Rough Weather
The temperature took a sharp drop around the princess, changing so fast that small flakes of frost were gathering around Luna’s silver shoes. Each of the four mares had a different reaction to the drone’s words. Cadence’s muzzle was curled up in a look of disgust, her ears twisting back to lie flat against her mane. Twilight Sparkle, on the other claw, had her ears perked up, her wings twitching as her muscles tensed, leaning forward as much as she could while keeping all four hooves on the ground. Luna had taken a step back, her weight shifting and her tail lashed, her eyes drilling into the drone.
And Celestia stood rock still, a perfectly controlled flat and natural look held on her face, one that could have only come from years of practice. The only sign of a reaction was the slight spread of her primaries, but otherwise nothing about her moved. It was hard to say what she was feeling, but if Gilda had to make a guess, it was disappointment. The sort of disappointment you would direct at a young griff who had been caught with his claw in the till.
That was all fine and good for the ponies, but Gilda was just confused. She had never heard the word parley before and had no idea what it meant. It sounded like some fancy form of parsley, or some other green plant that no griffon would ever be seen eating, but that didn’t make any sense at all. It had to mean something different, maybe something like partner? Whatever it was, clearly it wasn’t something any of the ponies had been expecting.
She tried to hide her confusion, not wanting to project the wrong image, but quickly looked over the crowd to find someone who could explain it to her. It didn’t take long to narrow her choice down to Twilight Sparkle. Of all the creatures in the yard, she seemed to be the only one who looked happy about the message.
Gilda turned away from the drone and walked over to where the mare was. She then walked right past her while motioning for her to follow, which Twilight quickly did. Gilda moved towards the back of the yard, near the privy, where they wouldn’t be easily seen.
She turned to face the mare, leaning her head down to be closer to her. “Parley?” Gilda asked, trying to whisper the word.
The princess beamed as she bounced a little on the tips of her hooves. “It’s a Prench word,” she uselessly explained.
Letting out a sigh, Gilda ran a talon across her face and beak. “What does it mean?”
The mare blinked a few times, her head tilted slightly to one side. “Oh! It means to speak. Though in this context it would be a request from a hostile power to discuss an ongoing dispute.”
“The queen wants to surrender?”
Twilight shook her head, causing her tri-color mane to bounce across her shoulders, her bangs falling over her violet eyes for the briefest of moments before a brush of magic pushed them away. “No. While it might be possible she’ll want to discuss that, I doubt that would be the case. It's more likely that she wishes to speak about the on-going issues between Equestria and her hive. Possibly attempting to find some level of resolution that wouldn’t result in their destruction.”
It was a lot of words, but Gilda understood exactly what Twilight was saying. The queen wanted to bargain, and if there was one thing every griffon knew how to do from the shell, it was how to make a bargain. She tried to keep the smirk off her face as she turned around and walked to the drone, her head held high while ignoring every other creature for the time being.
Returning to her place in front of the drone, she leaned down to look the insect pony right in its glowing eyes. The colors shifted slightly, a small bright point twitching from side to side as she neared. It took Gilda a moment to realize that it was its iris, or whatever the insect version of an iris was.
“So, your queen wishes to bargain, then we will bargain. But it will be on my terms, not hers. Tell her to be here tomorrow at noon, understood?” Gilda said in the most commanding voice she could muster. For a second, she thought she heard one of the other princesses start to say something, only to have the word be cut off before it could start.
“I will tell her,” the drone replied, stiffening up a little as it spoke, the semi-transparent wings fanning out across his back. Yet it didn’t take off, instead it stood in place, like it was waiting for something more.
Gilda waited a few more moments, but nothing else happened. Maybe just telling the queen to come wasn’t enough? There was no reason for the queen to trust any of them, let alone a newly crowned princess, and it was possible then drone knew that. From what she had been told, if the situation had been reversed an invitation to the hive would have probably been a trap. If the queen would have set a trap, then she was probably expecting the same thing in return.
A quick glance at the other princesses made her think she was right, as while Celestia and Twilight hadn’t changed, Cadence was grinding her teeth as a vein seemed to be trying to erupt out of the fur around her horn, and Luna had tensed up like a coiled spring. Though a quick glance at Sidereal Equinox showed that the guard didn’t seem worried.
“Tell her that I will promise her safe passage, and a safe return. She may bring one guard, and no disguises,” she offered.
The drone nodded again, but once more didn’t move.
Out of the corner of her eye, Gilda caught Cadence saying something, but there was no sound coming from her lips. While she wasn’t exactly proficient and reading something as flexible as a muzzle, even she could tell that one of the words Cadence had tried to say was ‘bitch’.
That made her realize that this might be the first real chance they had to prove, one way or another, who the queen really was. “What is your queen's name?” she asked the drone.
“Queen Canthus,” it replied.
It was possible that the drone was lying, but Gilda doubted it. There was something in his voice that made her believe it. She felt relieved to find out it wasn’t actually the Queen Chrysalis that the princesses were so afraid of.
Looking down at the drone, she waited for a few more seconds before getting fed up with it. “Well? What are you waiting for? Go tell her!” she snapped.
That seemed to have been what the drone was waiting for, as it snapped a quick salute with one leg before leaping into the air, its wings buzzing loudly as it flew off into the sky, the sunlight shining off the black chitin of its body and making its wings glow. It was only then that she realized there was a hole running through his back left leg, and only because there was a moment when she could see a flash of light through it. Gilda had been told that a changeling’s body was riddled with holes, but she hadn’t noticed them before that moment and could only see one other as it flew away.
The yard fell into silence until the changeling vanished into the clouds. There was a flash of golden light from Cadence’s face, allowing her to finally speak. “What do you think you are doing?” she snapped.
Gilda ignored her for the moment, instead turning to face Sidereal. “You. Go talk with Grandpa Gruff. Find out who he thinks would make a good guard and then go recruit them. If that doesn’t work, find some griff you think would do the job. I want them here tomorrow morning in any decent armor you can scrape together.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the stallion replied.
Next, she turned her attention to Gallus. The attention caused the cyan tom to try and backpedal into the shop, only to find that the way was blocked by the other griffon he had brought with him. “Hey, don’t look at me. I’m not cut out to be a guard!” he protested.
“I know you’re not. You need to take the captain here to see Gruff, and don’t let that old buzzard give you the runaround. Got it?” she snapped.
Gallus rolled his eyes, but nodded as he walked over to Sidereal. A moment later the tom and stallion slipped out the back gate of the yard.
Next, she turned her attention to her friends, finding that the orders for them came easy to her. It wasn’t all that different from running the bakery—or at least as she had imagined it would be. “Greta, try and get the window fixed today. There’s that hen up near the runoff who squawks about glass, see if she can do something for us and negotiate a decent price. If you can’t do that… I don’t know, find a nicer sheet or something.”
“On it!” she said, leaping into the air.
“Skychart, go through and tidy up the front room of the shop and see if you can find a decent table. Then we’re going to need to make some food,” she paused for a moment, then turned from the pegasus to look back at the princesses. “Do changelings eat food?”
“Yes, but it’s not as nutritional as love is,” Twilight Sparkle explained.
Gilda rolled her eyes, but turned her attention back to Skychart. “Whatever you make, make it with love,” she said, adding some air quotes with the tips of her talons.
“So typical pony food, got it,” the stallion replied, then pushed past the strangely named griff to go back into the bakery.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Cadence repeated, emphasizing it with a slam of her hoof to the ground.
Gilda slowly turned around in place, narrowing her eyes as she looked at the pink princess. The mare was clearly angry, her jaw set firmly, ears pressed low, one hoof pawing at the ground, all the while glaring daggers at Gilda.
“What do you think I’m doing?” Gilda snapped.
The mare snorted. “Inviting the bitch to dinner.”
Gilda stepped forward, pulling herself up to her full height as she walked towards Cadence. She easily outsized the mare in height and wingspan, and she took full advantage of that, fanning her primaries out as her tail lashed. “I’m sure whatever queen bitch did to you earned your anger, but we just established that this isn’t her,” she said, stopping in front of Cadence, and looking down at her.
“The drone was lying,” was the mare’s response.
“Why would it lie about that?” Gilda snapped.
Cadence growled and was about to say something in return when Celestia cut her off. “There are a number of reasons why the drone would lie, and Chrysalis is the sort to tell her drones to do just that,” she said as she walked up to the pair, keeping her voice as calm as a frozen lake.
Gilda looked at the eldest princess and was about to say something but was cut off as the mare gave a slight shake of her head. “It must be weighed against the fact that Chrysalis would never ask to speak to you, she would replace those close to you and use them to control you until she could take your place. While it’s possible that she might have changed tactics, it might behoove you to take this at face value until proven otherwise.”
Cadence glared at Celestia. It seemed like she was about to say something but thought better of it,instead spinning around and flicking her tail in annoyance. “Fine,” she spat, then stomped out of the yard, making sure to slam her hoofs on every intact paving stone along the way.
“What’s her problem?” Gilda muttered under her breath.
“Chrysalis did great harm to her husband in the days before they were married,” Luna answered, her hearing apparently sharper than that of the other princesses. “I will speak to her,” she added and followed after the mare.
Gilda looked between Twilight and Celestia. The younger of the pair almost seemed excited while at the same time trying to hide it, giving her an unnatural stiffness. “Do you have something to say?” Gilda asked.
“This is so exciting! We’ve never gotten to speak to an unreformed changeling queen, we can learn so much from her! Maybe she wants our help to reform her and her hive? I should send a message to Thorax and see if he has any advice on how to deal with her,” the mare gushed.
Instead of listening, she just tuned Twilight out, letting her ramble as much as she liked. Instead, she focused on Celestia. “And you? I’m sure you have something to say about this.”
The elder princess tilted her head, looking down at Gilda with a little flick of her ear. The look on her face was inscrutable, and Gilda did her best to return it while waiting for the mare to speak.
After a few moments, she finally seemed to settle on what to say. “It is not what I would have done, but I will not say that it is the wrong thing to do. The very fact that this queen is open to such an offer is in and of itself, unexpected.”
Gilda couldn’t help but smirk a little bit and run her talons over her keel, fluffing up the feathers on her chest. “Unexpected because it’s a changeling, or because it’s not Chrysalis?”
“Both,” Celestia replied without hesitation. “The thought that this queen could be anyone other than Chrysalis had never crossed my mind. While I am not convinced that the drone is telling the truth, I’m willing to allow that possibility for the moment. I will not prevent this meeting, but I will request that you speak with Twilight so she can prepare a spell to ensure that neither you or any of your inner circle are replaced during it.”
As much as Gilda hated to admit it, that was a good idea, and one that hadn’t crossed her mind. Twilight Sparkle—who was still rambling even if no creature was listening—would be the natural choice to speak to about arranging that spell. Gilda made a note to speak to the mare about it as soon as possible. “Fine,” she said with an exaggerated huff.
Celestia showed a hint of a smile for a fraction of a second, before it vanished from her muzzle. “Though I do wish to speak to you about Edmond before you talk with him,” she said.
She glanced back at the strange tom who was still standing by the back door of the bakery, looking lost by everything that had happened since his arrival. “What about him?”
Tilting her head, Celestia lit her horn and brought a soft golden light over the pair of them. “His father, Lord Greycrest, calls himself the ambassador to the griffon kingdom, but that job was never granted to him. I do not know what his son wished to tell you, but please keep that fact in mind. If you do wish to make him the true ambassador, I will not object. He is familiar with the Canterlot Nobels, and he knows how to work them to his own ends. As long as your goals are aligned, he will be a great help to you, but when they diverge, he will put his own goals first.”
“So he’s a griffon then,” Gilda replied with a snort.
This time Celestia actually did smile. “Yes, that he is. I do not know his son, or how he will act, so tread carefully until you know what he wants.”
“Fine,” Gilda answered, not wanting to admit that she appreciated the warning. She knew nothing about Greycrest, so knowing that living among ponies had done nothing to dull his talons would change how she approached his son.
Snapping her head around, she looked directly at the Canterlot griffon, which made him jump backwards and hit his rump against the wood of the door. Without a word, she started walking towards the shop, pushing past the tom to open the door. “You coming?” she asked, before walking past him and back into the kitchen of the bakery, not even looking back to be sure that he was following.
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IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!! IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks like it’s time for me to reread this entire thing
It's baaack
Now let's all wait to see if this negotiation will go well, and/or will it be ponies, griffin or changelings, OR speciesism that might mess it up...
Keep it up
Hmm, interesting twist there. And something I'm interested in seeing the conclusion of. Is this really a new Queen, or is it merely Chrysalis in disguise?
Also, heh, looks like the mantle of leadership is something that Gilda is rapidly getting used to. That was some good delegation. And if nothing else I'm sure it made quite the impression on Edmond.
Hurrah! We are back!
Yeeesss! New chapter!
It is truly amazing to finally have a new chapter to read! I hope more will soon be coming?
YAY!!
YES! It lives
Well, I can't remember what's happening. Just means I get to read the whole thing again. See you guys at chapter one.
Finally an update!
I really hope Food Princess doesn't do anything rash.
Kind of question Twi assuming the best response to Gilda’s question was country of origin and nothing else for a few seconds.
Ohh it's been a minute! Had to reread the last chapter first to remember what was going on, but still an excellent update!
It's back yess also when cadence said to Gilda what she was doing for telling the drone all that I was hoping Gilda would of said that there in her domain and she could do what she though is right and if others didn't like it they could leave I was expecting that but how it went was awesome
Gilda getting straight to business is awesome.
Good chapter
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It hasn't been that long, has it? *Checks* Oh, right. The entirety of 2021 happened. Sorry, my mind is still coming out of Lockdown mode.
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Or serves anything that causes rashes.
More boss Gilda is always a good thing. Let's hope this goes well!
I have reread this entire thing. Good to see both pov characters finally meet.
great chapter
Yus!
Glad to see this still going.
I'm a sucker for political and world building stories, and this is turning out to be both.
Looking forward to the next chapter, though I hope it's a little less than a year to wait :)
Cherngelerngs...
(Alondro stocks up on Raid and Black Flag... and also those stick yellow tape things which attract flies) 
Welcome back! Really interesting chapter. Bookmarked and waiting for the next one!
Yes! It's back! I can't wait for more!
Ooh, I do hope this goes the "multiple changeling queen" thing rather than Chrysalis trying to pull one over this quickly. And Gilda's getting better at this "commanding" thing!
Finally was able to catch up. It's good to see that Gilda is adamant on keeping her own autonomy as much as possible without being blinded by her ego to actual advice. (And Twilight being her adorkable self). Also, Gallus! Here's hoping things work out Gilda, if not, you know where to go get a drink!
♥ !! new chapter oh gosh yesss! thank you!^^
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she's already blinded by her pride lol.
It is interesting to see a Cadence who can show unpleasant emotions, like grudges and distrust.
Well now. Very interesting developments across the board. I almost feel sorry for Edmond getting dropped in a more ferocious shark tank than he ever expected. Almost.
In any case, Gilda has the right idea. Let's see how the parley goes.
Yay! Loved this update and can't wait for more!!!!!
Nice to see another chapter of this story. And I'm pleased to see that Gilda is learning to maintain her bearing and make her own decisions. If she depended too much on the other princesses, she'd never earn her subject's respect. Hope we see more soon.
Intriguing story premise, I would love to see where this goes.
Hope to see more soon!
Is the Story dead?
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Not dead, not sure about myself at times, but the story's not dead yet. :)
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You have little about yourself to be unsure of here. We eagerly await the rest of the story. (Me more than some-- I've seen a lot of fantastic fan craft projects, comics, and stories suddenly drop stone dead just as things were really getting fun or opening up.)
Towards the end I've especially liked Gilda taking forever to realize that changeling drone wouldn't leave to convey her message until she gave permission. I've also enjoyed the little councils the princesses are having... especially seeing how thought of Chrysalis makes Cadance loses her mind a little, and seeing 'all-wise' Celestia reasonably but firmly called out on a bunch of stupid, dangerous decisions.
I hope this story isn't abandoned. Will you publish any more?
Dreadnought
1 year, 364 days layer and no further updates. just got done reading what is published and i am enjoying it.