Chapter - 42
All around changelings hurried busily about, bundling up various items and transporting them to the hives upper chambers. Pupa watched them curiously as she trotted alongside Mosquito, both heading back down the hallway that lead to her mother’s lair.
“We’re here my queen,” Mosquito said as they trotted over the threshold.
Chrysalis looked up from a piece of parchment she levitated with her magic and rolled it up. She then returned it to a polished wooden chest, among a multitude of other papers and scrolls.
“Why is everyling so busy?” Pupa asked, looking back at the room’s entrance as groups of changelings flew past.
“They are preparing to move,” Chrysalis said as she walked over to her daughter.
“But how come?” the nymph asked.
“Because the ponies likely know where we are hiding now and it’s not safe for us to stay here,” her mother explained.
“Why?” blinked Pupa, “You told me we’re stronger than the ponies.”
“We are,” confirmed Chrysalis, “but if they out number us it wouldn’t matter. Many ants can overpower a single scorpion.”
“Couldn’t we just catch them in traps like Gallus and Silverstream?” the nymph suggested.
“Some of them,” said Chrysalis, “unfortunately if their numbers are high all the traps we make wouldn’t be able to stop them all.”
“That’s not fair,” muttered the nymph.
“It’s not worth getting upset about it,” her mother said. “In the long term it won’t matter and right now I want you to focus on something else before we have to leave.”
“What?” asked Pupa and tilted her head slightly, causing her mane to slip over one of her eyes.
“I want to teach you a new spell,” Chrysalis said, “one to protect yourself.”
“Okay,” Pupa nodded, but the normal excitement at learning more magic was muted thanks to the news of their upcoming relocation.
“Now then, I’m going to teach you how to create a shield,” said Chrysalis while taking a few long steps back. “Observe.”
Setting her full attention on her parent, the nymph watched as her mother’s horn illuminated with an emerald glow. Almost immediately, starting from above her horn and ending in a wide circle at the stone floor, a half dome of transparent green energy flashed into existence around the queen. Seeing the shield reminded Pupa of a similar one cast by the purple alicorn a few days ago.
“Mosquito,” Chrysalis called to the attendant. “Attack me.”
“Yes my queen,” said the changeling after a brief pause.
A short beam of bright green shot forth from Mosquito’s horn and broke against Chrysalis’s shield like a drop of water against the cavern floor. With a small smile on her lips, her mother dismissed the barrier and turned her gaze back to the nymph.
“First I want you to close your eyes,” Chrysalis instructed and then waited until Pupa did. “Now, start by focusing your magic above your head, try and create a ball out of it.”
With her eyes shut, the nymph imagined a green ball of energy floating in the darkness. Carefully she began to draw forth her magic energy, just as she did when she levitated the pebbles, only this time willing it to roll in on itself in the shape of a sphere.
“That’s it,” her mother whispered, “now increase its size.”
Clenching her teeth slightly, Pupa fed more magic into the orb she pictured above her. Then she noticed a small tickle, like a spider’s legs walking over her carapace, at the location where the back of her horn connected to her forehead. A sudden shiver ran down her spine and she gasped, opened her eyes and began losing control of the energy.
“Keep hold of it,” said Chrysalis, “it’s more than you’re used to but you can do it.”
Taking in a deep breath, sitting up straighter, and ignoring the distracting sensation crawling along her back, Pupa stared straight ahead. Wide eyed, but vision unfocused, she didn’t see the growing sphere of magic spinning in the air above her head.
“Good, very good,” breathed her mother, taking a few steps around her. “Now you can let it go.”
Exhaling sharply, Pupa followed Chrysalis command and cut off the flow of magic. Looking up, she barely caught sight of the orb before it dissipated into nothing.
“It felt weird,” panted the nymph, arching her back slightly in an attempt to banish away the phantom reminder of the tickle. “Like something was crawling down my back.”
“You’re summoning more magic than you have before,” her mother said, “and your body’s not used to it yet. The feeling will pass the more you practice. Now, do it again.”
Once more Pupa closed her eyes, folded her ears back and repeated the process of creating the ball of magic above her. Just as before the tingle returned and she absently buzzed her little wings while doing her best to disregard it.
“Now, stretch it out,” said Chrysalis, her voice now coming from behind the nymph.
The nymph’s ear twitched and she imaged the ball of energy flatting in on itself at the top and bottom, causing the sides to bulge and expand. Without hearing any indication to stop, she continued distorting the magic. Then the chill along her back increased two fold, she squeaked in surprise and the gathered magic burst into a small harmless shower of sparks.
“That was a good start,” her mother said. “Take a break for a few minutes and then I want you to try it again, alright?”
Pupa nodded and rolled onto her back, trying to alleviate the tingle as if it was an itch. Chrysalis gave her a small smirk and then walked over to Mosquito.
“Forgive me if I’m overstepping my bounds,” began Mosquito, out of earshot of the nymph, “but creating a shield is a rather advanced spell for someling so young.”
“I know it is,” said Chrysalis, a bit of pride slipping into her voice “but she’s been able to surprise us quite a few times. If she can learn to control the magic she can already gather, just imagine her potential.”
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Making shields before transformation? An interesting choice. Let's see if she can make use of it...
More please omg look like pupa have new magic
9638326
Better to be safe then sorry
Pupa is going to be the changeling equivalent to Twilight in terms of magic. I can already see it.
And now Pupa is going to start creating shields with sharp angles instead of being rounded, so that things that hit it will bounce off and it will consume less energy for her part. Think Stealth aircraft vs radar, ... or highly angled armor in World of Tanks/Warships vs incoming shells
Thank you for the update.
I bet when she has time pupa shall mess with different magics then just pony spells maybe some of those memories shall inspire ideas? if she can organize them
9638596
Sharp angles may help with dispersing certain wavelengths of light to keep things hidden, but ultimately a dome is infinitely more able to deflect oncoming blows. That's why we made round, domed shields instead of spikey ones. Plus, a dome is much, much, much much MUCH stronger than any other geometry. So she'd be wasting more energy keep up an angular one than a domed one because more energy is expended when being hit to keep it from breaking. Sure, against weaker opponents an angular shield may work because they wouldn't be able to break either shield period, but against stronger opponents a domed shield is much, much better. It's why an egg can hold up many times its weight when you pile it on top of it, but when you put it on it's side it tends to break easily. It's also why we use domes a lot in architecture too, especially in load bearing areas in larger structures such as 'center chambers' and such. Domes look nice, and are functional.
I would be proud as well if my child was an overachiever.
9638812
If you can aim precisely a dome always has a weak point to aim at where you'll hit it straight on. If you know what direction the attack is coming from you can get better results with an angled flat shield.
If you're going for general protection against unaimed attacks or attacks coming from random directions a dome is a reasonable fallback because it's the smallest surface area for the volume. I'm not sure structural considerations matter for a force field; it depends on whether it can interact with itself and how it disperses energy if so.
9638481
Some might say disguising would be a better defense than a shield. We'll see.
9638886
But If a changeling is enemy the surely they would have a way of finding disguised lings
9638905
It has been shown that this is not the case.
9638886
I wonder if changeling can turn invisible? Cause that would help with the whole "not getting hit" thing, and if they can use magic to erase their smell, magic signature and any other things that can be used to see/track them then you have a force to be reckoned with.
9638907
There was that alternate time line with zecora and the (mud?) Mix that reveals changelings so it's as simple as apply that
9638914
You cannot assume what happened in an alternate timeline (in an alternate universe at that!) holds true for this one.
Otherwise, why didn't they use it everywhere already and stop this from the start? They've had months if not years to get it working, yet the best they can currently do is walk around asking ponies "yo, are you a changeling?"
9638910
It doesn't need to be actually invisible. Thorax turned into a convincing rock just fine.
9638928
Very true but it could be a simple as thoraxes hive doesn't do potions as they are still learning their abilities as a society and it was zecora a master potion maker who made the potion in the first place
9638883
Ponies have guns? Magic is a large blast of energy, so it can never precisely hit a dome in the right spot. If we're talking a shield that doesn't completely cover the caster then yes, a flatter shield would be better, but it should still contain a curve rather than an angle. A dome is what seems to be the natural shape of a magically projected shield in this world, so changing it to a angular one would take more energy, and then keeping it that way would cause more strain. The upsides to an angular shield are far outweighed by its downsides, and the upsides of a curved one, whether completely encompassing or not, are higher than the downsides. If you really wanna talk 'better shield', avoid angles and layer instead, or maybe change the structure of the curve to be thicker near oncoming attacks.
But, as for actually hitting the weak point of a shield, during a battle who aside from a proper sniper is actually going to go for the weakest part of armor, you should instead aim for where there is little armor to begin with. For plate armor it's the joints, that the places in the plate where it's the thinnest. Because the 'thin' or 'easily broken' parts of armor and shields are usually small and you need to be very precise to take advantage of them.
But in all cases with a projected shield, the best course of action is to just overwhelm the shield instead of trying to break it via weaknesses. If you hit it enough it'll break just the same if you hit it dead on.
9638812
Actually, the strongest shape against directed force tends to be triangles, provided you get the orientation right. That's what he's getting at. A dome will be good at shrugging off and scattering force when unprepared or surrounded, but it's very easy to overpower with a direct hit (most of those domes you see in construction are actually catenaries, which are mathematically a totally different animal and designed to fully absorb force from one direction - which is what you don't want to do in a fight). Medieval shields were slightly domed to prevent friction binding, but if you didn't slope the blow properly you'd be on the ground, and one assumes a force field would have very little friction anyway. Against a hit from an anticipated direction, you can point and brace a triangle to deflect more obliquely for less effort and less force absorbed, and set the relatively small forces you do absorb against each other at reinforcible vertices.
9638930
But as a rock you are stationary, but when invisible, flying and producing no disturbances for anyone to detect you by you can go anywhere without anyone knowing even if you're in a crowded street!
(Yes i know it would be a couple advanced spells layered on top of each other but the possibilities are endless!)
9638966
Give it time...
9638933
One would think Zecora would be the first (or at least second) pony to ask about the possible goings-on of the Everfree, at which point you'd expect her to at least mention the detection dye in the case of infiltration.
At this time, she likely hasn't developed it, due to lack of dire need.
9639050
That is a reasonable assumption
So, once pupa has mastered the shield spell who thinks she'll move onto the teleportation spell next? Or would that be too complicated? Maybe transformation next or some form of offensive magic?
GAH!
So small a chapter.
does pupa practice how to read and write yet or is she too young? I wonder if some changelings will teach her things then just her mother?
9640268
Not all but everyone Celestia is willing to send it seems... After all Lunas Guard seem truly to be the cream of the cream...
9638812
What you need to understand about a bubble shield is it's always going to have a fairly flat section directly between you and whoever is shooting at you that is going to take the maximum amount of energy/effort to stop an incoming shot. The reason being is the shield has to outright block the shot aimed directly at you instead of deflect it. The only way I could demonstrate this is if you took something like a metal mixing bowl to a shooting range, lay it upside down, and take a few shots at it. If you're aiming dead center, you're likely to penetrate the bowl even with a low caliber gun. Now take a piece of metal that's the same thickness as that bowl and put it at a high angle. The bullet will likely ricochet off it instead of penetrate, being deflected to a new angle instead of spending more of it's energy to get through the metal.
Now I will agree if you're getting attacked from all sides or are perhaps going into an ambush situation that a bubble shield is probably your best bet. But if you know the attacks are only going to come from a certain direction, having an angled piece of protection will do a better job than a bubble.
9641070
That 1 follower is male so look at any clop to figure out how they are making more members
Interesting... Chrysalis makes sure Pupa experiences high magic output to help her endure it for later... But Pupa isnt even a month old... Isnt that to overkill?
9641500
It's never overkill to teach your child how to defend herself... A lethal spell on the other hand would be overkill though.
9642733
That her underdeveloped body can already use magic without magic spikes like all Unicorn suffer is thanks to her human logical mind. I doubt Chrysalis pushes her for a time harder to prevent a magical overload.
I second that first. The lethal option isnt really a option yet... To young... She isnt even a year old in her nymph body!
9643600
But while a lethal spell would be way out of bounds I wouldn't be surprised if chrysalis teaches her an incapacitating spell, like a stun gun type or a sleep spell for example (just to buy enough time to run or for reinforcements to arrive to help)
9643655
Agreed. A good option if she gets older she is only recently reemerged and i doubt she will learn to control her magic output. So far its only full power or very low power. Dont forget she has her body only a few days... Cant expected her to manage that just yet.
Uuuuunliiiiiimiiiited pooweeeeeeeer!
Not to long and Pupa will be the youngest Mage in Equestrias history
The greatest foe of them all, the Ultimate fiends we all have to fear... THE TICKELS!
The world will end in a tickel-gedon.
It's like the end of the world just with tickels, Pupa laughing and giggeling cutely and our heart melting from the sight.
A good defense is a offense, teach her a love chain/beam attack:
9911051
♡
Exacly
On the move again. At this point, they might as well move pre-emptively.
Now teach her how to make a shield around someone's head to cut off their site supply.
A perfect song for this chapter end: