Chrysalis suppressed a yawn as she emerged from the oubliette - well, it didn't have a door and neither creature inside was particularly hindered by the entry being in its ceiling, but it was basically an oubliette otherwise - and found herself looking at a half-dozen changelings who were all surrounding it and looking at her. “What?” she demanded.
The changelings smelled of deep concern and worry, an active sort that broke through the general malaise of depression that permeated the Nook's main chamber right now and poked incessantly at her tired mind. “Are they alright?” One finally asked. “You didn't...I mean, I know they were willingly giving you love, but you didn't completely...they'll be okay, won't they?”
“The dragon will be,” one of the other changelings said, “but what about Ocellus? Is she hungry? Too hungry? Does she need us to - ”
“The last thing that bug needs is the stench up here getting to her down there,” Chrysalis interrupted as she finished climbing from the oubliette. She couldn't keep from yawning this time - a day in the sun followed by several hours of love poisoning were catching up to her. “They're both fine, leave them be.”
“But - ”
But? This bug was questioning her?! “But nothing!” Chrysalis exclaimed. “Focus on your own problems, you worthless wastes of chitin!”
The changelings all stepped back at that. The scent and burn of Chrysalis' own anger scorched her tongue and scent receptors in her disguised mouth. Her compound eyes allowed her to see that dozens of changelings all around her had stopped what they were doing and were staring down at her. Snarling, she took off, daring any bug to stop her as she headed deeper into the Nook, needing to get away from the miasma of depression. None followed.
She'd come out of her love poisoning and subsequent feeding frenzy outside with a quartet of creatures around her, either unconscious from her own hunger or else inebriated to the point of uselessness. It had been sorely tempting to take the opportunity to stomp open Ecdysis' carapace, but there would have been no way to hide or justify her action to the bugs of the Nook. So instead Chrysalis had taken the four into her magic and brought them in, the inebriated bugs to go to their drunk tank and the teenagers to be sequestered until they could sort out their issues...and then she'd spent nearly a full ten minutes gagging. Chrysalis had told Smolder that changelings had become sensitive, but this...
The Hive had suffered setbacks before. Failure. And for a race of empathic emotivores, of course failure and the depression that resulted form it could run the risk of flowing throughout the swarm. Misery loved company, after all. But there had been defenses against it running out of control. First and foremost had been hunger. Starvation was a powerful motivator, and no malaise could stand long against the primal need to feed. Failure was a lesson learned and a reason to approach the problem from a new angle, or seek out and find a new source of food.
But second had been Chrysalis herself. She would not let her bugs dwell upon their failures. Drones lying around feeling sorry for themselves were less than useless. Over the centuries she had become adept at whipping them into shape, moving them past failure and on to the next target. There was always a small village or a tiny hamlet somewhere that could put up no defense, which could be swarmed and consumed as a means of filling their bellies and moving the changelings on to looking forward instead of backwards.
Without hunger, there was no internal force driving the changelings to move on. Without a strong leader - without Chrysalis - there was no external one to redirect their malaise. Clearly Ecdysis herself was not up to the task, in any event; little surprise from an infiltrator who may have been intelligent enough but who had been trained to operate alone, not to lead. Hence why she'd done something as stupid as “sacrifice“ herself and drink Chrysalis' false love herself rather than merely let another drone be out of commission for a few days. And so the malaise spread, and they all smelt it and tasted it in the air, and knew the reason, and so it spread further, seeped into the very hearts of the bugs. It was like a miasma, a thick cloud choking the motivation from the Nook.
It was infuriating. Enough so that no bug had disturbed her as she'd brooded just within the oubliette, accepting her quick, short explanation of being an infiltrator who preferred living among ponies to the Hive. Her anger was too intense for them to taste the deception. She'd made sure to force through a calm façade before talking to Ocellus and Smolder, but the moment she had left them behind, the anger had returned in full force.
Chrysalis had left the communal chamber behind as fast as she could, intent on trying to find some deeper part of the Nook to lurk and brood and vent to the shadow of Twilight Sparkle. Her currently-compound eyes took in every detail as she went. At least the Nook was competently excavated. The tunnels were well-crafted, resin placed appropriately to reinforce the walls, prevent any collapses. But there were also metal pipes and pony machines in some of the chambers, most notably a cistern chamber that had pipes running through the water, heating the pool up so that steam rose from the water's surface. A communal bath, big enough for dozens of changelings at a time. Elsewhere there were granaries and larders for the storage of solid food - with more pony technology to refrigerate or freeze the contents for longer storage. There were also a number of dug-out chambers that didn't have any apparent use yet...and one chamber that made Chrysalis stop cold.
It was in the deepest part of the Nook, probably directly under the river that split the small hive in half. It had only one entrance, a gentle sloping corridor that let out into a wide chamber that was a fraction the size of its counterpart in the Badlands, but which would surely grow one day. The floor was smooth, but nests of resin had been constructed at regular intervals across the surface. The resin here was soft and pliable, and once the eggs were placed they'd be half-buried in still more resin, held tightly in place so that nothing could disturb their gestation.
The shadow of Twilight Sparkle came out from its home where Chrysalis had tucked it beneath her elytra, glancing curiously at Chrysalis. “A hatchery,” she explained, yawning again as she sloughed off her assumed form, stepping into the chamber as she truly was. It was devoid of eggs at the moment, and every nest was completely new. Waiting for the first generation of Nook changelings. The shadow of Twilight bent down with Chrysalis to inspect the craftsmanship of one nest, and found no flaws.
Chrysalis saw the shadow staring at her, and shook her head, brushing hair from her eyes. “What do I care?” She demanded. “Of course the Nook has this. No hive is complete without a hatchery.” She rubbed tired eyes. “But it doesn't matter, because we just saw how useless they are. One thing goes wrong and they all fall apart! Their leader can't even keep her bugs under control or directed! They're weak. Helpless. They need me!” Chrysalis punctuated the last with a stomp of her hoof - straight through the nest she was next to, breaking through the resin and shattering it.
The shadow was beside Chrysalis now, staring down at the broken nest. It eyed her.
She eyed it back. “What?” She demanded.
The shadow stared at her.
“Oh...fine,” Chrysalis spat, both figuratively and literally. Ooze flew from her mouth and landed on the broken nest, and she spent a few minutes shaping it with with a combination of her hooves and magic, the shadow helping her. She'd made countless thousands of these nests herself over her long, long life. Even while sleepy, she was unarguably the most skilled maker of nests in the world. Soon, it was like the the nest had never been broken, save for the detritus of Chrysalis' stomp, which she gathered up and shoved into a corner.
The shadow stared at her still. Somehow there was no ooze on her hooves at all, while Chrysalis had to spend a few minutes licking her own hooves clean before the ooze could calcify into resin. “There. Happy?”
The shadow nodded.
“Good.” Chrysalis stepped away, over to a relatively clear area of the hatchery and settling down, folding her long legs under her barrel. She shivered a little at the cold of the floor, but she could manage. She managed in Grogar's lair, after all. “Might as well sleep, then. Not much to do until tomorrow anyway...”
The shadow stared at her.
“What?”
The shadow stared a moment more, then turned and walked from the hatchery. Chrysalis blinked. “And where do you think you're going?”
The shadow didn't answer, having passed beyond sight. Chrysalis got up, shifting back into her assumed guise as a normal Reformed changeling as she went. By the time Chrysalis had reached the top of the sloping corridor that led down to the hatchery, the shadow had reached the end of another corridor, passing out of sight.
“Shadow!” Chrysalis hissed as she took after it, wings buzzing since she could fly faster than she could gallop, carrying the shadow's stick in her telekinesis. “You idiot, you look just like Twilight Sparkle, if the other bugs see you they'll wonder what she's doing here!”
The shadow was at the end of another corridor, dozens of feet away and staring back at Chrysalis. It shrugged, then walked out of sight again. Must have been teleporting or something since it never seemed to be doing anything but walking, yet Chrysalis was constantly far behind it. “Get back in your home!” She called after it...
By the time she finally caught up to the shadow, she was at the entrance to the communal chamber again. The shadow disappeared just as Chrysalis arrived, back into its home. Chrysalis grabbed the stick and shook it a little, hoping it discombobulated the shadow. It deserved dizziness for running off and disobeying her rightful queen...
Chrysalis glanced up from the shadow. She'd spent enough time wandering the Nook, and then within the hatchery, that the changelings of the Nook had started going to sleep, laying down on beds of moss and lichen. No changeling slept alone, many of them piling together in groups of four or five or more. A few changelings flew from group to group, passing out blankets or pillows, checking to make sure the rest were comfortable before settling in themselves. Meanwhile, overhead, a great, translucent awning had been stretched out, letting the light of the moon and stars down into the communal chamber but proofing it against any surprise rainfall. And as the changelings fell asleep, the miasma of depression gave way to a general scent that Chrysalis needed a few minutes to recognize. It was the vague taste of hope, that tomorrow would be better.
But...how? They didn’t have a leader. Ecdysis was strung out in the drunk tank. So who had directed the Nook to this new emotional state? They couldn’t have done it on their own. They needed a leader...
Chrysalis didn't know how long she stood staring at the Nook turning in. Her reverie was broken by another yawn sneaking up on her before she could press it down. Grunting, she made to turn around and return to the hatchery, or some other chamber, but paused after just a few steps. She remembered how cold the stone floor of the hatchery had been, and the air within it too, while meanwhile the Nook's main chamber was warmed by the body heat of hundreds of changelings. The moss and lichen was certainly more comfortable as well. Chrysalis found herself turning around and taking a few steps into the communal chamber, settling down near the wall.
She wasn't going to snuggle up with any other changelings; that would be absurd for the Queen, disguise or no. But she did cast a quick spell over herself, locking her form so that when she fell asleep she wouldn't shift back into her true body. She clutched the shadow's home close to her chest as she closed her eyes, surrounded by the sounds of the Nook's bugs breathing, wings buzzing slightly, shifting in place, a few quiet conversations from changelings who weren't sleepy yet...the presence of so many changelings all around her...
Ocellus had woken up the following morning to the realization that she was trapped in the clutches of a dragon. It had been surprisingly comforting while it lasted...if just a little confusing. She hadn't gone to sleep snuggled up to Smolder, though on the other hoof it wasn't the first time she'd woken up in the grip of a friend either. After their ordeal beneath the School of Friendship, when she and her friends had needed a heck of a nap after what the Tree of Harmony had put them all through, she'd woken up to learn that both Silverstream and Yona were clingy, and she'd ended up sandwiched between the two. Likewise a camping trip where she'd shared a tent with Gallus had seen her moving in her sleep under the wings of her griffin friend to fight back the cold of the Whitetail Wood's night.
But this was different, because now that Smolder had revealed the source of the emotions that she'd been feeling for Ocellus recently and Ocellus hadn't rebuked her or them, the shame had lessened down to basically nothing. Now Ocellus mostly only scented - and tasted - the greed an the love, the two emotions entwined and mixing with one another in a rich bouquet of flavor.
So much for dragons not “doing” love...and now Ocellus had to decide what to do about it. Did she feel the same way? The question wasn’t as straightforward as it probably should have been. For all that changelings ate love, they had spent so long viewing it as just a form of food and otherwise being distracted by their hunger for it that Ocellus really didn’t have any kind of experience trying to parse how she felt about her own emotions. She knew she loved all her friends, including Smolder, and that she loved her family back in the Badlands. And she knew that the love she felt for the two groups was different.
Was the love she felt for Smolder different too? Still just friendship, or a third kind of love beyond that for a friend or family? Smolder’s love for her smelled of the sweet cinnamon of romance...what about her own? Scenting one’s own emotions was always tricky unless they were particularly intense, but just because her feelings weren’t intense didn’t mean they weren’t there...
Ocellus was literally shaken from her thoughts as Smolder clasped a hand onto her withers, nudging her a little as they flew. “Hey, Equestria to Ocellus,” she said. “You missed the turn.”
Ocellus blinked, and realized that in fact she had kept flying in a straight line away from the Nook, which would have taken her out to sea, instead of banking towards Tiatarta. A few hundred feet away, Nonchalant hovered, still in her changeling form.
“S-sorry,” Ocellus mumbled, following Smolder back over to Nonchalant, then the three resuming their flight to Tiatarta. “Just...thinking. Distracted.”
“Are you still hungry?” Smolder asked. She glanced between the two changelings. “No offense, but changeling breakfasts...I don’t think three papayas really counts as a meal.”
“Three papayas and an agate,” Nonchalant noted of Smolder.
“I'm just saying, maybe we can check out that Patios & Pancakes place.”
“No. That would be foolish,” Nonchalant insisted. She turned in the air to look at Smolder directly, though managed to keep flying straight. “I think my poisoning yesterday was a mistake.”
“Well, yeah, I doubt you meant to start smothering me - ”
“Not like that! Think about it, dragon. The Nook has dozens of love-drunk changelings, but Tiatarta has no love-drained victims.” She turned back around, and her eyes narrowed. “Our culprit is growing sloppy...or bold. Or both. In any event I wouldn’t advise eating anything in Tiatarta, not unless you see some other creature eat it first and be unaffected.”
Smolder crossed her arms, snorting a little smoke. “But we know where to look, right? That fish place?”
“It’s a start...but I doubt any of the employees there are our culprits. You use poison because it can be done discreetly, without any obvious evidence leading back to the poisoner. You don’t just openly hand your intended victim a dish you laced with poison and then wish them bon appetit.”
Ocellus blinked a moment, then shuddered as she flew. “That...I’ve heard that before. Almost exactly those words. Ecdysis taught me that.”
Smolder glanced back at Ocellus, smirking. “More spy stuff?”
“Y-yeah. B-but I’ve never poisoned any of you! Never thought about it!”
“Which is exactly what you’d say if you had...” Nonchalant said in a sing-song voice as she did a little roll in the air over Ocellus. She must have tasted Ocellus’ embarrassment and shame, though, as she swiftly nudged the smaller changeling. “Calm down, bug. Chrysalis would have realized infiltration training was wasted on you within five seconds of talking to you once you’d molted into an adult. The Hive could always use more workers.”
“Thanks...?” Ocellus responded. She wasn’t sure if being told that in the old Hive all she would have been good for was physical labor was a compliment or not. “I, um...c-could have helped with swarm lore, too.”
Nonchalant considered. “Maybe.”
“Hey, uh...” Smolder said as she dropped back to fly beside Nonchalant, “don’t take this the wrong way, but you seem...different, this morning. A lot less snippy. You sure the love poison’s worn off?”
A wave of surprise came off Nonchalant and reached Ocellus’ scent receptors. The older changeling was silent for several long moments as the three flew. “I slept well last night,” she finally mumbled, then pulled ahead of the two teenagers, putting several dozen feet between herself and them.
Smolder looked to Ocellus. “You know, usually when a creature says that they make it sound like it was a good thing,” she said.
Ocellus weaved in her flight, the closest thing she could do to a shrug while flying. Given that Nonchalant was obviously a former infiltrator, she guessed that the other changeling had simply spent a long time away from the Hive and needed time to readjust to being around others openly again.
They flew in companionable silence until they reached the outskirts of Tiatarta, when Nonchalant flew down into the first narrow ally and took on the guise of a blue-coated, white-haired pegasus mare. “Right, fish shop, it’s still the best starting point,” she said. She considered Ocellus. “You, look like a pony too, then when I tell you transform back into a changeling. Our culprit will probably have a burst of hate and maliciousness that we’ll both be able to scent if they’re there.”
Ocellus obliged, turning into her favorite equine form: a lanky, green, young earth pony mare with a ladybug cutie mark. “What about Smolder?” She asked. “She was with you yesterday...and she said you weren’t exactly subtle about the poisoning. So if she goes in there with us, the culprit will probably guess we’re really changelings, and keep their emotions in check.”
“Hmm...” Nonchalant considered, ruffling her assumed wings. “Good point. Smolder, give us some space, let us go into the restaurant on our own, then come in after a few minutes have passed.”
Smolder eyed Nonchalant, then looked to Ocellus. “You sure?” She asked her friend. When Ocellus nodded and smiled at her, she gave a small shrug. “Fine. You’re the spy.” She chuckled a little at Ocellus’ sputtering reply, then beat her wings and took to the air. “I’ll be close, though, keep you in sight. Don’t want Pharynx to...well, you know.”
Ocellus nodded and smiled a little at Smolder reminding her that she was Ocellus’ designated chaperone. “Just...don’t stay too close. But don’t look like you’re trying to stay away.”
“Fly casual,” Smolder agreed with a smile of her own. Then she took off, beginning to lazily circle the area.
Nonchalant, meanwhile, came up alongside Ocellus, comparing her assumed form to the younger bug’s. Little flickers of changeling magic danced along her as she made some adjustments, brightening her coat and turning it more towards green, thinning her frame, and losing the wings in favor of being an earth pony as well, though she kept the height and age difference intact. She reached out a hoof and put it to Ocellus’ face, turning her head this way and that as she inspected her. “Name?”
Ocellus fidgeted under Nonchalant’s gaze. “Um...B-Bitta Luck.” She swallowed, knowing what the veteran infiltrator was doing. Sure, Ecdysis had called Ocellus a mediocre student...but only in the sense of having the wrong temperament. Ocellus never forgot any lessons she'd learned. “I sh-should be able to just...just use my actual history, I won’t need a real legend. I’ll just leave out the School of Friendship, use pseudonyms for my friends if they even come up...”
Nonchalant smiled a toothy smile. “Excellent. Bitta Luck? I’ll be...Bitta Tea, then.” She glanced back at her flank, and the cutie mark that had been there, a magnifying glass, was replaced by a teacup. “Just a mother and daughter out on vacation from Ponyville. Come along, Bitta Luck.”
Ocellus followed her “mother” out from the alleyway. They weren’t clandestine about it at all, instead trotting like it was the most natural thing in the world. Ocellus kept pace alongside Nonchalant, keeping to the inside of the sidewalks they trotted along. “You’re good at your...abandoned course of study, Bitta Luck,” Nonchalant said. She’d changed her voice too, affecting a more Ponyvillian accent than she had before. “Shame you lack the drive. You would have been quite useful in the old days.”
Ocellus blanched, not sure if this was meant to be a test or not and wondering if walking down a street full of other creatures was really the best time or place for one. And even if it was, did she pass if she could keep character, or pass for breaking it? “N-no,” she insisted. “I wouldn’t have been. I could never, um...” Ocellus cast about for a suitable metaphor to use that wouldn't sound suspicious if overheard, “...eat seafood. So why would I want to...to go fishing?”
Nonchalant grinned. “Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.”
Ocellus chewed on her pony lip. “No. We...moved to Ponyville. We don't have to go fishing anymore.” She looked over to Nonchalant, hoping the metaphor wasn't getting too obtuse. “I mean...you moved to Ponyville too. Right? You gave up fishing.”
It was Nonchalant's turn to look surprised. “Not by choice,” she insisted. At Ocellus' confusion, her eyes narrowed again. “Yes. Believe it or not it's possible to move to Ponyville by accident. I was...” she took in a breath, holding it, before letting it out in a long groan. “There is no possible way to explain it that you would understand.”
Which probably really meant that Nonchalant couldn't think of a way to keep it coded. Ocellus considered. “Do you regret it?” She asked.
Nonchalant's mouth opened, almost looking like she was ready to shout, but the words caught in her throat. She glanced away. “There are advantages. There's more to eat. And it's less expensive to live there. But I was really, really good at fishing,” she turned once more to look at Ocellus, and the young changeling was almost certain she saw the older one's eyes flash to their true color beneath her disguise. “But now it seems like nopony wants to go out to sea anymore. And I miss it.”
Ocellus considered, taking a few moments to put together her retort. She brushed her assumed form's mane from her eyes. “The sea was really dangerous,” she said, “full of waves, and monsters. And fish that bit back. And it never really provided us with enough.” She lowered her voice. “Our...captain never provided us with enough.”
Nonchalant bristled, and stepped right up to Ocellus. The younger changeling froze as the older one loomed over her, getting almost muzzle-to-muzzle with her. “A captain,” she said, “has to think about the entire ship, not just any one member of the crew. She might not have provided any one of us with enough, but she did provide all of us with enough. And she did it for a very, very, very long time in spite of those waves and monsters and fish that bit back.”
Ocellus swallowed. “But there was another way,” she whispered. “That's why we moved to Ponyville.”
“The captain didn't know. Couldn't have known about Ponyville. The sea had always provided.”
“I don't think she was even looking. Even if she didn't find Ponyville, their was...” Ocellus shook her head, “there was...another crewmember, who got on a boat and went out and found a place where he could live, and everypony else could have too. The Crystal Empire. And the captain never even looked for that. Even if she didn't know about...about moving so far inland to Ponyville, there was always the Crystal Empire.”
Nonchalant snarled, the sound almost un-equine. She realized it, though - and realized that others in Tiatarta were starting to slow their own pace and look at the way she was regarding her "daughter" - and so she backed away from Ocellus. “Come along, Bitta Luck,” she said, resuming her trot, affecting a happier face. Ocellus followed, hoping she wasn't shaking too badly. Before she could say anything, though, Nonchalant leaned in to her ear.
“What if it hadn't worked?” She whispered harshly. “We were secret. Hidden. Myths and legends and creatures of shadow and fear. What if we had thrown all that away and shown ourselves...and the ponies said no?”
Ocellus wanted to have a retort for that...but she realized that Nonchalant had a point. Sure, yes, it was easy to look at things now and say that things could have been different, should have been different. But with how changelings had survived for so long, as predators, parasites, preying upon others, relying on trickery and subterfuge and silence, sweeping out of the shadows and then slinking back into them...after all, the ponies had spurned Thorax at first. It had taken an impassioned plea from Spike to get them to change their minds. What if they hadn't listened? What if Spike hadn't made that plea?
“Right!” Nonchalant said as she stopped in her trot. “Now then, I really do think you should at least try some seafood.”
Ocellus blinked. “No, I don't need to try any. We live in Ponyville now and - ”
Nonchalant put a hoof to Ocellus’ mouth, glaring down at her. “Bitta? We're having seafood for lunch.” She glanced pointedly behind Ocellus, who turned to look and saw that, in fact, the two had arrived at a seafood restaurant, presumably the same one that Nonchalant had eaten at and poisoned herself at yesterday.
“Oh,” Ocellus said, suppressing a nervous giggle. “R-right. Seafood. I guess I can try it...” And test out how well she could feign a distaste for seafood. Silverstream and Sandbar had both introduced her to it.
Nonchalant rolled her eyes once more. “You're the one who chose it,” she said - probably meaning the metaphor - as she pushed her way inside, Ocellus following. As the hour was still relatively early, there weren't many customers yet, only one of the tables occupied with a pair of unicorn vacationers. Ocellus spotted three cooks behind the counter, two ponies and a griffin who all seemed friendly enough. Unfortunately while in the guise of a pony, Ocellus had no ability to taste their true feelings...
“S-so, um...mom,” Ocellus ventured. “What do you recommend?”
Nonchalant scanned the menu closely, before looking to the cooks, one of which was waiting at the counter. “Salmon. And...as a favor...could you leave the bone in?”
Ocellus suppressed an urge to grumble to herself. No doubt they were only ordering the food for show, they weren't going to risk eating it...which meant she was going to miss out on the marrow. The best part.
Smolder waited five minutes after Ocellus and Nonchalant entered the restaurant, then went in herself. She spotted the two sitting at a table, kabobs of salmon meat and fries and full cups of soda in front of them, but not eating it. Instead, Nonchalant was talking, something about "Bitta Luck's" grades at school, whoever Bitta Luck was and whatever that had to do with their mission to find the creature who was poisoning changelings. Smolder supposed that she should keep up the illusion as well, and went up to the counter and ordered a meal for herself. She went with the cisco and onion rings, then went to her own table, relatively close to the disguised changelings but far enough away that she didn't suggest that she knew the two, about the same distance she put between herself and the other occupants of the dining area.
And...now she was staring at a plate full of food. Which she'd paid for. But couldn't eat, because then she'd turn into a lovey-dovey moron until yet more changelings were put under draining the poison from her.
Smolder drummed her fingers on the table, other hand supporting her head. She glanced over at Ocellus and Nonchalant, catching the latter's eyes and raising an eyebrow, wondering when she planned on unveiling herself. Nonchalant just smiled and waved in a friendly-but-unfamiliar manner. Solder did her best to return it, then sighed as she flopped down on the table. Her thoughts almost turned intwards to Ocellus, but she forced herself to not dwell on the tiny changeling right now. She needed to focus, for her friend.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity - certainly long enough for her cisco to stop steaming - Nonchalant clapped both her hooves on her table. “Right!” She exclaimed, standing and trotting up to the counter, bringing her food with her and indicating that Ocellus should do the same. “I actually wish to register a small complaint, if you don't mind.”
“Complaint?” A cook, one of the ponies, asked, looking at the dishes. “You haven't even touched them...”
The griffin let out a squak at that. “Yeah, what gives?” He asked, coming forward. “Them's fresh fish, right outta the Luna Bay, caught this morning!”
Nonchalant smiled. “Yes, well, you see - I have a terrible allergy...to poison!” Nonchalant glowed blue, revealing her cream-colored true form, with Ocellus following suit a moment later. Both changelings took in sharp breaths...and had looks of disappointment overcome their features.
The two ponies and one griffin glanced between each other. They’d reacted with surprise, at first, but then one of them sighed. “Great. Two more crazy bugs...”
“They’re not crazy...” Smolder droned from her table, sighing. “Yesterday I had a friend eat here and she got love-poisoned. We were looking into this place to see if you were the ones who did it.”
“Congratulations, you passed,” Nonchalant said. “Honestly I didn’t think it likely, but it was worth inspecting.” She trotted over time Smolder’s table and sat down. “Well, eat up, no sense in letting food go to waste...”
Smolder let out an appreciative growl, grabbing her cisco kabob and biting in to it - even as Ocellus cried out and her horn lit up to take it from her, though too late. “What?” Smolder asked as she chewed.
Ocellus bit her lip, but was glaring angrily at Nonchalant. “Just because those cooks didn’t poison the meal doesn’t mean it’s not poisoned!” She exclaimed.
“Hey!” One of the cooks objected. “We don’t - who do you think we are, claiming we’d poison our own guests?!”
“Mmm-hmm,” Nonchalant intoned, apparently ignoring the three. “Give it a few minutes. And stop looking at me like that, Ocellus, it’s not like we’re worried about arsenic or wyvern venom...”
Smolder blinked, considering. She decided that she was in for a jangle already, so she might as well go in for the full bit and dig in. Even as she did, Nonchalant began telekinetically pulling apart her own fish, inspecting it closely.
“Look, you three,” the griffin cook said, flying out from behind the counter. “You can’t just come in here and make accusations like that! We have a reputation to consider.”
Nonchalant’s horn glowed blue, and she leaned in close to the fish, squinting and still ignoring the accusations. “Love poison is so hard to detect...”
Smolder finished her cisco, then sat back and waited. Ocellus has her eyes locked on her. “I feel fine,” she noted. “Do I sound fine?”
“Of course you do!” One of the pony cooks objected. “We do not - wait, sir, ma’am...!” He came out from behind the counter as well to go after the unicorn couple, who had risen from their meal and were rushing out the door with panic on their faces. “This is a misunderstanding...”
Ocellus paid them no mind. “Y-yes,” she said, coming around the table and leaning in close to Smolder, breathing in, tongue flicking out. So nervous was she that her tongue's forked tip lightly brushed Smolder’s neck, causing a jolt to travel straight from the point of contact through Smolder’s spine and making her wings flare out.
Ocellus leapt back at that, chuckling nervously. “S-sorry! I, um...you smell and taste normal. Normal love.”
“Dragons don’t - ”
“Y-you do,” Ocellus insisted. “You...you really do.”
Smolder growled a little. Okay, sure, so her friend could taste and smell and eat emotions, but that didn’t mean that she actually understood them. Especially not in dragons. Dragons did greed and possession instead of love. How many times was she going to have to repeat that?
“I think we’re safe,” Nonchalant interrupted. Wincing, she bit into her fish, chewing slowly. “Smolder isn’t showing any signs of infection.”
“Ma’am, one more word about infection or poison or anything to disparage this establishment and I’ll - ”
Nonchalant turned to glare at the cook, wings opening, eyes narrowing. ”You’ll. What?” She asked.
The griffin matched her gaze, before turning deliberately away to look at one of the others. “Go fetch the police,” he said.
Ocellus finally turned her head so that she wasn’t directly looking at Smolder anymore. “The police?” Ocellus asked. “No, wait, we’ll just - ”
“Relax, little grub,” Nonchalant said, reaching out a hoof and pulling Ocellus back down into a sitting position. “We haven’t broken any laws, the most that the police will be able to do is escort us from the premise. And I think better under pressure anyway...” she stared at her fish, then held forward a bone that had been left in to Smolder, telekinesis pealing it open to expose the marrow. “Eat this.”
Smolder’s head tilted to the side. “I’m...actually not a big fan of marrow.”
“But it’s the best - ” Ocellus began to object. No sooner were the words out of her mouth that the marrow was lifted from the bone and shoved into her mouth by Nonchalant. Another creature might and gagged or spat it out - Smolder certainly would have - but Ocellus chewed and swallowed without thinking, before her eyes widened. “Oh no, I just...I don’t...”
Nonchalant leaned in to her, breathing deeply. “Ugh. Nothing. I really thought I was on to something there...What about the soda? Has any creature had any soda yet?”
She asked this even as Smolder had a straw in her mouth. Nonchalant stared, breathing a few moments, then sighed and drank her own soda. “Nuts...wait, why do I taste smugness?”
Smolder removed the straw from her mouth. “I hadn’t drank anything yet. That’s for trying to poison Ocellus.”
Nonchalant glared at her, but said nothing as they waited. “I hate you,” she said after several long moments, but resumed drinking her soda.
Smolder chuckled, having some of her own. “Okay. So I guess we learned...you’re right? Whosever is poisoning changelings probably just made a mistake yesterday and didn’t mean to poison you. They didn’t even know you were a changeling.”
“It must have been a mistake,” Ocellus said. “Two dozen love-drunk changelings but not a single victim of love poisoning until yesterday.”
“Are you really not going to leave until the police drag you out?” The griffin demanded.
“We won’t be dragged out, they’ll ask us to leave and we will,” Nonchalant said. “Now shut up. No, wait...” she turned to look at the griffin, eyes wide. “You said ‘crazy bugs’, not poisoned or drunk ones...”
Smolder realized what she was getting at. “Yeah...and you seemed surprised to learn about love poisoning even though it’s been going on for weeks. Its what’s been making the changelings act crazy, they’re being attacked somehow.”
The griffin bristled, feathers rising high on his body. “Changelings are some of my best customers!” He insisted, then glared at the three of them. “Present company excluded. Why would I poison them? The Nook has been great for business!”
“N-no, not that,” Ocellus said. “They mean...how could you not know about it? Unless no one’s told Tiatarta why changelings have been acting so strange...”
Nonchalant stood, looking between Smolder and Ocellus. “Can I presume that your saving that airship got you in good with the mayor?”
“She offered us coupons if we went to visit her,” Smolder said.
“It’ll do. Let’s go visit Mayor Dusk and find out why she’s been keeping secrets from her town.”
“Good! You’re banned!” The griffin shouted after them as the trio headed for the exit.
Nonchalant froze, then glanced over her shoulder and smiled. Blue fire flared around her, and she shifted through a half-dozen forms: an elderly pegasus, a crystal pony colt, a buffalo soldier, a diamond dog miner, a manticore in a tutu, Queen Chrysalis, and finally settling on the unicorn form she’d worn most of yesterday. “Good luck,” she drawled, heading out.
I love the layers of complexity going on with Chrysalis here. Her immense pride is conflicting with the profound maternal instinct that she's been managing for untold centuries, if not outright millennia. It's Celestia's problem but worse, as she saw each and every one of those generations of changelings as her own children. To Chrysalis, the good of the many must always outweigh the good of the individual, and she's been repressing how much making those calculations weighed on her.
That Griffin does realize.....?
Welp he does now. Heh.
He is going to be paranoid regarding every customer for the next few days.
So it might be an inside job...
...Which means a changeling’s job might have been stolen even though they’re the ones who are new to the area!
oh man, I hope she keeps going there to enjoy seafood to spite the griffon maybe she be unbanned after awhile? to much stress and work. and if he tried a no shapeshift rule it is raciest and all the ling has to do is shift there color or dye.
I imagine there were a few changelings like thorax but it ended badly or tragically and ended up with lings in danger and twisting chrysalis view to that being the answer nothing quite like witnessing the bitter failure and suffer for those lings attempt thorax got lucky thorax is darn lucky to have harmony step in to help him to fix the hunger and a shiny form
I wonder what it was like in the early days before the answer to there hunger was love how many lings died it must have been traumatic
LOL At the banning
--Spade
Damn , honestly , I made good to not quit the thing after a single chapter that I didn't enjoy , because I ADORED that one ! Less romance , more adventure , perfect ! And now that I think about it , has long has most chapters are focused on adventure , one or two romance-focused chapters every now and then doesn't hurt .
Also , another thing I really like is the slow changing of Chrysalis's personality . It's not just she is all evil and then , suddenly poof , she is good . Nope , it's a slow shift towards not being a complete asshole , kudos for that because even if I never wrote a story , I think I can safely say that it's pretty damn hard to do that sort of thing right !
Also , I am pretty sure you used one too much "and" in this sentence :
discreetly
I appreciate defending Chryssi's position without trying to act like what she did was okay. Also digging the spy talk; huge Burn Notice fan.
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Wait... what? Why? The owner is completely in the right.
The three of them come into his restaurant and made loud and completely baseless accusations about their food being poisoned so that everyone present can hear, chased away customers, likely causing rumors and hearsay warnings about their food being bad costing them a lot of business, refused to leave when told to because they're creating a disturbance forcing them to call the police, then Nonchalant straight up encouraged anti-changeling sentiment and flaunting that she can break the law using shapeshifting.
I can't really think of a worse way to have handled this, if for no other reason this kind of behavior is what causes people calling for laws against shapeshifting.
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idk chrysalis like her seafood and you can't tell me she won't do it she trying to find a love poisoner and thought she was gonna catch the culprit that poisoned her there side she has lived too long to care about a ban not to find a loophole it was only a mistake on her part and won't make the mistake again to cause trouble on purpose their side she pays for the food when she goes for it and enjoys it civilly
I just realized what’s going on. It’s not racist attacks on changelings, and it’s not not accidentally getting in the way of a pony drugging others either.
It’s TOURISM, and growing the town. Dosing people with love poison so they have a good time and maybe settle down. Tiatarta is for lovers...
I really like seeing Chrissi here. She’s still incredibly entitled and arrogant and self centered and all, but she *was* trying to take care of the hive. And she’s been very lonely.
And then there’s the sleeping chamber, where she’s lonely and won’t admit it because it would mean that after all this time she was wrong. That maybe they didn’t need her. Which would mean everything she’d done over the years was for nothing.
"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you're looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money... but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you stop spreading rumors about my food now, that will be the end of it - I will not look for you, I will not pursue you... but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you... and I will ban you from my restaurant."
"Good luck."
9907138
damn! that makes so much sense!
This is shaping up to be an absolutely amazing story. I'm at the edge of my seat every chapter. As it's been said, the biggest and best part so far has been your ability to write the depth and complexity of Chrysalis's character. What's more, it's nice too see that the hive itself may not be exactly correct in it's perception of her as was seen here in the conversation about fishing with the younger changeling. It really feels like they're a close knit family that was surviving a tragedy and have misunderstood each other and in the end lashed out as a result. Also, Clone Twilight is the MVP here, it's cool how you've been including her as a sort of spirit guide/companion. I'm curious where her sub plot will end up.
So, well done, and thanks for sharing this with us! Looking forward to how things shape up with the mystery and interpersonal character relationships.
I am so loving this! Chrysalis is written really sharply here. She's smart, full of herself, but is also reasonable in how she addresses Ocellus' issues about the past. It's not pure apologism for her own role, not trying to say that they deserve to feed on others or that ponies aren't worth considering, etc. but actually argues in a much more nuanced manner than I'd have expected from her. If that's her actual thoughts or just what she feels compelled to say to maintain her cover is another matter.
Part of me regrets that this happened after Ocellus admitted to Smolder that she'd been sneak-eating her friends' emotions, as it'd shake her that much more, but it still works since so far it's just her friends who know, not all of Equestria. She still has grounds to be nervous for what would happen if Twilight or Equestria at large learned Changelings still sneak-nibble.
I really like Chrysalis' casual use of Smolder and Ocellus as guinea-pigs, and Smolder being prepared to do it right back to her. (Also, yay, Ocellus got her marrow! Happy bugs make me happy).
Intriguing that the Mayor hasn't released the news. I eagerly await to see what happens next!
Hm.
Well, keeping this a secret from the town isn’t necessarily a sign of guilt, but it is exceedingly suspicious.
Hahaha, go Chrysalis! Her snark at the end was great, shifting a bunch of times including her previous form. How you gonna ban that, buddy? Though in fairness to the cook, accusations of poison like that could actually sink his business. Anyway, I love Chrysalis' argument against the current changeling way of life. It was a huge gamble. One that certainly paid off, but it was a risk all the same. And she did successfully guide the changelings for a long time, presumably centuries if not longer. Being written off so easily as some evil old crone by the rest of her kind(even though that's essentially what the writers damned her as in canon), undoubtedly stings. Excellent chapter!
This is such an interesting take on Chrissys character, and as always this story is addictively engaging. I’m loving it!
I love the detail of Chrysalis turning into her own (assumedly old) form while taunting the griffon.
Would've liked a little more of the "Bitta's" discussion before it was broken up, or more of it later. Was really interesting. Though some more slight respect or Ocellus going 'yeah Chrysalis did have to make hard decisions to let us survive at all' would've made it a little more nicely layered. Really quite enjoying this story. Thanks for sharing.
9907102
I feel like you seem to forget that this is Chrysalis we're talking about here. How do you think she'll react to 'laws against shape-shifting' ?
I'm pretty sure the answer is:
Great, great work on Chrysalis. I love her and Ocellus talking about 'fishing', there.
Also, is it just me or is either Shadow-Twilight coming to life, or Chryssie about to lose it her?
9907662
Okay, wow.
I don't think I've been getting enough sleep lately. I was reading Chrysalis there as one of the Nook changelings for some reason. I think I thought she was Ecdysis.
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Where's this "about to" coming from?
9907662
More or less.
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Don't worry, there's still plenty of introspection and soliloquies to come.
Almost everything I write inevitably ends up being some kind of character piece. The Return of Tambelon was originally supposed to be a fairly straightforward adventure story, for example, and send-up to Conan the Barbarian; instead it turned into a character rerailment for Corona where her original personality was completely deconstructed, examined, and then rebuilt.
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It struck me as a Chrysalis thing to do.
9907518
I generally accept the comics as canon, so Chrysalis is actually possibly older than Celestia, and is at the very least a contemporary of Starswirl the Bearded, as he played an (unwitting) role in her creation. So, yeah, a little bit more than a millennium.
9907325
Speaking of the comic's origins for her...this is the very first thing that Chrysalis ever saw. We may be addressing this.
9907218
Clone Twilight was a sort of last-minute addition to the story, not one I'd originally planned. Like, Chrysalis' stick was always going to feature, but it occurred to me that if I was writing things from her perspective then she wouldn't believe she's talking to a stick. So I decided to have her believe to be talking to the shadow of the Twilight clone she made. Now that being said - just because I originally planned on it to just be a stick, doesn't meant that I stuck to that once I decided to have it be represented as shadow-Twilight. Maybe it's a delusion of Chrysalis', maybe it's actually Mean Twilight's spirit in there, maybe it's the Tree of Harmony...
9907173
Yeah, I had that vibe too,
9907138
Yeah...while Ocellus and Smolder have interpersonal issues to work out, Chrysalis' story in this is basically one giant existential crisis.
9907102
You're not wrong. Smolder's defense is that she was raised in a culture that basically values acting the way Chrysalis was there, particularly with her flaunting her power to keep doing what she wants without the restaurant owners really able to do anything about it. And in Ocellus' case, she's kind of distracted with both Smolder and with Chrysalis putting her in an existential mood.
Chrysalis is just kind of a dick.
9907072
To reiterate: Chrysalis is just kind of a dick. Also I too am a big fan of Burn Notice. Though I think it lasted for one too many seasons overall. But yeah, the spy talk was fun in this, both using some of the terms ("legend" for your cover story) but also having a whole conversation in veiled metaphor. In some odd way it might have actually made it easier for Ocellus and Chrysalis to talk about it, than if they were both in their true forms and talking openly with each other.
9907014
Thanks for sticking around! Chrysalis is a whole lot of fun to write for, especially as I'm trying to really build off of the snippets here an there in the show and comics that give her somewhat more complex a character than merely being a bug version of Maleficent. Which is not to say that I'm trying to excuse anything she did. She is still evil. But not without reasons for it. Plus, like I said, I follow the comics. Chrysalis is old, and unlike, say, Tirek or Nightmare Moon, she has spent almost all of those thousand years active, not locked away somewhere.
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Not sure if I'm going to be able to work it in, but it can probably be broadly assumed that Chrysalis is going to eat there every day.
9906879
Also literal mother in some cases. My take on changelings doesn't have them as eusocial, of course - they don't require a queen to reproduce - but I don't doubt that Chrysalis has lain eggs of her own over the years. If nothing else in the response-letter I canonized, Thorax refers to her as "mother".
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Thanks for the responses! See you next chapter!
It sounds to me like the real friendship problem is not between the Changelings and the ponies, but between Chrysalis and the Hive. I can’t wait to see Twilight’s face when she finds out! Hopefully, this Chryss will have a happier ending than the canon version!
I’m starting to think the shadow in the stick is actually Harmony, not mean Twilight. It would explain how the Tree knows about her real feelings.
9908118
Actually, I kinda was. My tired self had somehow placed Ecdysis as the changeling in the restaurant with Ocellus and Smolder, not Chrysalis. I was seriously confused at how much of a complete dick 'Ecdysis' was being, and where her support of Chrysalis came from.
Re-reading the chapter makes so much more sense now.
So, random question, but i haven't seen season 8 or 9, is this shadow-Twilight from the show or just fanmade?
9908481
Fan made, sort of. She may or may not be the spirit of Mean Twilight from the season 8 episode “The Mean Six”.
It's always nice to see authors addressing the strategic dilemma of feeding the swarm. And it's good to see that Chrysalis isn't in denial about the benefits of the new form, too.
Ocellus is just lucky to never have had to weigh the survival of her species against the welfare of others.
In a zero sum equation, it's drones before pones, yo.
9908537
I think i saw part of that episode yeah...
Weird
9908895
Yeah...for better or for worse. Much of that two-parter was a quasi-gambit that got lucky due to the die rolls going good. But then again, even with the best of masterminds and strategists, so much of history is built on things just going right for certain persons at the right time.
9910143
Or wrong...
9910144
Yes...that as well.
9910162
To quote a famous person: "War is a series of disasters that result in victory."
9910217
Sounds about right. Or it's a series of disasters that ends in a horrific loss that leaves the population wondering in the end "What did we even fight for?"
Hmm... You know, there's more than one phantom Twilight associated with lumber. That may not be the last imprint of Clonelight. That could be an agent of Harmony keeping an eye on someone who needs a lot of direct interference to reach her best-case scenario.
"Like if we made our fishing vessel into a pirate ship and stormed a pony city in the middle of a wedding to plunder the banquet? I can't see ponies welcoming us into town after that."
And so they walked in silence until they reached the restaurant.
(Seriously, Chryssy, you don't get to act paranoid about the masquerade when you're the one who broke it.)
Love the common element of Chrysalis and Ocellus both loving the marrow.
If it walks like a duck, smells like a duck, and tastes like a duck...
And that is a very interesting omission on the mayor's part. I could see a number of possible reasons for leaving out that particular detail. Let's see what she goes with.
Conflicted Chryssie is conflicted.
Nice metaphoscussion.
... The Shadow is just Harmony screwing with her, isn't it?
Hah, banned.
'the greed an the love' - and
What's "cisco"? Between Cisco routers, Sysco foods, and Cisco, Texas, Google is no help.
Lol. Hiding in plain sight, I see.
*blinks* a what now?
9957566
I... I think she once ran in a circus...
I hope Ocellus and Chrysalis keep bonding and can help each other and heal each other.
10126221
It’s an older joke but it checks out I was about to clear them.
And I think that those names would go great with a Trottingham accent rather than Ponyville. Or a Posh accent.
Chrysalis taking her own form at the end there was some delightful humor.
I'm very much liking this look into Chrysalis' head, especially as she starts to gravitate more towards a less... evil mindset, let's say. I highly doubt that back in the bad old days, Chrysalis would have felt any need to justify her actions to one of her underlings like she did with Ocellus here. Her self-monologuing also has interesting implications for her mindset insofar as taking over the Nook goes. She's started out this story mostly focusing on "I deserve this", but I notice that her rant in the hatchery's been edging a lot more into "they need my help".
Perhaps it's a sign of her changing priorities, or perhaps she always had some genuine love buried somewhere deep, deep inside her dead and withered heart. Perhaps it means nothing, and I'm building castles in the air, but I still can't help but notice.
im pretty sure its "and the love" not "an the love"
She revealed herself.. without revealing herself.
Just how good is she?!
Hell yeah, that's delightful flirting with danger