My little angel

by Hydreigon_Omega

Chapter 7

Author's Note:

There has been a slight formatting change, instead having chapter 6 parts 1 and 2, I’ll just have chapter 6 and 7

The school bell rang, echoing throughout the entire city signaling the first day of summer. Many fillies and foals ran out of the building to go to their parents, but one of them wasn’t with the crowd. Walking out the back door, Mael made his way to the school’s garden where he promised to meet Chrysalis. He didn’t want to be seen talking to a changeling, it wasn’t anything he had against changelings, Mael just wanted to keep Chrysalis safe from any potential danger. And that meant keeping a low profile, or at least trying not to be suspicious.

“Hello Mael.” Someone said

“AH!” Mael jumped in surprise when he heard a voice call his name

Mael turned to his left and saw somepony other than who he was expecting. There stood a purple unicorn with a forest green mane. Much like him, she also was an early bloomer and her cutie mark was ironically a flower mid-bloom. The unicorn just stared at Mael with a knowing smile.

“Uh, hello?” Mael asked, “Can I help you?”

“You don’t know me?” The unicorn asked in disbelief, “My name is Chrysanthemum, also known as…” a green fire engulfed her revealing a much more familiar face, “Chrysalis!”

“Oh it is just you.” Mael sighed as his heart rate slowed back to normal

“Did I trick you?” Chrysalis asked with a smile on her face

“Yes, yes you did.” Mael said, “Anyways, I came here to give you this.”

Mael reached into his bag and grabbed the scroll Celestia had given him, it was a little wrinkled but it still had the royal stamp of Princess Celestia herself. It was a letter of invitation for a week-long sleepover that Mael had requested. Chrysalis looked at the contents, making sure Mael didn’t accidentally give her his homework like last time.

“You’re making sure I didn’t accidentally give you my homework like last time, aren’t you?” Mael asked in a somewhat humorous and disbelieving voice, “I already told you I was sorry.”

“If it happened once, it will happen again.” Chrysalis jokingly mocked, “Not to mention that this is the last day you have a reason to come herdoore before school begins again.”

“Yeah, it would have been bad if I forgot.” Mael said, “But that’s why we are going to have you come visit next week.”

The sound of hoof steps could be heard approaching them. “I got to go now,” Chrysalis said, “See you soon, Mael.”

Chrysalis disguised herself as a blue pegasus, as she took off with the note in her mouth. Not long after, the royal guard’s defense specialist Big Shield walked through the school's back door where he found Mael doing some last minute tending to the garden. The guards-pony let out a sigh as he took the prince back to the castle

---

When the first day of the first full week of summer rolled around, a purple unicorn filly walked through the castle doors with a saddle bag on her back. She was accompanied by two older unicorns, who quickly bowed before leaving. While Celestia didn’t want to snoop in her subjects' personal life, she still felt that they were pretty rude. However, the young prince didn’t pay them any mind as he ran towards his friends and hugged her.

“Chryssi!” Mael exclaimed, “It is so great to see you again!”

“It is great to see you too.” Chrysalis, or rather Chrysanthemum, said as she hugged him back.

“You must be my son’s friend.” Celestia said

Chrysalis' stomach began doing flips on itself once she realized how close Celestia was. The alabaster Alicorn dwarfed the small changeling. Chrysalis managed to recompose herself enough to look the alicorn in the eyes.

“Y-yes, I am.” she said in a slightly shaky voice

Celestia felt a little uneasy about Mael’s friend, something just didn’t seem right. Perhaps she was just uncomfortable with the fact that he was growing faster than she wanted. Celestia missed the times where he was a much smaller and much more timid colt and how he would snuggle up to her in bed, but she still loved him for being her son.

“I have heard many things about you from my son,” Celestia said, “I hope we can be friends as well.”

“Come on Chryssi, I want to show you something in the gardens.” Mael said as he took off to the royal gardens with his friend in hot pursuit of him.

“Stay safe you two.” Celestia reminded them as Mael and Chrysanthemum hurried down the hall

Celestia sighed as the two friends reminded her of how she and her sister used to act when they were younger. Despite her constant longing to see her sister again, Celestia knew that the banishment spell couldn’t be undone.

“Is something bothering you, princess?” Archmage said as he calmly approached the solar monarch.

“It’s nothing of concern Archmage.” Celestia replied nonchalantly, “I was just reflecting on how much my son has changed from when I adopted him.”

“I will not press on this matter,” Archamage said, “but you still seem troubled about your son.”

As the day continued moving forward, Celestia’s feeling didn’t subside. Her son was growing, and deserved more freedom as he grew, but her motherly instincts were demanding that she kept an eye on them. Celestia couldn’t understand why they were demanding her to keep watch of her son. While she understood that he was about 7, and a half, she knew that he was safe within the castle grounds. No matter how many times she reassured herself, the worry she had continued to grow.

When it came time to raise the moon, Celestia couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. No matter how long she waited, her motherly instincts only grew stronger to the point where it was seeping through her “princess-mask.” When she was finally able to retire for the night, she walked by her son’s room. Maybe one peak would quench the fear and worry that was starting to overtake her.

Gently opening the door Celestia took a peek into her son’s room, her face became even more pale at what she saw. A changeling was there in the room with him and it was feeding off of him. But it wasn’t just an ordinary changeling drone, no, it was the heir to the changeling throne herself, Chrysalis. Celestia was so overcome with anger that she wanted to throw the door off its hinges and save her son from that love stealing bug, but something stopped her.

It was the sound of her son’s laughter, the sound had snapped her back to reality. When Chrysalis had finished with her meal, both she and Mael had returned to playing the board game that was laid out in front of them. Apparently, Mael had won that round as the changeling princess sprawled out backward with a groan. Mael’s emotions were genuine and his movements weren’t halfhearted. Celestia couldn’t believe what she was seeing, her son was friends with a changeling and there wasn’t any manipulation involved.

Celestia closed the door, making sure not to alarm her son or the changeling princess. Her mind was too cloudy to think properly, even if she managed to fall asleep, she would still have so many thoughts scrambled together distracting her from her royal duties. Perhaps a walk through the gardens would help her clear her mind. The moon shone down on her, the one thing she found comfort in, but it was also a constant reminder of her greatest failure.

“Celestia, something is troubling you.” The familiar voice of archmage said, “Do you wish to speak about what is bothering you?”

“I would like to,” Celestia repsoned, “but we would need to be somewhere private to do so.”

“Very well,” Archmage cast a teleportation spell, teleporting both Celestia and himself into the royal dining hall. She had known archmage to be very talented in magic, but teleporting an alicorn was a near impossible feat. Now wasn’t the time to ask more questions, it was time for Celestia to get answers.

“My son seems to be friends with Chrysalis, the princess of changelings.” Celestia began, “But I don’t understand why? Even at his age he knows that changelings don’t allow themselves to openly associate with ponies, much less make friends with them.”

“And how do you know that changeling is his friend?”

“Because she is too young to be able to hypnotize ponies, even one as young as my son.” Celestia answered, “And she didn’t try to hide her true form from him, Mael even allowed her to feed off of him.”

“Have you tried to make an idea as to why he let her feed off of him?” Archmage asked,

“No I haven’t, I’m just so confused right now.” Celestia admitted,

“Try thinking of it in reverse.” Archmage suggested

“I’m sorry, what?”

“When things are unclear and seem to contradict themselves, you should look at it with a completely different perspective.” Archmage explained, “What once appeared good becomes evil and logic may become paradoxical. It was something I used to tell my students.”

Celestia thought it was at least worth a try, starting at the end and working towards the beginning. It was a simple yet effective tactic when solving certain puzzles.

The first thing, or rather the last thing that happened was that she discovered Mael letting Chrysalis feed off of him, which required a strong level of trust on Mael’s part. What happened before that was Mael and Chrysalis running off to the castle gardens, probably to get away from other ponies finding out their secret. Next was that he hugged her after she arrived, disguised as ‘Chrysantheium,’ which may have been a standard greeting but it seemed like it was more than that.

And finally, the day Mael asked if he could invite a friend over to stay with him for a while. Celestia’s eyes widened when it finally clicked, if Chrysalis was in fact Mael’s friend then not just Mael but also Chrysalis had to pull some strings to get this to happen. Celestia remembered how Queen Insectonia was at the last meeting of the five nations, so Chrysalis probably had to ask something of her mother, maybe like faking a mission. But Mael had it a little simpler, all he needed to do was ask if he could bring a friend over. So that would explain… oh…

“He lied to me.” Celestia said completely disheartened, before the flames of her wrath started to rekindle themselves, “He lied to me! I cannot believe this, he better have some good answers for this!”

Right before Celestia stormed out the door, Archmage said something. “Have you considered the possibility of continuing to let this friendship grow?”

She hadn’t, Celestia was so caught up in the moment that she was failing to have foresight for the situation. “No I haven’t, care to tell me your view of this?”

“If you handle this situation properly, the hatred between ponies and changelings may come to an end because of these two.” Archmage explained, “Think of this situation like a delicate flower, you want to use care with it to get it to grow into full bloom. But should you damage it, you may end up crippling it for the rest of its life.”

Celestia knew he was right, if she did anything in the heat of the moment she may just end up sparking another pony changeling war. Even if that didn’t happen, she would still end up damaging her relationship with her son.

“Then what should I do?” Celestia asked, holding back tears from the thought of her son hating her.

“There are many different ways you could handle the situation,” Archmage said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t give any advice.”

---

[Classified], of the same week,
Directly after the annual meeting of the council of 5

---

“Queen Insectonia,” Celestia said, “May I speak with you in private?”

“This better not take long.” Insectonia reluctantly agreed, “What do you want?”

The two rulers returned to their spots at the table, as the remainder vacated the premises. One of the many rules of the council of 5 was that if one of the leaders wished to have a private audience, the other 3 should vacate the room until after they are finished. This was either for personal matters, or things that needed to be decided without the interjection of the other rulers.

“My son invited a friend over to spend the week,” Celestia said, “And one thing led to another, which led me to thinking about somethings. Why can’t we just forgive each other as friends, if not friends, then allies? It has been so long since the war that even I have forgotten who had started it.”

“Listen well Celestia, I’ll only say this once.” Insectonia scowled, “we changelings have hated the ponies long before the war. I will never be your ‘friend,’ and changelings will always be your enemy, inside or out of war.”

Insectonia gave one last malice filled glare at Celestia before leaving to the hive. It wasn’t just a coincidence that Celestia spoke about Chrysalis. She had always had a suspicion ever since Chrysalis came to her asking for a solo mission, and those suspicions had been confirmed. Allowing this to continue would be bad for the changelings. Insectonia knew she had to remove the source of this problem, Mael. Good thing the changeling queen knew someone that would be willing to do her dirty work for her.

‘To Lord Griffith II, emperor of the griffon empire.

I have an offer for you, one you can’t refuse. As the queen of the changelings, I have discovered a troublesome pony that I need you to rid of. I value my hive over anything else, and because you aren’t of the hive, I shall keep my reasoning for why a secret.

The one I need you to get rid of is the young prince Mael, son of princess Celestia. I don’t care how, whether that be an assassin or by capturing him, just get rid of him. Such a valuable target deserves an equally valuable reward. When you succeed at this task, then the changelings will be in alliance with you and I shall vote in favor of you for the next 350 moons.

I expect this to get done,
Queen Inseconia, rule of the changelings.’

Comments

[KarasAdamas]

Oh no, I have a bad feeling.

[Mornings Dew]

Good chapter!

[oddmin]

oooooohhhhh chrissy is going to be ticked

[Ziper Ace]

NOOO!!!