CH 43 (after the storm? Some more rain)
Patchwork
Celestia left thirty minutes ago and according to her, she would be back in one week with help.
She would bring aid from Equestria in order to assist with fixing this mess and the food issue that has only been made worse by what happened today, namely, during the battle several of the large love reservoirs have been completely ruined by spells or lost to hatred Husk was leaking.
We are VERY low on love now and from what I was told it will only get worse if we/I don’t find a solution in the meantime.
So… now… I’m alone here. Drop is supposedly making her way to me, but until then all I have is Mantis to be the only friendly face in the sea of chitin.
‘I think I’m going to be sick again,’ I felt my claws twitch and my neck cramp, I felt nauseous I…
“Sir?”
“Yes?” I scraped at the ground but showed no other sign of my inner turmoil.
“Are you okay?”
I looked up and took a deep, long breath, ‘Think happy thoughts, Patch.’
I looked at the ling next to me, Keratin somehow survived the whole ordeal without so much as a scratch, and, though he took a bit of talking to, he offered to help keep things sort of organized.
“I’m just peachy,” I sounded manic, in whole honesty I blame the last hour on it, “Did we get an estimate at how much love we have left?”
“Well… umm…” Keratin was tapping his hooves together while looking rather anxious. I could not blame him. Everyone – ling, everyling, has been walking on eggshells around me ever since the fight stopped. Unfamiliarity with me and too much of Husk’s bad leadership is making them think I will start raining down punishments just because they don’t give me a good answer.
“If we dilute it further, two, three days. We need a lot of it to help the injured lings,” Scurry spoke up. He has been with me the whole time making sure that there is at least someo – ling was here that was… recognizable. It made the others listen to me more readily.
“Two to three days, two to three days…” I muttered, “What about the other podded beings you use to feed on? What’s their state?”
“Their state?” Keratin looked confused, “They are podded, we can use them as long as possible and as long as we are careful about it.”
I pinched my brow in frustration, “I need information, Keratin? What is their physical condition? Are they young, old, starving… Are we going quality over quantity? Are they… why are you looking at me like that?”
Several lings around me, including Scurry and Keratin, were looking at me like I lost my damn mind. I probably did if today was any indication… I didn’t even get my shower yet.
Scurry took the least amount of time to shake off the confusion, “I’ll go find out. Usually, the queen doesn’t care about it as long as we get love out of them.”
“Good, and please bring a report on it, I work better when I can see the numbers,” He nodded, buzzing away towards the castle.
‘One hour and I didn’t even move from the damn place,’ I looked behind me at the puddle of blood Husk was lying in just twenty minutes ago. She was shoved in a small love pool in order to keep the parasite as weakened as possible… if that was even working.
…
After action report.
I was sitting down at a resin table in front of the castle ‘gates’ while I waited for Scurry to find somewhere I can hole in. I am NOT using the castle for anything else other than giving the homeless lings a place to stay for as long as they need to.
Picking up the green light crystal fixture next to me (a thin resin stand with a green, glowing crystal on top of it) and pulling it closer so I can see the report I started reading.
One hundred and seventy-six obliterated houses, ‘Need to be made from scratch.’
Seventy-five houses that can still be used as a base for building, ‘But otherwise useless.’
Five hundred and forty-six houses that are missing a chunk or are barely holding together.
And… everything else was manageable. Over two thousand houses needed minor repairs, but that was it.
‘How the fuck did she feed all these lings?’ I read in shocked silence.
Shaking my head I continued.
Seventy-five dead-
I smashed the resin table I was using without thinking, breathing heavily through grit teeth. I wanted nothing more than to find the love pool that we stuck Husk in and twist her neck until…
‘Air… air…’
…
‘Okay… casualty report later…’ My arms are still shaking… ‘Fuck.’
…
A soft knock woke me up. It took me a moment to realize that I was on the ground looking up at the ceiling of the house they let me stay in… a dead ling’s house. I don’t even remember looking around it much in the first place, I just entered and threw myself at the paperwork.
I rolled to my side and stood up shaking myself off like a dog before stretching, ‘Don’t think about… what’s done is done, work on making it better.’ My ears twitched as raised voices came in through the closed window.
Looking out through the green tinted sheet of resin I saw two groups of lings arguing at the front door.
One side was with me, the other against, I tuned out the actual words as otherwise I would probably just crawl under the nearest rock and pray for Armageddon. I did feel better about the fact that the side arguing for me was bigger than the other.
There was another knock and the door opened.
“You should come and eat at some point,” Mantis spoke up, “You need the resin. I don’t think your carapace will survive for long otherwise.”
‘I really should eat something…’ I looked myself over, tracing all the cracks, chips, and holes that have been leftover since yesterday. I never got to fix them, there was always something else to do that was more important.
I heard the shuffle of parchment behind me and I turned around to see what he was doing before I refocused back on lings outside, “Seventy-five dead, two hundred and twenty-one injured and critical, and one hundred injured…”
“Did you even sleep?” He asked moving up to stand next to me.
“Just woke up on the floor actually,” I shrugged, watching the argument continue. “Did Drop arrive? How are our love stores?”
He was quiet for a moment; I couldn’t see his face so I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“Drop is with Dicty, they are arriving tomorrow along with the lings from those caves, and our love stores could be better. Thanks to your help we have a bit of extra love, but you must be drained, you should -”
Hooves were being pointed at, and arguments turned into swearing and charged horns.
“Good, keep me posted,” I ignited my horn and teleported in the middle of the two groups just as a rock was thrown. I caught it in my magic and settled it on the ground before it could hurt anyone.
“This is all your fault!” I pinned the ears to my head, but otherwise, I didn’t move a muscle as the shouting continued. I let them vent for a good few minutes, the cacophony becoming harsher and louder until a second rock came sailing through the air, hitting my ribs. It was dead silent after that.
‘At least a week until Celestia arrives with help…,’ I groused to myself picking up the rock that hit me off the floor with my right arm, ‘Could use some advice now.’
“Just so we are clear,” I lifted the rock and waved it over my head towards the angry folk, “I am not okay with throwing rocks at each other… Or magic for that matter,” I let the rock drop before sitting down. “Now, I have no problems with you all telling me what the issue is but arguing like this isn’t going to fix anything.”
“There wouldn’t be anything TO fix if you didn’t show up!” Someone shouted.
“Yes, you are right, because there would be nothing left of changelings when someone with a bigger ax to grind came after you,” I spoke up feeling dreadfully tired already.
“Our bubble would have protected us!”
“Like it did now?” I raised an eyebrow. That got them all to shut up, “Let me make something perfectly clear, just so we are on the same page, I am FULLY aware of what I did. But I don’t think any of you are realizing just how tight of a rope you were all walking on.”
Some of them looked confused, but I carried on regardless.
“That bubble was the only, the ONLY thing keeping you changelings safe from the world, on this continent,” I pointed my index claws to the ground for emphasis, “because stars forbid if you all were anywhere near the griffons or dragons, no one on this planet would even know you existed. That’s how fast you all would have been exterminated.” Some of them started to mutter until a voice in the back shouted.
“Our queen would have protected us!”
“From whom?” I spread my arms around showing them the houses around us, some still smoking since yesterday, “From me? From the pony princess?” Quiet, again, “Don’t kid yourself, if you walk out of Badlands undisguised there isn’t a single being outside that would hesitate to either chase you out or attack you on sight, and you can thank your ‘wonderful’ Queen for that. Changelings are hated, considered parasites, and a blight to any civilized nation on this planet without anything to provide worthy of note. Nothing beyond bare bones society and even if you showed the other beings what you can offer, most would have considered it a pathetic attempt at mimicry. Thanks to your ‘Queen’ the changelings could have disappeared off the face of this world and the only thing anyone else would think is ‘thank the stars’.” I ignited my horn, causing everyone to flinch, and teleported back to my room, picking up all the scattered parchments and then teleporting out.
“Now if you excuse me,” I continued not giving a crap anymore, “there is work to be done. I want to at least make sure that this race, my race, has a future in which I won't have to hide my daughter out of fear for her safety… or son, I’m not picky,” I shrugged shuffling all the reports in a neat stack with my magic. “Does ANYONE ELSE, have ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY!? NO? GOOD!” I walked at the angry lings fully expecting them to push me to the side or attack me. They opened the way through and I picked up the first report off the stack and started looking through it, ignoring everything else. I gave zero fucks about the other group behind me.
‘I need to find out how they dilute the love and what is the percentage… Resin stock is also low… need to also contact Shield… ten pools of love were ruined by hatred; we need to clear them up and use the other ones…’
Day two… start.
…
“Captain’s log; star date… something, something, numbers,” I was twirling a feather in my claws, my head was resting on the side of the desk and I was staring at the hive castle two houses down, “it has been ten thousand years – “
“It’s only been four days here, Patch –“ Silent spoke up next to me. I could hear the shuffling of parchment in her hooves.
“… It has been ten thousand years and I have begun hearing voices…”
I heard Scurry sigh, sitting opposite of me “He’s doing it again, he’s doing it again…” He muttered to himself. I could imagine him rubbing his temples, and a quick glance got me to see his right foreleg bob in a familiar motion. It did get me to smirk, but it was a brief, feeble thing.
“It isn’t that bad, Patch, pull yourself together,” Mantis was sitting next to Spectrum on the opposite side of the table. The chief infiltrator was fairly quick to join us after I explained myself.
“Fifty-five lings left, Mantis,” I murmured loud enough for him to hear. The feather slipped from my claw and I watched as it floated down, falling on my nose. I snorted, blowing it away. I felt miserable, “Who knows how many more will leave.”
“Well, you are getting us fed, Celestia should be arriving by the end of the week with the way things are going. The houses are getting repaired and things are being sorted out…” Scurry mouthed off, clearly displeased with me, “Yet you are the only one moping about it.”
“You cannot please everyling, sir, you said so yourself,” Spectrum added.
“Fine… those are the good things, and there is plenty of them, but there is just as many bad ones -” I raised my left claw to count down only for Drop to interrupt me.
“And you are going to focus only on the bad stuff and disregard the good?” I could see her raise an eyebrow at me in my mind’s eye.
Turning my head around, but still not lifting it off the table, I looked at the four people that were helping me with the reports and the paperwork. Other than Scurry (who was in a sour mood as his brother’s condition worsened (he’s hanging by a thread but still hanging)) everyone else was looking at me sympathetically.
“Fine…” I snorted lifting my head and straightening up, “Is Keratin here, I wanna send for some gatherers.”
“I doubt your magic has recovered since yesterday,” Mantis looked at me over the scroll held in his hooves.
“I took a sip of love this morning so I should be good to go for another day,” I picked up a scroll from the pile and dove in.
The sun would be down in a few hours and work kept piling up.
‘Things aren’t that bad but it's not getting better. Celestia never told me how draining this could be,’ I looked at the scroll in my claw, ‘Still less than a hundred dead… a lot of angry lings and absolutely no improvement on Husk’s/Chrysalis’s condition.’
‘If video games taught me anything, especially strategy games, it’s that we are tittering on resource loss, and it’s only a matter of days,’ I am a stopgap measure at this point, but I was feeling drained and I could feel a part of my shell weakening. ‘Soon I’ll have a hole, my first one in well over a year… Not sure if it's hunger or lack of resin though. I don’t actually feel hungry yet.’
I raised my head and took a deep breath… Time to get back to work.
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Ahh, the good old death-spiral due to lack of resources. Many an RTS/management game run has gone down the drain thanks to it.
I literally just finished the previous chapter and a new one appears in my feed. O, wondrous day!
11331517
It can be a real killer. Good thing that they have resources coming in soon in this case, so the main focus is just to hold on until then.
Get Twilight Velvet over here stat!
?
The fight is over. Now the real work starts...
11331517
You sir/madam have pained me with this obvious but very true fact…so many games lost cause spiral of death murdered me.
Anyways other then that reply awesome chapter as always, now get Twilight Velvet over there he needs the loves man!
Here's hoping Celestia shows up soon.
I honestly like this chapter. Does a good job of showing that the war isn't over simply because the battle is over. In this case the war against starvation. Yes they have (apparently) defeated the biggest source of the issue, that being Husk. But now they have to deal with all the fallout from the damage done by the battle with her. It's not an instant happy ending and I like that.
And if Twilight Velvet was down here, that would probably honestly help. Any excess love that Patchwork gets he could help pass on. It's nowhere near ideal, but it the beginnings of a patch in a resource drain. Hmm... this of course assumes that those changelings that were sent to capture her are aware that there's been a change in leadership at the hive. They may not even be aware yet.
Now let's see if Patchwork can continue to hold it together (sort of) or loses it completely.
Thank you for the update!
Changeling: WE HAD IT GOOD!
Patch:...when?
Changelings: well we had some 5 minutes where we could get back on our hooves after we were beaten every other Tuesday, those were great times!
Patch:...
Changelings:... yeah, I'm trying to think of the good times but I'm coming up blank...
I'm guessing either he doesnt know about the whole flutter bug transformation or tried it already and it didn't work in this universe.
Hey if we can keep the desertion rate to under six percent that's pretty excellent. Let the blind leave, we'll catch up with them later once they become a problem.
So they haven't actually rid the parasite. Wonder if some assistance from that other plane can be called on? The battle has moved back internally, but there's no reason to believe external help can't be made available...
Wasn't patch able to remove hate from himself? Maybe he can absorb the tainted love and expell the bad stuff?
Either way awesome so far
Econ death due to war, the main cause of a mid game death spiral in any anno style game.
the shit is deep and i don't see the top..
this chapter is a hard life check for Patch.
Many movies, stories, and legends talk of great heroes who fight evil and save the day... but not many of them will go into the details of what comes after victory. No one talks about how much work goes into suddenly being in charge of a community, how many people are expecting miraculous answers to their problems, and they expect you to give them. No one mentions the long hours, beating their minds against the impenetrable wall of paperwork and reports that were due yesterday.
When you look at it, overthrowing a tyrant was the easy part.
Having thousands of lives in your charge that must be fed and sheltered? Now that's hard.
11331772
The crazy stupid plan that nearly killed him....
It might work....
11331526
Reminds me of This War of Mine
Everyone always focuses on defeating the BBEG.Not many consider what happens afterwards.
Patch is in a rough position. Can he salvage it without extreme measures?
11331526
You assume something or someone, like nobles, won't work to fuck this up personally, and see to it that no supplies ever leave equestria and to bind Celestia from helping the 'enemy'.
11332414
Oh I'm sure they're throwing a fit already, though I highly doubt Celestia will allow them to stop her from helping Patch at this point. Frankly it'd be political suicide to meddle in these matters, in my opinion, what with Celestia so emotionally invested.
11332064
That is too true but at least fanfiction isn't scared to ask "what now?"
Nice chapter.
ch42
launching
use
ch43
it's
11332724
Thank you
11332462
It all depends on how much power Celestia has in this story, versus the Nobles. If the Nobles threaten to Revolt, and break away from Equestria into a Civil War, the Nobles vs the Crown, would Celestia let that happen? Especially when the Nobles spin that everyone knows the Changelings are evil, commit kidnapping, harm and even KILL Ponies, and Celestia is a Traitor to the country by trying to support their enemies and allow them to keep on kidnapping and killing ponies. The General Public will turn against Celestia EASILY with how easily scared ponies are and controlled by fear.
11332064
See, thats where I think the main character is screwed. First of all, He didn't know the real situation in the hive. He doesn't know Celestias main concerns aren't the changelings, but the safety of the ponies. The guy ran in screaming "Tyrant bad!" and only really succeeded in making a bad situation worse. Now he foolishly expects Celestia to make everything better, when she has no obligation to do anything other than put them all in reservation lands like the US did with the indians. Her main priority is the safety of her ponies. Changelings, especially starving lings are a danger. What she realistically is bringing is troops and relocation trains. Take them someplace safe for the Lings, where they can be contained, watched and controlled.
Welcome to relocation camps.
Monk
11342208
I doubt that she would do that considering all the time and resources she put in this task. Dropping it now would be irrational…
I would rather compare it with the end of WW2 where an European recovery program was started with the aim to gain a future political ally.