Chapter 13
“Well, there’s good news. It seems the massive influx of love from the Crystal Heart has induced ovulation. And considering your insectoid nature…” The doctor reported.
The news hit me like a ton of bricks. “You mean, I’m…” I asked, dreading the response.
The doctor nodded. “Pregnant, yes. Or at least the closest equivalent that Changelings experience since they lay eggs rather than giving live birth. Congratulations, your highness, you’re a mother.”
I blinked, not fully certain how to process this information.
Queen Amore and Pinkie Pie both hugged me. I could feel excitement radiating from all of them, but particularly from Amore and Pinkie.
“Congratulations Weaver! I cannot wait to meet all of your little ones!” Queen Amore congratulated me.
“I’m so excited! I’m gonna have to throw a huge party once we get back to Ponyville!” Pinkie squealed excitedly.
“How many?” I asked, dreading the number even more than the fact it was happening at all.
“We can’t be entirely sure at this time. However, you’re actually at least partially malnourished. It isn’t severe, but it seems like you’ve only been eating barely enough to sustain yourself and your body has been put through a lot of stress recently. This most recent massive influx of love is going to be a significant boost to your system, but your body isn’t going to stress itself too much right now until you recover more. So you don’t have to worry about laying a thousand or more eggs at once or anything even remotely approaching that. I’d expect a couple dozen at most, as a high estimate. For a low estimate… it depends but there’s a good chance it may not even reach the double digits.”
“How long does she have?” Twilight asked curiously.
“About two or three days.”
“So we need to stop Sombra and I need to leave immediately… But wait… I still need to go to Griffonstone soon… I can’t just leave them alone or Chrysalis might destroy them if she finds my hive. Shit… What the hell do I do?” I muttered to myself, barely even aware of everyone else in the room.
“Wait, Griffonstone? Why are you planning to go there?” Twilight asked.
“More importantly, who is this ‘Chrysalis’ and why would she destroy your eggs?” Queen Amore demanded. I could feel concern and some anger radiating from her.
“Huh? Oh… Uh… I just have some personal business there. Nothing you need to worry about.” I told Twilight. Then I looked at Amore. “Chrysalis is another Changeling Queen. The only other one in the world besides me. My very existence is a threat to her power, so we’re at war. So if she found my hive and my eggs she would either steal or destroy them. My hive’s hidden, but I don’t want to risk leaving them unattended. So the timing of this is absolutely horrible.”
“Hm… Then why not leave them here until you’re ready to bring them back to your home? I would personally guarantee their safety. No changeling other than yourself would be permitted into the Crystal Empire, let alone permitted access to your eggs.” Queen Amore stated.
I morphed into Queen Amore. Then into Princess Celestia. Then into Twilight. Then back into myself. “It’s not that easy.” I told her.
“No… Clearly not… That said, I do have a place no pony else can access. My personal lab within the Crystal Caverns beneath the Empire. There are enchantments in place to ensure only myself or ponies I would approve of can access it. I can further reinforce those spells to ensure only myself or those I give express permission may enter. On top of which, if your eggs need to be fed whilst you are away I am perhaps the one pony best suited to the task of ensuring their nourishment.”
“There are Royal Guards in Ponyville. If you let them into your hive, they could protect your eggs too. Though, I’m pretty sure Chrysalis can’t and won’t find your Hive anyway.” Twilight suggested.
“I could send my own Crystal Knights to supplement them as well.” Amore added.
I sighed. “Look, I appreciate you guys trying to help but this is a lot to have dropped on me so suddenly. So I’m going to need some time to think about all of this… At least give me until after we’ve dealt with Sombra.”
“As you wish. I understand how daunting such news can be. Simply be aware my offers remain open.” Amore said with a smile, giving me one final hug.
I spent the next couple of hours by myself, thinking about the fact I was about to be a mother whether I wanted to or not. It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t having a minor mental crisis over that fact. But we were going to be fighting Sombra soon, so I couldn’t let myself have a panic attack. It was going to have to wait until after everything was said and done.
As I was sitting by myself thinking about the best way to keep my kids safe, I felt emotions approaching me. Looking over my shoulder I saw it was Twilight.
“What is it? Are we heading out now?” I asked.
Twilight shook her head. “No. I just wanted to check up on you. How are you doing?”
“I’m not dying or going insane, and I still have all of my limbs.” I stated.
“That doesn’t answer my question.” Twilight said, giving me a look.
“What do you want me to say? I’ve been expecting this for over a month. I knew it was going to happen eventually, I just thought I’d have more time. Having it all dropped on me out of nowhere like this is a lot to deal with and the timing couldn’t have possibly been worse. Chrysalis is still out there and even after they hatch my kids will still be in danger. She might kill or kidnap them after they hatch just to get to me, and there’s fuck all I can do about it unless I’m watching them twenty four seven, which I can’t do. Especially if there are dozens of them like the doctor’s high estimate. You’re supposed to be a genius, so how the fuck do you think I’m doing?” I snapped at her.
I could sense I hurt her feelings with that last bit.
I huffed in frustration. “Look, I’m sorry for snapping at you. Just… This is all incredibly stressful. I’m eighteen. I’m not ready to be a mother and I’m in the middle of a war because I committed the crime of existing. All of this coming directly out of the apocalypse, being on the verge of death multiple times, fighting an army of super powered serial killers, and having to deal with the closest possible thing to a god short of a literal deity destroying the world. Now my kids are going to be dragged into this war with Chrysalis and possibly the Minotaurs at some point no matter what simply because they’re related to me or because they’re changelings. So, I’m not fucking happy to put it mildly. Does that answer your question?”
“It does… I’m sorry, Taylor. Me and the others are just worried about you… Is there anything we can do to help?” Twilight asked.
“Do you have a bomb that can kill Chrysalis and her entire hive all at once? If not, then no. There’s nothing any of you can do.” I told her.
“Is that why you’re going to Griffonstone? You want to become allies with them so they’ll help you fight Chrysalis?” Twilight asked.
“Don’t worry about that. It’s my business. I’ll deal with it myself.” I told her.
“Taylor, you don’t have to deal with everything by yourself. You keep doing that. You did it back when we were collecting Amore’s pieces, and you’re doing it again.” Twilight said in a stern tone.
“My business with the Griffons isn’t like that. It genuinely doesn’t concern you or the others and it’s nothing super dangerous.” I told her. Though my definition of ‘super dangerous’ meant participating in an Endbringer fight, fighting the Slaughterhouse 9, or some other S-Class threat. So I technically wasn’t lying. It wasn’t going to be super dangerous. I’d just be starting another Griffon Civil War, and then I’d be forcing it to come to an end through a campaign of assassination, blackmail, and intimidation. All to make an entire nation indebted to me so I could have another military ally that I could actually trust rather than relying on Equestria. Queen Amore and the Crystal Empire was a good start, but the more allies I had the better.
“It’s just a bit of business with the Ambassador from Griffonstone. At best it should only take a few days. At worst it might take a few weeks to a month or so. The time it’ll take is what worries me, because I won’t be there to keep an eye on my eggs. And I don’t trust the idea that Queen Chrysalis hasn’t already found my hive or won’t in the time my business in Griffonstone will take.”
Twilight gave me a skeptical look. “If you’re sure… Well, we can help you with your foals, at least. Me and the others are willing to help you take care of them so you don’t have to look after them all by yourself. And Queen Amore is really excited about them. She seems to already consider herself their aunt. So if things ever got really bad after they hatch, you could always bring them here and she would definitely do everything in her power to keep them safe.”
“I know. I felt her get angry when I was muttering to myself about Chrysalis. And thank you. I appreciate that. I might have to take you up on that.”
‘Whether I like it or not.’ I thought to myself but didn’t add.
I sighed. “I need some more time to myself if you don’t mind, Twilight.”
“Sure. Just… We’re here for you. You know that.” Twilight stated.
I nodded.
She turned and left, leaving me to my thoughts.
Time passed and the sun went down fully. At that point Amore found me and informed me it was time.
Cadance was woken up from her nap and took over maintaining the barrier as Amore took the Crystal Heart from its spot beneath the castle.
As the two of us were heading out by ourselves I considered asking her how long it would take for the armor she commissioned for me to be finished. But ultimately, I decided against it. There was no way the smith would be finished with it before I could finish the armor I was making back in my hive.
I didn’t like that I’d have to leave my eggs here while I went back to my hive to finish my spider silk armor before heading to Griffonstone. Unfortunately it didn’t seem I’d have much choice. Unless, of course, I decided to postpone my trip to Griffonstone which I didn’t want to do.
“So how are you gonna do this?” I asked instead.
“It depends on him, really. We’ll have to see once we’re out there, I’m afraid.” Amore responded seriously.
I nodded. No plan then. Well, I was sort of used to operating without one, so at least we were in familiar territory.
I didn’t voice this but a part of me actually hoped this worked, that she could actually redeem Sombra like she thought she could. I’d already killed so much since the Slaughterhouse Nine. Aster. Slaughterhouse Nine Clones. The heroes and villains I’d sacrificed by the hundreds against Scion. The Changelings. The Umbrum. And I was going to have to do even more killing.
I didn’t like it. Upon reflection, I hated how comfortable I’d become with taking lives. Unfortunately, I suppose I’d simply become kind of jaded to it. How many did I murder using them as human weapons and shields against Scion? Thousands? Tens of thousands? More? I probably had one of the highest body counts among parahumans through the final battle alone. So I suppose it would have been hypocritical of me to be opposed to killing people who were trying to kill me after that.
Still, this felt almost like a return to form. Like I was back with the Wards preparing to face off against a particularly dangerous villain rather than being a soldier fighting in a war. Personally, I didn’t trust that Amore could redeem him. However, if she couldn’t, I could help her subdue him and we could force him into the Shadow Prison with the rest of his kind. It would be almost like sending a supervillain to the Birdcage, as opposed to sending an enemy combatant to the morgue.
“This could go horribly, you know. Are you ready to fight him all the way back to the Shadow Prison if it comes to that?” I asked.
“Of course I am. Though I do hope it doesn’t come to that.” Amore stated, looking at the Crystal Heart hovering next to her. “If not for Sombra’s sake then for Radiant Hope. She spent a thousand years being deceived by the Umbrum. That cannot be good for her mental state. She’s going to need a friend to help her through this once she wakes up. She’s going to need Sombra. I fear for her if we can not save him from himself. I can try to be there for her, but I’m afraid she may blame me more than anypony. So, I may make things worse more than anything.”
I nodded. I didn’t have much to say on that. I knew Radiant Hope for all of a few minutes and she’d nearly gotten herself killed because she was in denial. She was clearly going to need help, but that wasn’t my concern. I’d probably never see or speak to her again, because why would I? I’d saved her, and that was the end of it. Just like all the civilians in my territory back when I was a warlord in Brockton Bay, and all the civilians I’d protected or saved while working with the Wards.
We reached the edge of the barrier and took a moment to ready ourselves before stepping outside.
A massive shadow rose from the ground, snarling at us. “Amore…”
“Hello Sombra. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to have a calm and civil discussion, would you?” Amore asked. She immediately raised a barrier as Sombra roared and the horn on his “head” was enveloped with dark magic as he fired a beam at us. The beam hit the barrier and was immediately absorbed. “I thought not.”
There was a flash from the Crystal Heart and Sombra was launched backwards.
I flew up into the air and started circling overhead. I didn’t want to get in Amore’s way, but I was ready to provide support if necessary.
“Stop this, Sombra! Remember what I told you before when you were stealing the Crystal Heart? Even now it’s not too late for you! You have the potential to be better!”
“Silence! You knew! You knew what I was! You knew why I was in agony every Crystal Faire! Years of pain and suffering, all because of you! You knew what I was and you did nothing!” Sombra roared, blasting Queen Amore with everything he had. His rage was astronomical and the old betrayal he felt before was now fresh like an old wound ripped back open.
Amore blocked his spells using a barrier generated by the Crystal Heart. “Do you honestly believe that?! That I was willingly allowing the Crystal Heart to torture you every year?! Do you truly think me so cruel, Sombra?! I spent years, ever since you were first brought to the Empire, doing everything within my power trying to find a way to help you! To ease your suffering or eliminate it entirely! I never sat by and simply let you suffer!”
“LIES! If you were doing anything, I would have known! You would have been there when the doctors were trying to find out what was wrong with me before they stopped coming!”
“No, I wouldn’t have! I didn’t want you learning your origins and deceiving yourself into thinking you were nothing but a monster! Perhaps I should have told you of what I was doing, but I didn’t wish to give you false hope for something I didn’t know was even possible! Perhaps I made a mistake concealing it from you, but so be it! I’ve never claimed to be infallible! I’m a pony just like everypony else and I make mistakes! But you don’t have to be one of them! There’s good in you still, whether you see it or not! You don’t have to be a monster!”
Sombra shot the ground and massive razor sharp crystal spikes erupted from the ground. Thinking Amore was about to be impaled I tried to grab her with my telekinesis, but she acted first. With a flash of love infused light the dark crystals disintegrated to nothing and Sombra hissed in pain.
“I’m not just a monster… I’m the king of monsters!” He growled rushing forwards and crashing into Amore’s barrier like a wave crashing against a wall. He was casting something as he did it.
This time, I cast my own spell with love and light. Keeping in mind what Amore told me, I didn’t try to use it like a weapon. Rather, I made a crude shield and slammed it into him, knocking him off of Amore and hurting him regardless. I still wasn’t good at making shields. It was a type of spell that didn’t convert from unicorn to changeling magic easily so I was still figuring it out. But pumping enough energy into the spell made it work anyway even if it was an otherwise crappy shield.
He looked up and glared at me. “Insolent gnat!”
“Yeah, fuck you too Smokey!” I retorted.
He growled.
“SOMBRA!” Queen Amore shouted, making him focus his attention back on her. “You are not a monster! You’ve merely let what the Crystal Heart showed you and Rabia’s words delude you! There’s still good in you and there always has been! If there wasn’t you would have killed me! You would have broken the Crystal Heart! You would have freed the rest of the Umbrum and let them wrought terror and misery upon my crystal ponies! But you didn’t! You didn’t do any of that! You couldn’t bring yourself to go that far because you are not the monster you believe yourself to be!”
Sombra growled and shook his head. “No! I’m an Umbrum! The King of the Umbrum! I’m a being of smoke and darkness! There is no good in me and there never was! This is me! This is what I was always destined to be!” He shot the ground and vicious spikes of cursed crystal shot up one after the other in rows, rapidly approaching Amore as if to impale her.
I grabbed her with my telekinesis and lifted her off the ground as the crystals started getting too close. She probably could have done something to defend herself, but I wasn’t going to take that risk.
“Radiant Hope didn’t think so! She never stopped believing in you, and neither have I!” Amore shouted as I set her down away from the crystals.
“LIES! RADIANT HOPE BETRAYED ME! SHE CALLED THE PRINCESSES AFTER YOU WERE DEFEATED AND THE EMPIRE WAS WITHIN MY GRASP! SHE’S THE REASON I WAS TRAPPED BENEATH THE ICE FOR A THOUSAND YEARS! SHE’S NOTHING BUT A TRAITOR!” Sombra roared, he reared his head back and unleashed a massive beam of energy at Queen Amore. The rage and hatred radiating from him and that beam were nauseating. More prominent than that, however, was his feelings of hurt and betrayal. The fact Hope had apparently ran to Celestia and Luna after his takeover was apparently still a dagger in his heart.
The Queen’s barrier blocked the intense beam with ease.
“Hey! She spent the past thousand years living with the Umbrum in the Shadow Prison! She believed in you so much, she spent a thousand years living with your people waiting for you to return so she could help you free them! They spent the past thousand years lying to her, deceiving her into thinking they’re good, so they could use her as a tool to escape if you failed a second time!” I shouted at him.
Sombra froze and hesitated. His beam stopped and he looked at me in shock and surprise for a moment. “I…” He shook his head. “NO! You’re lying, you worthless cockroach! I would have known if she was in the Shadow Prison! Rabia would have told me! I won’t fall for such petty deceptions! Radiant Hope is nothing but a traitor!”
“Weaver is telling the truth, Sombra! Radiant Hope is in the Castle Infirmary at this very moment, and doctors had to be flown in from Equestria to save her life because she nearly died after the Umbrum attacked her once they no longer had a use for her! I saw her myself, and I saw the horrid injuries she suffered! Rabia wouldn’t have told you because she wouldn’t have wanted you to know! How do you think my final piece got in the Shadow Prison in the first place when you didn’t put it there?! Radiant Hope took one of the pieces and kept it when she ran off!” Queen Amore shouted at him.
I could sense Sombra’s confidence had been shaken. He was still skeptical. He didn’t want to believe us, but I suppose our words simply made too much sense.
He growled and shook his head stubbornly. “I refuse to believe your lies! I had planned to turn you both into statues, but now I believe I shall simply kill you both here and now!”
Energy gathered around his horn and he aimed it directly at Amore.
I prepared to cast another spell in an attempt to intervene again. However, he quickly turned his head and fired the beam at me at the last second catching me completely off guard.
I could sense the surprise and panic from Amore.
I tried to make a barrier to protect myself but the beam smashed straight through my crude shield.
Suddenly Amore appeared between me and Sombra, having teleported in the path of the beam, heedless of how far up off the ground I was.
It slammed into the barrier being generated by the Crystal Heart.
Out of reflex, I grabbed Amore to stop her from falling.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Quite. Are you?” Amore asked me in turn.
“I’m fine. You managed to stop that spell from hitting me. Thanks…” I told her, gratefully.
“That was far too close for my liking. I do not want to see you hurt, especially not with the recent news. I appreciate you being here to assist me, I truly do. However with your relative inexperience with magic let alone love magic, you aren’t prepared for this battle. Please let me handle things from here.” She asked. I could sense the platonic love radiating from her, as well as her concern. She genuinely saw me as a friend and didn’t want me getting hurt.
It was weird sensing how much someone I had just met last night genuinely cared about me and my wellbeing.
I looked at Sombra and back to Amore. I knew she was right. My offense was great. I could blast Sombra out of existence right now if I wanted, but my defense was terrible. Being unable to defend myself made me a liability. Especially if she had to keep defending me. “I’ll back off, but I’ll be close by watching.”
She smiled at me. “Thank you.”
I flew down and set her down back on the ground. Then I morphed into a Snowy Owl, one of the few birds I knew thrived in the arctic, and flew off. Snowy Owls were relatively large birds, but being smaller than my changeling form I’d be a harder target to hit. They were pretty fast too, and I could naturally blend in with the snow in this form.
As I flew off, I circled above and saw Amore step towards Sombra. “That spell was genuinely meant to kill, wasn’t it Sombra? I’m disappointed in you, that you would stoop so low as to resort to murder when you don’t get your way… Even so, I won’t give up on you yet.”
Sombra growled in frustration and attacked Amore, which was easily brushed off by the Crystal Heart. “Then you will die, a fool!”
“The only fool here is you, Sombra! And only because you have let yourself be fooled!” Amore declared. “I can’t make you see reason, Sombra! All I can do is tell you the truth! You have made mistakes! You’ve hurt other ponies, because you yourself were hurt by my fear of being honest with you and allowing you to believe I was doing nothing whilst you suffered! No more!”
There was a flash of light from the Crystal Heart and Sombra roared in pain as if he were being burned. His form started to shrink and condense, becoming more and more solid until the smoke and shadows seemed to be blown off of him entirely. Now he stood as a unicorn, wearing a cape and armor. The biggest thing that differentiated him from any normal unicorn was his curved red horn.
He looked at himself surprised for a moment before growling in rage. “Forcing me back into this form means nothing!”
“Perhaps not, but I do think it suits you far better than a looming mass of shadow.” Amore stated, walking towards him.
“STAY BACK!” Sombra shouted, rearing back and casting a spell. This time instead of crystals, a beam of what appeared to be pure darkness shot from his horn. It seemed to be the functional opposite of Amore’s magic. Hatred and darkness in its purest form rather than through the medium of cursed crystals. He seemed to be at his wits end and was just trying anything.
Amore fired a beam of love and light back at him. The two beams collided, and the darkness was quickly being forced back. Amore’s beam pierced straight through Sombra’s and made him stumble. It didn’t seem to actually hurt him, just stagger him a bit.
“Sombra you must realize, if I truly wanted to hurt you I could. If I wanted to imprison you with the rest of the Umbrum I could do that as well. With the Crystal Heart I single hoofedly brought the entirety of the Umbrum to their knees and locked them away within the Shadow Prison. You’re much stronger than your mother Rabia, yes, but that merely makes you a very powerful umbrum, not more powerful than the entirety of your species. Trying to fight me will be to no avail.” Queen Amore declared.
Hearing that made me grimace internally. With the love of an entire city-state contained within the Crystal Heart and fueling Amore’s magic, there really was no way for Sombra to compete. From the very start, this had never been a fair fight and Amore had been showing great restraint.
Realizing this made me a little bit embarrassed by how I’d been worried about Amore and tried to help her. I really was more of a hindrance here than anything. It was like I had been trying to protect Legend, one of the most powerful parahumans in the world, from Shadow Stalker or Grue… Okay, maybe not that bad, Sombra was quite a bit stronger than Sophia or Brian but the point remained.
“No! I’m the King of the Umbrum! I’m the King of Monsters! I… I have grown beyond you! I’m supposed to be powerful enough to defeat you!” He objected, refusing to accept it. He was angry, afraid, and panicking. He clearly had no idea how to handle this situation.
Amore shook her head. “No. You’re just a hurt and neglected foal lashing out at the one who you believe had unfairly abandoned you to your fate. Rightly so, I suppose. I did make some grave mistakes in how I dealt with your situation… You were defeated by the Elements of Harmony, were you not? Well, long before the Elements of Harmony was my Crystal Heart. A tool I made specifically for dealing with the threat of the Umbrum. It has grown much since I first created it, and in ways I never could have anticipated. And what it has become is in no way inferior to the Elements in the hooves of one who knows how to properly utilize it. So if you were defeated by them, I assure you, you can and would be defeated by my Crystal Heart as well.”
Continuing to walk towards him, Amore continued to talk. “Thus, you know I have no reason to lie to you as there is no contest here. I will win and protect my Crystal Ponies, one way or the other. So when I tell you I want to help you, that I still believe there’s good in you, and that you are not a monster you know it’s not just hollow platitudes. I mean it. Right now, I am being perfectly honest with you, as I should have been from the very start. You may refuse to believe me, but I shall tell you the facts as they are.”
Sombra said nothing, just shaking his head and backing away. He seemed like he was on the verge of turning and trying to run away.
“I knew about your condition the whole time and I didn’t tell you because I didn’t trust you with the knowledge. I feared you would turn out exactly as you are now, because you would believe this is what you were destined to be. A fear you have thus far proven correct. I was indeed trying to find a solution to your pain the entire time, though I never told you for the very same reason. Radiant Hope may have indeed run away and requested the aid of the Equestrian Princesses, but she did spend the last thousand years with the Umbrum in the Shadow Prison, with my final fragment. She never truly lost faith that there is good in you. When Weaver took my fragment from her within the Shadow Prison, they attacked and mauled Radiant Hope. She would have died if she had not received medical attention. She is in the castle infirmary, unconscious and recovering, at this very moment. The future is not set in stone. So whatever fate the Crystal Heart may have shown you is not the only possibility. You may consider it a warning of what you could become if you let yourself.”
Sombra slipped on some ice and fell.
Amore approached him until she was standing directly over him.
“And finally, you have caused me irreparable harm. You took a thousand years from me. I have missed the lives of one thousand years worth of my great grandfoals. I never got to see my great granddaughter get married and start her own family. I never got the chance to see her foals grow up, and get married, and have foals of their own, and so on. One thousand years worth of my family. Of love and cherished memories. The one thing I value most in this world, you stole from me…”
Sombra closed his eyes and grit his teeth, as if expecting her to attack him at any second. He was terrified.
She frowned. Picking him up with telekinesis she wrapped her hooves around him in an embrace. He tensed up. I sensed his shock and confusion. “And I forgive you… I forgive you, Sombra. As much as you’ve hurt me. As much as you’ve taken from me. And despite everything you’ve done to my Crystal Ponies and the Crystal Empire, I forgive you… It hurts. It’s hard, but I don’t want to hold a grudge. I don’t want this to go any further than it already has. Forgiveness and reconciliation is the only way in which this ends without further undue suffering.”
She released Sombra and stared him in the eyes. “So, you have a choice to make. You can accept my offer and come back in peace. I will prove to you everything I’ve said is true and I will do everything within my power to help you. Or you can slap my hoof away and I will have no choice but to put you back in the Shadow Prison and change the wards to make it impossible to escape ever again… Please, make the right choice… If not for your sake then for Radiant Hope. She’s been lied to and manipulated for a thousand years, and then she was betrayed and almost killed by those she considered friends… She will need your friendship and support now more than ever. If you still have any love for her at all, then don’t abandon her like this.”
Amore held out a hoof to Sombra.
He stared at it for a moment, his feelings turbulent and conflicted. He raised his hoof and hesitated.
“Sombra. You have free will. You are not a slave to destiny. You can choose what you want to be, if only you would have the courage to do so…” Queen Amore stated.
Sombra hesitated a moment longer before he finally relented and extended his hoof.
Amore smiled. “You’ve made the right choice. You’ll see.”
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The wait was well worth it.
Wooooo!
You can tell that if Taylor gets a few moments where she isn’t needing to run full throttle she is going to have a nervous breakdown. Hopefully she can have someone ready because she is going to crash and crash hard. It would be nice if Twilight Velvet and Mrs. Cake meet with Taylor and offer her an ear as it were.
I really hope you aren't about to pull an episode 7 on us and have Sombra kill her mid embrace. While that's a very Worm outcome, it doesn't fit Equestria or the underlying themes of healing this story has been laying down.
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The embrace already happened and Queen Amore released him without issue then extended her hoof to him in an offer of aid. That offer was accepted and she didn't hug him a second time after he accepted. He also didn't attack her while she was hugging him and it wouldn't have worked out well for him if he had tried. So, no worries there. While this is a Worm crossover, I'm trying to balance the stories. If I'd done that it would push it a little too far into the Worm side of things.
Besides, if I was planning that kind of rug pull, it would have happened in the same chapter. I wouldn't leave it and then completely 180 in the next chapter out of no where just for the sake of a twist.
Sombra hesitated a moment longer before he finally relented and extended his hoof.
Amore smiled. "You've made the right choice. You'll see." - Now the question is, is this genuine or is Sombra about to try and pull a Kylo Ren? And I say "try" because Taylor would be able to see the shift in emotions as soon as it happens. Plus, Amore is showing that she has some steel plates beneath that velvet glove.
Amazing chapter. Well done.:D
A solid chapter. I'm still a bit offput by the whole "magically compelled pregnancy" thing, but aside from that this has been an enjoyable tale thus far.
11859390
Well, she is the queen of a hive based insectoid species that lays eggs. It's less magically compelled and more that the sudden influx of so much food/power switched on that particular biological process a little early. It would have happened eventually regardless, it just seemed like a good point for it to happen for a species that's so heavily reliant on Love.
She's not human anymore, she's an entirely different species with vastly different biology and reproductive processes. So I suppose I'm thinking in terms of that rather than taking the human side of things into consideration. Either way, I didn't mean for it to come off as off putting rather than just a natural thing that happens with the queens of an insect hive and I suppose I didn't consider that some might view it as off putting when I started this story, otherwise I'd have handled the entire thing very differently starting from Chapter 2. So, I apologize for any discomfort this chapter caused.
Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far, other than that!
11859410
To clarify myself, I meant off-putting in a general 'loss of bodily autonomy' sense. "You are going to have children. Yes. Right now. I (Nature) don't care about your feelings on the matter." While such a plot device can lead to an interesting narrative journey, I feel the tone of the situation gets a little twisted when we keep alternating between violent combat and pregnancy updates, neither of which she signed up for.
And while there is a degree of logic in explaining it away as alien biology and a surge of magical energy triggering automatic biological responses, at the end of the day (as far as I am aware) that's all fanon. To my knowledge, canon never says that Chrysalis was the mother of all the Changelings (I think one of the Student Six episodes even showed changelings having nuclear family units, but there's also no way to say that's not a post-reformation societal change).
But at the end of it, it's your story and you're free to write whatever your want. Write to satisfy yourself, not random commenter on the internet. I'll manage. I've certainly seen fics that put her in much grimmer situations than unwanted teen pregnancies. Sorry if the terseness of my previous comment came off harsher than intended.
11859436
Fair enough. I was just explaining my own logic behind why it's in the story to begin with. Once she goes to Griffonstone, she'll be focused on that for awhile. So her eggs won't be mentioned much during that whole thing. Hopefully it'll serve as a bit of a reprieve from that jarring dichotomy at least for a little while.
And it's fine. Your comment didn't come off as harsh at all and I can certainly understand the criticism.