Chapter 32
Levitating tiny pebbles soon became boring for the nymph; and so after lining them up one after the other, so that they made a spiraling pattern, she left the stones off to her side. Turning toward the pile of pillows that her mother rested upon, Pupa began to stalk over as quietly as she could.
“The workers have finished filling in the tunnel leading into the diamond dog mines as you’ve instructed,” Phasmid informed Chrysalis, “and no other ways leading down there from the hive have been discovered.”
“Good,” said her mother, absently flicking her long tail behind her, “and have all the upper tunnels been secured?”
“Almost your highness,” the young guard said, “just a few more hidden passages have to be excavated.”
Keeping her body close to the floor Pupa slowly wound her way behind Chrysalis. She paused when she noticed that Phasmid had spotted her and was now watching her movements. A moment later, following her guards gaze, Chrysalis turned her head to glance back over her withers.
“What are you doing Pupa?” her mother asked.
“Playing,” the nymph answered and attempted to pounce on her mother's tail.
Chrysalis curled her tail up against her side leaving Pupa to miss her target; and when the nymph continued to peruse her quarry, she was scooped up into the air by her mother’s magic. After a moment of wiggling the nymph gave up on her futile attempt to escape.
“I don’t have time to play right now,” Chrysalis said, setting her daughter down. “I have matters to discuss with Phasmid to make sure the hive is safe.”
“Please?” the nymph asked, tilting her head and causing her mane to slip over one eye.
“Later,” her mother answered.
“Aren’t there any other nymphs around?” Pupa asked.
Though her features only hardened slightly, multiple waves of negative emotions radiated off her mother from that question and Pupa immediately regretted asking it.
“No Pupa,” Chrysalis finally said, turning her head away from her daughter, sadness leaking from her, “and there won’t be any for at least a year.”
“Then maybe I could go look around the hive?” Pupa meekly asked.
“No,” her mother affirmed. “It’s not safe for you to stray away from me.”
“Okay…” said the nymph.
The chamber became quiet, broken only by the sound of a stalactite dripping the occasional droplets of water somewhere else in the room. Pupa, with her ears lowered, went back to levitating the small pebbles.
“Pupa,” her mother said with a sigh, “if you promise to stay in the tunnels between here and the feeding chamber, you can go out for a little while.”
Pupa hummed to herself as she trotted up the sloping passageway and at each intermittent chamber she passed she would stop to take a peek inside. Most had nothing interesting in them while others had been taken over by one or two changelings and converted into rooms. When she did run into another changeling, they would always stop to bow and ask if she needed anything. Being contented enough at the moment to just explore, she would just say ‘no thank you’ and be on her way.
Then she found the little chamber Mosquito was using to store the items she ‘collected’ from ponies. Her attention was drawn to a stack of rectangular boxes and it triggered one of her sporadic visions…
He was sitting among a group of the strange pale creatures helping to form a circle around a flat square on a wooden floor. One of the creatures was using its blunt claws to set little objects up on different locations on the board, usually within a small colored square. The creatures each took a turn to pick up a pair of white cubes only to just drop them back down again from a few hooves off the floor. Each side of the miniature cubes had a different number of tiny black dots on them and the creatures would move one of the objects an amount of squares equal to that number.
Pupa shook her head and blinked her eyes a few times, sending the vision back to where ever it came from. She knew now that the boxes in front of her were games of some kind, and to play them she would need someling else. Or maybe some pony else…
A small vulpine grin grew on her muzzle and the little nymph giggled to herself. Like a small serpent made of shadows the young changeling queen moved through the tunnels until she reached the chamber that contained the pony pods. After checking to see if anyling was about, she walked straight up the wall across the ceiling and back down one of the cocoons.
She peeked into the first pod and frowned at the unicorn stallion contained within. The next pod held a pegasus stallion and the one after that had an earth pony mare. When she peeked into the fourth cocoon the smile returned to her face. It went away again shortly after as she tried to find an opening so she could let the pony out.
After getting a little frustrated she just bit into the pods surface and tore a bite sized chunk away. A thick green syrup slowly oozed from the hole and coiled around into a spreading puddle once it reached the floor. Gradually the young pony within started to stir, an ear twitch here, a leg stretch there, and finally his eyes slowly opened.
“Hey, Sandbar,” she said to the groggy colt, “you’re going to play games with me.”
“Pepper?” Sandbar croaked weakly before coughing up some phlegm.
“No, Pupa,” she corrected.
The colt mumbled and his head lolled on his neck, going from side to side until it plopped to rest against the pods inner membrane. Pupa sighed at how silly Sandbar was acting and gripped the edge of the tear she created with her front hooves. Using all her physical strength, she pulled at the opening, causing the wound in the cocoon to widen and more of the thick liquid poured out. The colt followed soon after.
“Ow,” Sandbar groaned, pulling his face from the puddle and rubbing the side of his head with a front hoof. “Is somepony there?”
“Someling,” Pupa said before letting go of the pod and gliding down to the floor on her buzzing wings.
“Pepper?” the pony asked again.
“My name is Pupa,” the nymph huffed, landing at the edge of the slime slick that surrounded the colt.
“Um, where am I?” the colt asked as he stumbled into a sitting position.
“The feeding chamber,” she innocently told him.
Sandbar froze up and Pupa could sense a wave a dread flow out from him. With his ears folded back and his body trembling slightly, the colt looked up at the faintly luminescent pods that hung suspended from the ceiling above him. The pupils of his eyes shrunk down to pin pricks and he swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat.
“Are you going to feed on me?” he asked in a dry voice before looking back at her.
“No,” Pupa said.
Sandbar let out a sigh of relief and the nymph could feel the colts fear decrease.
“I already feed on you earlier,” she informed him, the news causing the pony to cringe.
“So then what do you want?” he asked.
“I told you already,” she said, exasperated by how the pony was acting. “You’re going to play with me.”
The colt looked at her as if she grew a second head.
“I found a bunch of games and I want you to show me how to play them,” the nymph elaborated. “Now come on and follow me.”
After walking over to the rooms exit, Pupa looked behind her. The pony was still sitting in the green puddle with his ears moving about as he just stared at her.
“Pupa, maybe you could just let me go home for now,” Sandbar suggested, “and then we could play later?”
“No,” she said, stomping one of her front hooves on the cavern’s stone floor.
“Pupa, my parents, my little sister, my friends, they are all probably worried about me,” he told her. “You remember how worried you were about your mom being missing?”
The nymph frowned, lowered her head and shuffled her legs, thinking over how upsetting it was to emerge alone from her cocoon and then about how happy she was when her mother came for her.
“Yes…” Pupa mumbled before looking back up at sandbar. “Come on, I’ll ask my mom if you can go home after we play.”
A grimace crossed Sandbars features and the colt looked around as if she told him he was in trouble for something.
“Come on,” she repeated and buzzed her wings to get his attention.
On wobbly legs, the earth pony rose to his hooves and started to walk over to Pupa. As he followed her out into the tunnel he kept silent, looking from side to side while slime dripped from his fur with each step he took.
“Princess?” a raspy female voice asked from above causing the nymph and Sandbar to look up.
A changeling flew down from the ceiling, landing in front of the duo.
“Hi Tsetse,” Pupa greeted the confused looking scout.
“Are you okay? What’s going on? How did the pony get out?” Tsetse quickly asked before moving to stand between the nymph and the pony.
“I let him out, we’re going to play some games,” the little changeling said.
“Princess,” Tsetse said, seeming rather upset. “You can’t just free the ponies from the pods, it’s dangerous!”
“Sandbars not dangerous,” Pupa scoffed.
Tsetse balked at the nymph. The scout then shook her head and placed her front hooves on Sandbar’s withers, causing the colt to freeze up.
“Okay, we’ll just put him back and then I’ll take you back to the Queen,” the changeling said.
“No!” the nymph exclaimed, completely fed up. “We’re going to get the games and bring them back to my mom’s room to play.”
“As you wish your highness,” Tsetse finally acquiesced after a long beat of silence. “But please allow me to accompany you and your ‘guest’.”
“That’s fine.” Pupa nodded and gave a smile now that she got what she wanted. “Thank you Tsetse.”
“My pleasure your highness,” the scout bowed slightly.
Sandbar let out a little whimper as Tsetse steered him down the hallway to follow behind the happily humming nymph.
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So cute
Zanotron.exe stopped working.
Cause... pupa being to cute.
Must reboot.
Pupa's biggest job right now is learning and growing. Maybe she'll get a little bit of Pony perspective in addition to just her mom's.
Nice
Well pupa is certainly spoiled
Good thing, because without friends she certainly would became spoiled like her mother.
Poor Sandbar but also I adore Pupa so much
Poor Chrysalis....Pupa doesn't know about what Leech did.....
Sandbar: I really should go home. This place is not safe for me!
Pupa: Why?
Sandbar: This group of Changelings and Ponies do not get along!
welp looks like pupa is going to get a scolding.
Ow my now that is saddening poor little nymphs poor Chrysalis too her children
Also Pupa is so adorable
This will go so well
Because kids
Hmm... the innocence of children. I wonder how well mother will take this.
i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/028/165/ccvzrbwha9tx.jpg
Future conversation
tse sand and pupa having a friendly game probably with a passive aggressive tsetse and sand being confused but hopefully, it is a weird fun thing that happens down the lane weirdest day for all who knows maybe they get the hurt pony guard to do some card game with?
If nothing else this should cement in Sandbar's mind that Pupa really is just an innocent young foal in all of this. Albeit with some oddities. I get the feeling she's going do something like have no knowledge of how to play a foal's game, but turn around and have a perfect understanding of something like trigonometry or quantum physics, to the confusion of everyone present.
Pupa also continues to be adorable.
Thank you very much for the update.
Need more popcorn for this.
Pupa! Don't play with your food!
Doe a deer a female deer
Re a drop of golden sun
Me a name he called himself
Fa a far Long way to run
So a needle pulling thread
La a note to follow so
Ti a drink of jam and bread
And it all comes back to do
Do a deer a female deer
9575280
Who are you talking to ?
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Neet neet neet
Sound of hard disk spinning up
BZZZZZZT
Warning fatal error
Finding cause
Neet neet neet
Hard (disk) Attack caused by cuteness
Neet neet neet
WARGAMES.exe has overloaded. If this is your first time seeing this, keep it up, you’ll see more soon
Just wondering but would it be possible for pupa (or anyone else) to make a magic powered cart?
A crystal "programmed" to spin the rear axel at a certain speed (could make a funny scene when she tries to test it only to go way too fast)
Maybe be "programmed" to have multiple speeds with each being activated when a lever or dial is in a certain configuration?
And some sort of magical battery or "fuel tank" so she doesn't need to constantly power it all the time when in use.
Just an idea of mine, what does everyone think about it?
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She's not spoiled. If she were she'd be throwing a temper tantrum when she didn't get her way, and I don't think Chrysalis would put up with that, especially not right now.
If anything, I would say she's too young mentally to truly understand the situation (despite the moments of insight/flashbacks she has) at this point. That may change rapidly, but right now, she doesn't really understand everything. She hasn't developed (or remembered) her own moral compass yet.
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Does it looks like talking to someone?
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Do you know english even?
Word WOULD means nothing to you?
I would probably do the same thing if I was stuck in a single place. Also, a question! For how will this story continue?
Willingly shared love a possibility? Friendship? Wonder what would happen if 'ling royalty transformed/ascended? Thorax didn't start out super powered.
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Hmmm... Well, I think those would be better worded as follows: "Do you even know English?" and "Does the word "would" mean nothing to you?"
"I'm bored! Play games with me!" This is pretty much the summary of this chapter. With this being a presumably reincarnated adult male I would assume that Pupa would have a bit more patience than the average kid, and that they could figure out cool stuff to do with magic (besides levitating rocks) for after all humans are great inventors, and Pupa have been handed a great new tool. Of course she would still probably be slightly affected by her new brain chemistry. But still.
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It's probably been a couple days in the caves before she even complained about anything and I think magic in mlp is quite dangerous if just used Willy nilly so if chrysalis has warned pupa then I don't see pupa trying to "create" speĺls.
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Look who's talking. Mister I-can't-read-words decided to teach me grammatics.
9576932
It's kind of said you can't even take a joke. Was the Trollestia
icon not enough of an indicator?
I can read words just fine. I know what the first post of yours said when I replied to it. I know "would" was present in it from the start. Pupa is not spoiled, nor is she in any immediate danger of becoming spoiled. Nothing about her current behavior is giving off any warning signs like that to me. I just see a very young (but intelligent for her age) child who is bored out of her mind. I don't see her getting upset in an angry sort of way at being unable to play with her mother's tail, as I would expect a spoiled or in danger of becoming a spoiled child to do. She is a young child, acting like a young child. I don't really need to explain this all again. Her behavior at this point is nothing but adorable and endearing. That might change in time, but it's certainly not the case presently. There are also no signs presently she might even head in that direction.
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Clap. Clap. Clap.
Ohh, good. My slow clap processor is still working. You deserved it. Be proud.
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If all your going to do is complain every time someone says something negative towards you. Then stop commenting, because this is getting annoying how you keep trying to go back and forth between people who say something to you.
Seriously, this is ridiculous. Look, say what you want, but I’m going to say what I want in return. Now, that being said, you need to calm down and think about what your saying next time, because he clearly can see what your saying and he even understands what your saying better than you understand what your saying.
Go ahead, complain or insult me, it makes no difference to me. I just want you to know that EVERYONE is tired of your nonsense.
Also, if I assumed Genders wrong, don’t get offended, it’s really not that bad. It’s just proper english to assume one is male until proven otherwise. Anyway, off of that note and back on topic.
You don’t get to call people put on their grammar when you don’t even have good grammar. This isn’t a competition to try and call people out on their mistakes, so stop doing it.
So what someone says something abot one of your comments? I just ignore ‘em, so there’s less verbal warfare and more peace amongst the masses.
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I know right.
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I fill ya
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Thank you
9577344
Dude, you're an ass.
Fed on
This was a nice story chapter . Lets see how this end for sandbar. I like pupas developed
Sad to see that the comment section for this story was ruined by a verbal dispute due to two differing points of view on how people interpret behaviors. this is what assumptions look like my guys. people thinking someone feels or acts a certain way from two different points of view. one thinks the other is gonna end up spoiled, and the other thinks otherwise. but in this instance, one side was heavily condescending and lost the point of what a debate is supposed to be.
Have a text error.
Chrysalis is NOT gonna be happy.
Oh this is gonna be gooood!
Ouch... So the bastard got them all...
'I already feed on you earlier,' - fed
Got to love the Innocent nature of Pupa ♡
Obliviose Nymph is so cute ♡
PRICELESS ♡
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Failure to reboot... Heart still overheated from running a parkour after reading of cute Nymph
9575254
Perfect to develop outside the box thinking
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Non of the poded guard complained yet...
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Awww...
9575512
Release of a Civilian or Military pony is quite different.
Also simple Card games are less visual stimulating.
9575537
Perfect concept to keep things random at time. Neat
9575696
Best time to play with your food! Its what Lings do best
9575827
Good question.
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Pupa... The Queenly Ingenieur... Interessting idea
9575949
Exacly. That guy seems to have his moral compass miss alined as well
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Still waiting for the sequel
10457843
But i think she's just like any children. May look cute from afar but will want to strangled if you want to strangled them if you met them in real life.
A more mature pony might see opportunities, this teen pony obviously don't as well is missing one Tarterus of a chance.
Oh hey, look at that. Pupa FINALLY did something to move the plot forward. Only took 32 chapters.
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For someone who is an author of stories I’ve really enjoyed, it’s so surprising to me, how hostile you’ve been to how the author has written the story. I would figure that you of all people would understand how it feels to be talked to in this way.
Spike would have been a better play partner for Pupa. They could actually wrestling with one another with little chance of anything going wrong
Spike could told Pupa how to be brave and glorious as well
👍