My little angel

by Hydreigon_Omega

Chapter 8

The end of the week had finally come, and it was finally time for Chrysalis to head back home to the changeling hive. She put her disguise back on and gave Mael one last hug before she went with her ‘parents.’ In actuality, they were just disguised changeling drones sent by the queen to pick up the princess. As Chrysalis started to disappear in the distance, Mael felt a sense of relief that chrysalis was gone.

There were many different reasons why Mael felt this way. While he did enjoy Chrysalis’s company, spending a week with even your best friend can be tiring and he was ready for some alone time. But at the same time, Mael was happy that she no longer ran the risk of being accidentally discovered by the castle guards, or his mother.

He wandered around the castle gardens, looking at all the rare flowers Celestia had growing in her garden. Mother had told him a few years ago that just taking some time in the garden was a great way to relieve the stress that came with each day. While wandering around the many flowers, Mael didn’t pay attention to where he was going and walked right into something.

“I’m sorry,” he said hoping to hear someone reply

But a reply never came. Mael looked at what he had walked into, it was a marble statue that was as tall as several ponies. It appeared to be an unorthodox sculpture using several different body parts from ponies, griffons, dragons, and many more Mael couldn’t list off the top of his head. The poor statue was covered head to toe with wild growing vegetation, hiding most of its odd features.

Now knowing that he had something to do for the evening, Mael began removing vines from the statue in hopes of cleaning it up. His mother told him that there is no job too far below him for him to help, and it seemed that the gardener had failed to notice or even neglected this small part of the garden. As the young prince continued to work happily, he began to lose track of time.

When Mael had finished this self imposed chore, the sky had become a beautiful orange color. Using the side of one of his front legs, he wiped the dirt off the name plate allowing him to see what was written on it. “Discord, the embodiment of chaos and disharmony itself.” Mael didn’t see the name of the sculptor, so he assumed that whomever they were wanted to stay anonymous. With what little time he had left, he took some nearby wildflowers and turned them into a flower crown where he flew up and placed it on top of the statue's head. Covered in dirt from his work, Mael made sure that the first thing he would do when he got to the castle would be to take a show.

---

Turning off the water, Mael stepped out of the show as he headed to his room to go to sleep. He knew that his mom didn’t like it when he tracked dirt from outside into his room. It wasn’t until Mael got to his room that he noticed that he was so preoccupied with cleaning up the statue that he had completely forgotten how messy his room was from when Chrysalis visited, but he decided that he would leave it for the morning. Right before he was about to rest, loud knocking hit on his door.

“Prince Mael,” A guard shouted, “Your mother wishes to speak with you.”

He was surprised at this sudden occurrence, Mael’s had a gut feeling that something was wrong. She couldn’t have found out about Chrysalis, Mael made sure of it. But what if she did? What would happen to him? And more importantly what would happen to Chrysalis? Maybe it was about the statue he had found? But he really doubted that it was the last one.

Stopping at the door, Mael took a deep breath before he entered his mother’s room. Instead of looking at the face of somepony who was eagerly awaiting him, he saw the back of Celestia facing him. His mom was looking into the starry night sky, she seemed deeply lost in thought. Celestia patted down on a spot on the balcony, telling her son to come sit beside her without needing to mutter a single word.

A small picture frame was held in her magic, Celestia momentarily took a break from watching the night sky to look at the photo one last time before passing it to her son. There were two fillies both about his age in the picture, the white filly had a pink mane and the one chasing her was blue with a lighter blue mane. It looked like the photo was taken during the middle of a game, but Mael couldn’t understand why his mother was showing this.

“This is a photo of when both me and my sister were both still young fillies,” Celestia said, “I still remember how that unscheduled rainshower cut our fun short.”

“Sister?!” Mael was surprised , to say the least, “Does that mean I have an aunt?”

“Yes, you do have an aunt,” Celestia smiled, “Her name is Luna.”

“Will I ever meet her?” Mael asked excitedly,

“I wish I could give you definite yes or no,” Celestia said, “But I can’t”

“Why’s that?” Mael asked as his ears laid flat

“Many many years ago, I didn’t realize how much I actually loved her. I made several poor actions in my youth, making my sister and I slowly grow distant.” Celestia let out a sad sigh as a single tear fell from her eye, “Now my sister is gone and she hates me because of it, but I can’t blame her for my poor actions. And now it is too late for me to change the past.”

Mael wanted to comfort his mother, but he didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. All he could do was lean against her and give her a hug. Celestia gave her son a smile to show that she was alright, but she sighed as she turned to face the moon again.

“Do you know why I have decided to tell you these things?” Celestia asked

“No,” Mael shook his head

“I am telling you these things because I don’t want to lose you too.” Celestia said, “I know the truth about Chrysanthemum, or rather Chrysalis, and I feel hurt that you felt like you had to hide it from me.”

Mael was absolutely shocked, “I-I’m sorry.”

“I know you are, but if one of the guards found out things could have happened way differently.” Celestia said, “While I won’t punish you for bringing a changeling into Canterlot city, you still lied to me. As your mother, but not as a princess, I can not let you go unpunished.”

“But- but I am really sorry!” Mael said as his eyes started to tear up, “Please don’t do this, I promise it won’t happen again!”

“I am sorry, but I have to do this.” Celestia said as her expression turned solemn, “You're grounded, no cake for a month.”

“NOooo!” There was no point in holding back his tears anymore, Mael knew he couldn’t change his mother’s judgement.

Celestia gave her son a hug to try and comfort him, to her mild surprise, Mael didn’t push her hooves but rather he quickly accepted her offer. Knowing that she did the right thing in grounding her son didn’t make it any easier on her already heavy heart. A single tear rolled down her cheek, as she knew that her son did in fact truly love her back.

---

After putting Mael to bed, Celestia began wandering the dark halls, looking for something to take her mind off of what had just happened. Celesta’s “mask” had a small crack in it, most ponies wouldn’t have noticed it, but there were a few of the older members of the guard who knew something was off. Soon she had passed a familiar door, one she had passed many times before, and a friend was in there waiting for her.

Archmage sat at his desk as he wrote something inside his book, once he felt Celestia presence he calmly closed the book and turned to her. While many ponies were scared to act like themselves around royalty, Archmage wasn’t scared of this. He was one of the few ponies who she could actually call a friend. While many ponies were too scared to even get remotely close to celestia, Archmage practically waltzed right into her innermost circle. Maybe he had something to take her mind off of the punishment she forced on her son.

“Ah, it is nice to see you again Princess.” Archmage said politely, “What have you come here for?”

Celestia hastily thought of a reason why she would’ve needed to visit him, “I’ve come here to check up on the progress of your project.”

“My project?” he inquired, “I’m sorry, but I have multiple projects going on. You’ll need to be more specific.”

“The medicine you said that you could make from my son’s magic.” Celestia reminded him

“Yes, that one!” Archmage said as he remembered, “Now where did I put it?”

Archmage’s horn lit up as his magic quickly ran over the books on his shelf. When he found the right book, he pulled it off the shelf and opened it up. Upon seeing all the hard equations Celestia remembered in this book, it was the one she took a peak in a few years ago. Archmage began flipping through the pages, until he ran across one with several spots blotted out. The next few pages were covered in ink spills and scratched out writing. But on one the last page of his journal, there was what appeared to be an equation circle several times.

“This will be the end product, or at least this is what it would be in theory.” Archmage said, “The small portion you had allowed me to test was too small for any actual tests. So instead I learned it’s magical properties to figure how it would react to what, allowing me to make predictions instead of accidentally blowing up half the castle.”

Celestia was shocked at his statement, “you can’t be serious.”

“Actually, I am.” Archmage sighed, “Combine Mael’s naturally occurring magic with dark magic and it becomes greatly unstable, making a powerful force if controlled correctly. But if you would add pony magic to that equation, you would theoretically be able to make chaos magic.”

“I see.” Celestia was surprised at his revelation about chaos magic, “then I assume all you will need to create the medicine is a larger portion of my son's magic, is that correct?”

“Yes, I do need a larger portion of his magic to create it, but” Archmage replied, “while it would work in theory, there is no guarantee that the components won’t just cancel each other out. I hate to say it like this, but it is best I am upfront about this request. I need living test subjects.”

Celestia didn’t want to put any of her subjects in harm's way, but if she made that sacrifice then the outcome would allow for a “cure-all” of sorts to be made. She argued with herself over the ethical dilemma, risking a few lives and possibly save many more, or she could refuse to give him what he needed and the “cure-all” won’t be made. It was like the now or later question that many ponies had asked, while the now was much more pleasing the later was always many times better. Both options felt right and wrong, Celestia knew that one thing was constant in both options, either way she would end up changing the future.

“I have decided to grant you permission to use living test subjects Archmage.” Celestia said, “But all I ask is that you don’t get them involved in any of your other experiments.”

“I swear to you with everything I own, and even my own life, I will not abuse what you have given me.”

Comments

[Ziper Ace]

Oh dang
I hope it’s just volunteers who is willing to do the test