "–safe for now. Siblings get to fight a bit more, it's natural. But you should never risk overdoing it. Why, I reckon that a couple of times you got very close to the limit, so be careful, alright?"
Celestia and Luna nodded so fast he thought their heads would fly off. "We will be careful and be good and we will not fight anymore!" Celestia seemed convinced of it.
Millet knew better, but there was no point in contradicting them. He ruffled Radish's mane and put him down again. He grabbed an egg from the bowl and raised it so that the fillies could see it well enough. "Very well. Now, take an egg and use your other hoof to crack it open. You have to use the border of the hoof–" He hit it and a crack formed on the top. "–with a decisive strike. but be careful, use too much strength and you only get a mess. Then you grab it at the side and open it up, this way." He exaggerated each movement, the eyes of the fillies fixated on the yolk which suddenly poured out on the small heap of almond flour in front of him.
"Now it's your turn. Do as I've shown you and be careful." He looked over to Chrysalis who was holding an egg in her hoof but didn't seem to see it. "Is there a problem, little bug?"
"I don't get it. Why is it funny if ponies can get angry? Isn't angry different from fun?" Her eyes never left the egg, as if it contained all the answers.
She wasn't the only one hoping it. Millet had feared exactly that. Deep, important questions he had no idea how to answer. Well, he had been a parent long enough to master the subtle art of grasping for time. "What do you mean?"
He had no idea how she could be adorable while scrunching up despite the fangs and the bug-like face. She put the egg down carefully, then raised her hoof. "I mean…" She raised her other hoof. "I think…" She waved them. "It's… urgh." With a huff, she dropped them and laid her head on the table. "It's difficult to say."
That wouldn't do. Avoiding complicated questions was all good and well, but not if it meant a foal frustrated through no mistake of their own. He briefly glanced at the sisters. "Start kneading the almond flour and the egg together, alright?" He stood up and walked around the table, sitting down beside Chrysalis. "I know sometimes it's very complicated to tell others things you are thinking. If you learn enough, it becomes easier, and then you won't end like old Millet here. But I can try to help you a bit. Let's try again. Now, you don't get why somepony would become angry at a funny thing, right?"
Chrysalis turned her head to the side and looked up at him with one eye. "Nuh-uh. It's… You hit Tia on the head, and then you did as if you were angry, and then she hit you on the head, and she did as if she was angry, and then Lulu hit you and Tia, and you did as if you were angry at her, and then you fell and Lulu and Tia hit you and jumped around and then–"
A hoof on Chrysalis' muzzle stopped the stream of words. "I know, little bug, I was there. So, what's the problem?"
"I…" Another open-mouthed pause. "I know it's fun to chase and do stuff. But you said that sometimes ponies that only look at it can get angry. And if one is angry then it's not fun. So why do they get angry? And why do you do stuff that gets ponies angry if them getting angry brings them bad luck? And…" Her hooves waved in the air again, then she sighed. "I don't get it."
"Those are very good questions. I'll have to think about them before I can give you an answer." Probably for a few decades. Time to try the distraction once again. "Now, while I think about it, why don't you do like Celestia and Luna and work on the almond-dough?" He looked over to the two other fillies. Luna was on Celestia's back and was smooshing dough in her sister's mane. In the meanwhile, an egg surrounded by a golden aura floated up from the table, then shot forward like a stone from a Minoian slingshot. There was a crack, a splat, and an instant later Luna tumbling on the floor, egg-yolk on her muzzle. Millet sighed. He knew what he went into when he agreed to stay back with the fillies, but he still had hoped for a miracle. "Maybe don't do exactly that, Chrysalis."
The bath hadn't been very fun. Mostly because it had been cold.
Luna was sure that cold water hadn't been necessary, but apparently, it was the only way to get almond-dough out of your mane. At least, that's what Millet had said. That he had scrubbed extra-thoroughly and had them left a bit longer than necessary in the tub were, in her opinion, pretty good hints that, while not really lies, he had twisted the truth a bit.
At least Radish had laughed at her's and Tia's protests.
Luna sighed and looked over to Chryssi, who on the other hoof hadn't laughed all that much at all today and was just sitting, holding her cooling cookie, and looking into the hearth. The thing with the play had seemed to bother her for some reason Luna still didn't understand. It was pretty obvious why it had been fun, but her friend had seemed unconvinced. She really hoped that the end of the day would improve everything a bit. The idea that Chryssi's first sort-of Spring Festival had been boring or sad was inconvo– inconci– was terrible. And she would learn to pronounce that word one day.
The almond cookie she held in her hooves sent up a heavenly whiff of sweet perfume. She nibbled on it and smiled. It had cooled down enough, and it was exactly what she needed right now. Soft, sweet, delicious. The best thing that had come out of the day. And it had been Chryssi's doing.
One did wonder about the possibilities on the paths never taken. What if Luna had decided to use her own dough to bake cookies on a hot stone instead of weaponizing it against Celestia? Wasn't her tummy a better place than her sister's mane for something sweet? No, not in this case. It had been totally worth it. After all, she couldn't let Celestia go unpunished after she had… Well, she had done something that had made Luna's actions completely justified at the time.
The cookies really were delicious. She looked over at her friend and caught Chryssi staring at her. The filly turned her head around immediately, flicked her tongue, and stared again into the fire. Weird. "Chryssi, this is awesome. Maybe you can get a baking cutie mark. Or just bake some more."
"Maybe. It was f– interesting. I could do it again." Chryssi looked down at her own cookie.
"Interesting?" That didn't sound right. Luna considered another nibble, just to wait for Tia getting dry and offload the issue to her. She was better at making others smile and laugh. But then, this seemed to be Chryssi not being happy, and doing nothing felt wrong. She wiggled with the cookie. "Didn't you have fun making this?"
The little bug looked up. "I… I don't know. Was it fun? Was it fun like the thing you did in costumes? It's–" She huffed, snorted, then contemplated the sweet she was holding.
"Uh, I guess it was fun, but not fun like the other stuff. Fun in a different way." This felt like the kind of things in some of the very boring scrolls Master Sottile had tried once to get them to read. Luna bit her lip, she should have paid more attention back then. Maybe she could remember some of the stuff. "There are… different? Yeah, there are, like, different kinds of fun. Like fruit. Fun is fruit. An apple is a fruit, and, and a plum is a fruit too, but an apple is not a plum. And… and fun is kinda maybe like that too?"
"How do you know when it's fun, then?" Chryssi sat straight, her cookie still untouched. "If it's all different and then the same, but not the same, how do you know fun?"
"You…you just feel it?" There was something wrong there. Fun shouldn't be complicated, of that Luna was pretty sure. It should be easy and clear and all that. And it seemed like it was not.
Chryssi sagged down. "I see." She turned the cookie in her hooves, then held it out to Luna. "Do you want it? I'm not hungry."
The gasp was loud, and while it hadn't been Luna, she still thought it summarized the situation pretty well.
Tia stormed forward and put a hoof on Chryssi's head. "Do you feel well? Are you sick?"
"No, I'm… I think I'm well." Chryssi looked away. "Just confused."
Legs flung around in a hug and nuzzling ensued. Tia held Chryssi tight and whispered things. Luna couldn't hear what it was, but she didn't need to. It sounded reassuring, soothing.
Luna contemplated her cookie for a moment, then put it down and joined her sister and her friend. One had to have proper priorities.
Outside the sun had set. The fire in the hearth illuminated the room with its warm light, and the smell of almond filled the air. It took a while before the three fillies broke their hug, and then only because they heard Millet's hoof steps as he walked in.
"Are you alright?" He stood in the door, massive like always, his eternal smile still on his face, even if it was a bit of a worried one. Luna had learned to identify his kind of smiles. She wasn't as good as Meadowsweet at it, but far better than her sister. It was a useful skill; it helped her to know when it would be better to leave the premises and act as if she was reading things Master Sottile had given her instead of remaining in the blast radius of the consequence Tia's ideas caused.
"It's all fine, I think." Tia looked down at Chryssi who simply nodded. "So, it's story time, right?"
Millet nodded. "If you want, it is. But keep it low, Radish is sleeping and we don't want to wake him up, right?" He laid down on the floor. "So, what do you want to hear?"
A glance at Chryssi had been enough for Luna to see that the issue was far from over. The little bug still hadn't eaten her cookie and was still staring at the flames. It made her feel queasy for some reason, and she didn't like it. And then it came to her. Tia was about to say something, when Luna said, "Tell us about how you and Meadowsweet tried to be Story-Singers."
"Hah, a fine tale. "Millet smiled, then he began. "When they tell you that earth ponies have the gift of wisdom, know that it is a blatant lie. It was many, many years ago. Willowbark wasn't yet born, and me and Meadowsweet were young, foalish, and already in love. We were traveling to the western border, along the Foal Mountains. Our bellies were empty and our heads full of stories…"
While Millet's deep voice weaved a tale of strict council ponies, drunken donkeys, and silly minotaurs, Luna got herself lost in the words. She and Tia laughed at the escape from the badly-built cell, at the rich merchant with a longing for lullabies, and at the sad jester. And every now and then she looked over to Chryssi, who seemed to listen in rapt attention, even if her expression was serious. As they finally were about to reach the high-point of the story, when Millet and Meadowsweet had to sing their hearts out for a company of griffins on a mission to root out some brigands, a sickening crack echoed through the room.
Luna's head whipped around, and to her horror she saw Chryssi sitting there, her right foreleg held up, her hoof hanging at a weird angle. The shell was broken, greenish blood flowing out from the wound and splattering her mouth.
With big eyes filled with tears, Chryssi looked at them and whispered, "I can't taste anything."
The lands around Everfree Haven were peaceful ones. There were monsters and spirits, but those tended to stay in the depths of the woods. Neither were there brigands like those on some of the southern routes, nor did one risk encountering yak raiders or donkey regiments with flexible ideas about where the borders were. And yet, despite the relative safety of the roads, nopony traveled at night if it could be avoided.
The residents of the farm had been back a few hours after Millet had sent the message, far before the Moon had reached its peak in the sky. It had been an exhausting march under the silver light. The road still uneven from the winter damages, the night-air cold and crisp, a single thought and a multitude of prayers to Harmony the whole focus of the travelers.
A sweat-covered Copper Horn had almost broken down the gates, and the fact that the wardens had sealed the farm off had been treated like a minor detail which didn't deserve the cow's attention. There had been panicked questions, then loud arguments, and finally silence in the early hours of the morning, when the fillies were asleep with exhaustion, and worry had supplanted more intense emotions.
Meadowsweet felt her eyelids drop despite all the unwelcome excitement. Radish was cuddled in her embrace, finally sleeping again after arguing adults who really should have known better had woken him up.
It had been a really long day.
The sudden opening of the door jarred her up. She blinked, then wiped away a thread of drool which had mysteriously appeared at the sides of her mouth.
"Mother, you should go and rest." Willowbark stood in front of her. She had no idea how he had arrived there.
That wouldn't do. Meadowsweet stood up and walked to the crib. She carefully put Radish inside, then stood straight and slapped herself.
"Moth–"
She raised her hoof. "I'll rest when I know little Chryssi is fine and when I understand what happened here." She turned around and took in the room. Master Sottile stood beside Willowbark and looked at her with raised eyebrows. Somebody had also put another log in the hearth, and two cups of some steaming concoction were on the table. "Now, what did you discover?"
Willowbark sighed then sat down at the table. He gestured to the door, then took his cup and left.
The remaining cup floated over to Meadowsweet. She grabbed it from Master Sottile's aura and followed Willowbark.
In the sky, the stars were almost at the end of their mysterious dance. The moon hung low on the horizon, and somewhere in the east, the Celestial Council performing its morning rites, ready to break dawn. There were no clouds up there, giving Meadowsweet an unimpeded view of the Dreamer's Canvas. Sometimes she had wondered what it would be like to touch the sun and the moon with one's soul. Master Sottile had tried to describe it once but got lost in his words.
The door closing behind her brought her back to the present, and to the chilly air in the court. She cradled the cup against her chest and asked, "So, what's the situation?"
Willowbark leaned against a column and grimaced. "The fillies are asleep, Millet and Copper Horn are caring for them. And Chrysalis, well, she's in no danger at all. I looked at her wounds and treated them as good as I can. And Master Sottile used his spells on her. The situation is stable, and now you should go rest, Mother."
The birds had yet to start to sing, and if she went to bed right now, Meadowsweet could get enough sleep to do at least the minimally necessary jobs without being weighed down too much by fatigue. Willowbark was perfectly reasonable, and Master Sottile’s silence meant he agreed with him. They also were both being far too evasive for her liking. She squinted at them. "I'll rest when I've heard enough, and what is enough is upon me. Something's not right, and you two know it. How is she? I've seen the wound, it was pretty awful, and her hoof was hanging in the wrong way. So, how much pain is she in? Did she break a bone? Will she be crippled?"
Over the years she had learned to read ponies. She wasn't as good at it as Millet, but she still had a certain talent for it. Considering the looks Willowbark and Master Sottile exchanged, she would have felt the uncertainty even if she had terribly bad at it. Master Sottile cleared his throat, then said, "We don't know."
"You don't know what? If she'll be crippled?" Meadowsweet caught herself from snarling. Fatigue and worry seemed to have taken a heavier toll on her than she expected.
"We don't know the answer to any of your questions. We suppose she will heal completely, but we aren't sure. We tend to forget that Chrysalis isn't just a weird looking filly. What happened today reminded us that she isn't a pony at all, despite some superficial resemblance." Master Sottile then turned to Willowbark. "Tell her what you discovered."
After a long sip from his cup, Willowbark sighed. "The wound is clean. It broke her… her shell. The cuts are deep but should heal. She is very robust and sturdy. It took me a long while to fix her leg, though, because when I saw the strange angle at which the hoof hung, I feared a broken bone and tried to fix that. It was Master Sottile's suggestion to think about crabs that made me realize that Chrysalis has no bones. It's all in her shell. So I tried to put that into place and keep it there so it could heal."
"Oh." Meadowsweet looked down into her cup, as somehow her tiredness had evaporated. "Well, she is a bit weird, but–"
A raised hoof from Master Sottile stopped her. "Dear, that isn't the issue we have. The problems are a bit more complicated than that. You see, we don't know if she is in pain because we had to explain to her what pain is."
Meadowsweet blinked. "What?"
"I asked her if she was in pain as I was treating her leg, and she said no. I asked her how that was possible, that it should have been at least discomforting, and then she asked me what pain was. You see, she seemed to think that pain was the same as anger. I then tried my best to tell her what it really was. I'm not sure I should have done that." Willowbark's eyes closed and he took a deep breath. "At the end of my lesson she was in pain. She had understood what it meant, and then she felt it." He closed his eyes and sighed. "Either that or she is the best actress I've ever seen, but I doubt it. That means it's my fault that she's suffering."
"No, it's not." Master Sottile patted Willowbark on the shoulder. "If what I suspect is true then you have helped her." He turned to Meadowsweet. "That brings us to the last piece of the riddle that our little Chrysalis is. She can taste emotions, and she is trying to understand them to become more similar to us."
A cold shiver ran down Meadowsweet's back. Had she been so wrong? Was little Chrysalis truly the monster Donna Copper Horn feared? "Taste emotions? Do you mean… Is she dangerous?"
Master Sottile shrugged. "Probably, but I doubt she is malevolent. She can taste emotions and was convinced we could do that too. The whole incident really was caused by her not being able to taste them on herself. I think she is trying to learn to be a creature of Harmony, she truly wants to be that, and she is doing so by imitating us. But she is also very young, and complicated emotions confuse her. As Millet told an old story, she couldn't understand what he was feeling, and that caused her distress." He turned around and stepped out from under the arcade, looking up into the sky. "This is a problem. She may be incredibly dangerous, but she is also very sincere in trying to be good. And I think, no, I am convinced that it is our duty to help her."
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Poor little buggy mess . .
I like that they acknowledge that she is dangerous, but still worthy of help. In too many things they disregard the dangerous nature of a creature because of its good intentions, or shun it despite their good intentions, this is the best of both.
Yay, new chapter...
reads
Oh, Chryssy no...
Huggles bug
Poor little abomination.
Chrysalis kinda reminds me of Stitch in a way, young, confused, and unsure as to what do to. And doesn't even know what she is. And has a mindset and body so very alien compared to everything else, and while dangerous, isn't (usually) actively malicious.
Oh, when Chrysalis said "I can't taste anything", I thought she meant literally, "I have no sense of taste", instead of figuratively, "I cannot taste my own emotions unlike everyone else's."
Still, a very interesting situation she's put herself into...
Really want to hug that bug now.
So, was she hoping she might be able to taste her own emotions if she took a bite of herself?
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Hopefully.
I really wonder if the Harmony cultists would ever know their impact on the world though, one that has nothing to do with their supposed focus on future Sisters. It's not often that you get to point out a moment and a person and say 'this was when the tide turned'.
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I know I'm a bit cruel.
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Nobody ever said Harmony was easy.
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At least she got family.
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Heh, learning is going to be a tortuous road for her.
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Mission accomplished, then.
And yeah, that seemed to be her plan.
Bug Cthulhu needs hugs, stat!
... You know, you could've tried just prickling your tongue, Chryssie. >.>
"I taste like chicken!"
#HugsForBugs
At least now they've finally figured out the whole emotion-tasting thing. Can't wait to see where that leads.
Poor Chryssi.
Don't worry, we'll give you all the hugs you could want.
8894389
I’m having a little trouble following the sentence here. I think where I’m getting lost is the use of “cultists,” because I think the way you’re using it and the way I’m interpretting it are not the same.
This was fairly traumatic, but on the whole I think it definitely exposed information that the responsible adults needed to learn about Chryssi.
"He briefly glanced at the sister."
"He briefly glanced at the sisters."?
Nice. :)
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But if she bites her tongue how she's gonna taste things?
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TIme to get the tinfoil hats out, obviously.
A hug will still be appreciated.
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She'll want a lot of those.
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Because parenting was too easy up until this point
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Thank you
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History is indeed something that comes only after things happened. In the meanwhile, you can only try to do your best.
So they found out about her ability to taste emotions.... took long enough. Anyway one of the best chapters yet, look forward to the next one!
PEACE OUT!
SOMEBODY BOOP DAT BUG, ASAP!
Nice chapter.
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At least she doesn't have any compulsion to steal socks.
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Give it time.
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To their defense, it's not something one usually bothers to ask.
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Thank you
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Wait till they get invented.
This is a fascinating setup. I'm eager to see where you take it.
Dawww.
Poor Chryssie.
Part of the problem of raising children outside of your own species, you never know if they are different in such a fundamental way that it's unnoticeable. Like having a kid with synesthesia I imagine, you would likely never notice until they could properly articulate what they sensed and compare that with what everyone says they do and notice the discrepancies.
Children who ask me that have no idea what they've unleashed upon themselves. For I am a SCIENTIST... and I KNOW why!
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It will lead right away to a new realm of headaches for her educators.
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Sometimes it's even difficult to even ask the right category of questions.
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Children have the uncanny skill of reaching, sooner or later, the end of your wits, for they have far more Whys than you will ever have answers.
8899275 I think I sent a few kids into seizures, actually. I know the answers to more whys than their brains can handle.
I can actually explain why the sky is blue due to Rayleigh Scattering of blue light in much greater proportions than the other wavelengths, thanks to the principle wavelength dependence of the effect (which also makes the evening and morning skies redder, since the oblique sunlight angle causes the light to pass through much more atmosphere than when the Sun is overhead, and most of the shorter wavelengths to scatter out before reaching the viewer, who sees the scattering of the remaining yellow-red spectrum) and then get into the properties of electromagnetic radiation and wavelengths/frequency vs amplitude, and mass-energy duality... at some point they kind of get this glazed expression and I know it's time to remind them that they need to breath.
That is SUCH a confusing situation without proper context of what she was thinking earlier.
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I made that same mistake and OH MY GOD YOU HAVE A CALLIOPE AVATAR, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER
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She doesn't make parenting easy.
At first I was like awww
but then I remembered the show and I was like 
You poor little outer world/dark world abomination
I just want to give you a hug. But don't worry at least you can still taste good food
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see, this reaction is exactly why I view reading any sort of pre show sweet non-jaded chrissy story as some form of masochistic self torture. I know it won't end well, but I just can't stop!
I love how everyone reading for the first time comments how sad they are that this adorable status quo has to be broken because Chrysalis is evil in the show- not knowing that, well, all of that was pretend and they stayed friends <3.
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I shouldn't have unhid that but I did. granted I had a feeling that was to be the case.