Just After the Invasion
Cadance was brought out of wherever she was being held captive, looking far worse for wear than anypony had ever seen her. Upon being tested, with a friendship dance with Twilight, everypony was at ease. Shining Armor was released from the Queen’s control, and everyone of importance was in a meeting room. Well, they were all waiting for Luna, who had not yet shown up. Even if ‘talks’ had started early. Celestia, Cadance, and Shining Armor were sitting on one side of the table whereas Chrysalis, Balto, or Azolf, were sitting on the other side. Bob was sitting with them as well.
Bob wasn’t on that side by choice.
The Elements of Harmony were also on standby, with their respective elements in case Chrysalis tried anything. The Queen was actually holding Azolf and checking for any other injuries, while occasionally glaring at Celestia. “You know, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” the Queen said. “I didn't mean to specifically target you and ruin your wedding. I needed to feed my subjects, who all happen to be my children, and you just had to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you were not on that train leaving Ponyville, I wouldn’t have been able to capture you.”
“...That doesn’t make me feel any better!” Cadance shouted while holding Shining Armor. “Look at what you’ve done to my fiance!” The stallion was looking drowsy, and his movements were a lot slower, a common side effect of being forcefully fed upon by a changeling.
The Queen didn’t even cast a glance at the fatigued stallion. “I… Would apologize, as this is a quarrel between your aunt and myself that started nigh a millennium ago. However, you seem more emotionally driven than logically driven, you airhead, so please shut your mouth and allow the adults to talk.” Bob hissed at Chrysalis’s response… That was not good. In fact, that probably made things worse.
That makes seventeen things said, that Chrysalis had said, to piss off the Princess of Love. That was in the last half hour.
Cadance groaned and glared at Bob who wasn’t even paying attention. He was just staring at the door. “Bob!” The human jumped and quickly faced the Princess of Love, who wasn’t wearing such a lovely expression. “Why are you taking this bug’s side? She could’ve killed a lot of ponies, and would’ve killed me and Shiny!” Bob’s head hit the table before he sat right back up.
“Hey, I’m not taking her side. I’m not taking any sides. Balto, or Azol, was my pet wolf not even a week ago. If my time with him is any indicator, and how he talked to me when Chrysalis got exposed, he cares about me. It just happens that Chrysalis felt gratitude when I kept one of her children from being blasted with a sun beam. You think I wanted somebody, who just had a hand in adopting me, to get mind raped while his marefriend gets kidnapped?” Bob groaned. He dragged his hands down his face before making a gun signal to his head. This was how the initial negotiations had been going for the last hour. A back and forth between one of the ponies present, and a not so good response from the Queen.
The human sighed and looked at the Queen. “Where’s Luna? None of your drones hurt her, right?” Here’s hoping my question breaks this line of conversation, or I will jump off a bridge. Bob thought.
“...There’s a third alicorn?” The Queen tilted her head in thought. As if it were on queue, the door lit up with blue magic, and the Alicorn of the Night was glaring at one of the guards on the way in. Said guard was cowering at her feet just mere moments ago.
“You bumbling fools can’t even open a door for a lady because you find her a little scary? How the buck are you guarding the castle in any capacity, you imbe-” the Princess stopped in her tracks and chuckled. “Oh! Hello everypony. I can safely assume that I missed something, given that half of Canterlot is covered in debris-OOF!” Bob tackled and hugged her.
“Oh thank fucking god nobody hurt you!” Luna giggled as Bob hugged her neck tightly and quickly started checking her over.
“Bob, I assure you that I am fine. I was once known as Equestria’s Sword for a reason,” she giggled when Bob did one more look over, before he returned to his seat. Bob’s new seat was right in the middle of the table, where Celestia would’ve usually sat during a moment like this. However, Bob is the only neutral party in the room. “Sister, sit with us, away from that bug,” Princess Celestia coaxed. “After all, you must be shaken when a changeling crashed into your room.” Luna took a seat beside Bob, mainly to remain close to him.
“Actually, the changeling paused when it saw me and subsequently begged for mercy.” Luna shrugged. “None of the changelings even touched me, even if I will have to repair my window later. However…” The Moon Princess casted a dirty look at the Queen. “You foalnapped my niece in order to act out an attack on Canterlot… You’re lucky that I am nocturnal, so I couldn’t figure out who you were sooner.” She shrugged and sat with Bob. “Despite what has happened, I am simply going to watch this play out and draw a conclusion from what I see.” Bob watched as Luna’s eyes ran up and down The Changeling Queen… Bob snickered slightly, while covering his mouth.
Queen Chrysalis was giving Luna the same look, while making it seem like her focus was on Celestia.
“Now, Queen Chrysalis, why should I not eradicate your entire Hive?” Princess Celestia asked. Bob’s forehead hit the table again. This was the first question asked an hour ago.
“Because my children can act as excellent spies. In Ponyville alone, there are fourteen changelings, including Azolf who was sent specifically to watch the weird creature, which happened to be Bob, to watch him after Winter Wrap Up… And grew a bit too close to said creature.” The same, god damn answer. Bob looked at Luna.
“Please murder me.” The human whispered to the alicorn, who simply giggled in response.
“I cannot, I was hoping for a belly rub. You can’t give me one if you’re dead,” Luna whispered back,
“God dammit… you’re lucky that I like rubbing moon-raising-blue-alicorn bellies, or I would argue for my death.” The two quickly started ignoring the rest of the meeting as they whispered like children to each other.
“Mom, he was feeding me so much love, and talked so much about spending as much time as he could with me while I was disguised.” The changeling bowed to Bob. “He pretty much always wanted me nearby, and I regret not spending more time with you. Because now I won’t be able to see you again.” Bob gave a smile to that, and would’ve patted the changeling on the head if he were in reach. Luna quickly grabbed his attention again, though.
Queen Chrysalis gave him a very saddened motherly look, before looking back up at Princess Celestia with a more stern expression.
“As I said, fourteen changelings in Ponyville, there were sixteen in just the Lunar Guard, and a little under one hundred in the Solar Guard. There’s four hundred more that were spying on Canterlot even with the shield, and I was passable as Princess Cadance for long enough that not even you would’ve known who I was. My changelings are also very skilled in a wide arrange of fields in order to help them blend in. What takes a construction crew a month to do, my children can do in a week if they procrastinate. If Bob wishes, I can have a house built for him by tomorrow, and it would have all the necessary utilities he could ever need.”
Celestia hummed. “And why, just why should I trust that none of your changelings will capture any of my ponies?”
“We can feed on ambient emotions, and sometimes on actual pony food. I tried taking Canterlot because I specifically need love for my eggs. Egg laying season is around the corner and I need love to not only feed my changelings easier, but to feed the hundreds of nymphs that will be born this spring. Love is more nutritious, and keeps my nymphs alive better than any other emotion that I have fed on. Can you fault a mother for trying everything in her power to watch her entire clutch of eggs to hatch and grow to adulthood?”
Luna raised a hoof, putting her head back into the meeting. It made Bob blink again, and he looked around the room before his eyes fell on Chrysalis. “I do not. However, why did you not ask? My sister would’ve been more than willing to aid you.”
“Not nine hundred years ago. She casted me out and tried to have my head when I came back four hundred years ago and asked for aid again. And the second time was because my Hive was on the brink of dying out. So why try a third time and possibly get killed for it, again?” Chrysalis asked. “This was the only way, and I would like to formally apologize to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and her mate for the pain I caused them; I do not particular regret hurting them as ponies have done far worse to my own children in the pass, but I didn’t really have to make them victims.”
Bob face palmed. One step forward and four steps back.
Azolf squeezed out of the Queen’s clutches, and waddled over to Bob. The changeling rested his head on the human’s shoulder, and the human finally got another look over the changeling. “Hey, Queen Chrysalis, if you wouldn’t mind, can I look you over? I may end up touching you hear and there, but-”
“Just do not touch me anywhere I consider private. Like my rear end,” the Queen said with a mischievous smirk.
“Okay, that is just odd,” Twilight said. “One moment, you are almost evil and cruel sounding, to being somewhat nice to Bob. To the point that you’re joking with him!”
“Well, of course. Bob has done nothing to me, and I have treated him rather poorly. I am trying to be civil with Cadenza, but she refuses to be civil in return, and Celestia threatened my Hive with possible genocide. I don’t even think Shining Armor has the energy to talk back to me either…” She stopped when Bob was suddenly rubbing a hand on her chest.
“Jesus christ woman,” Bob said. “Are all of you changelings starving like this? I can see every individual rib in you!”
“...Yes. Our legs are also an indicator of how much a changeling is starving. If there are holes in a changeling’s legs, they are starving. A lot of holes mean that a changeling hasn’t eaten anything in months. Most of my children have holes in their legs. Which is why I went out of my way to get love. It is the most efficient way of feeding a Hive, while providing the most nutrients needed for growth… And the areas around most hives are terrible for farming physical food, even if we’re desperate enough to need organic food such as oranges.” Bob finally placed a hand on her neck. “What are you doing, human?”
“You look stressed out. I see a few knots in your neck. Last time, anyone I knew had knots that bad, was when my Dad had to work two jobs to keep us afloat… he got fired from one of those jobs and we were really struggling until my brothers started picking up work to help out.” Bob patted her neck a few times. “Your whole ‘my country that happens to be my entire family tree is starving’ thing really stressed you out, didn’t it?”
“It… It really is. I know my children are starving, and there is not much that I can do beyond trying to steal love from a place that I know is full of it.”
“...Jesus… Your situation was like my Dad’s, but a hundred times worse…” The human looked Celestia in the eyes. “Please come up with a solution for this lady’s problems. Please. Don’t just threaten her with genocide, or whatever childish shit Cadance is doing. While Chrysalis definitely fucked up, her kids don’t deserve to die because of her mistakes. Look at Azolf,” the changeling was now massaging Luna’s wings. “Give’em a chance. They’ll be good to you.”
“The negotiations will properly start after the wedding,” Celestia said. “We will hopefully solve our problems peacefully.” Azolf had turned his hooves into hands and was scratching Luna’s neck now. After a moment of thought, the changeling broke away from the now drowsy Princess, and started massaging his mother.
“Mom, you could’ve asked around. Us scouts could’ve started sending more love back home,” the changeling said.
“I know dear, but you scouts barely have enough for yourselves most of the time.” The queen whispered. She then glared at Bob. “Why are you listening to us?”
“Watching you go into full mother mode is adorable. Once you aren’t snarling at me, you’re pretty adorable yourself, your highness. You have no idea how much willpower it’s taking for me to not boop you on the nose.” The Queen giggled before nuzzling Bob.
“Well, I cannot stay mad at you. Once this is over, I am sending Azolf to… keep watch over you. Treat him well, or the bedbugs will bite.” Bob nodded and went back to Luna. Everyone else had gotten up to leave, but Luna was a little drowsy… So Bob picked her up and started to carry her, with a lot of struggle, out of the room. Nobody noticed Princess Celestia taking a ring out of a special box, before following Queen Chrysalis or the guard that was assigned to escort her.
The next day was spent entirely on wedding preparations. Now that Cadance was actually back, Bob was practicing the song he had written for the wedding reception… and then he remembered a song that could be used for a slow dance should Shining Armor and Cadance want it. After a bunch of healing spells, the elder unicorn was back to normal, and of course, Cadance was checking on how all the wedding planning was going. “Howdy,” Bob waved at the alicorn while she saw how Fluttershy’s choir of birds were doing after they sang the wedding song.
Once the Princess was done, she sat next to Bob as he was reading over some lyrics in his notebook. “What are you writing?”
“I was writing some notes on how I should sing the songs I wanna sing at your reception. I know Pinkie also has hired DJ Pon3 to play some tracks, but she also agreed to have her play in the last hour of the reception.” Bob hummed. “Wanna hear two of the main songs? One’s a slow dance type of song, and the other is a bit more of a rock song.” Cadance nodded. Bob grabbed his guitar and started playing Write Me Your Heart. That really made the alicorn squeal as Bob purposely didn’t sing at his best.
“Oh, that is perfect for the reception! What’re you planning on having me and Shiny slow dance to?”
Bob sat down at the Piano. “Something about snow.” The human played the song at his fullest, and took a deep breath when he was done. “The song only works when I have a duo singing with me, but Luna said she’d help me with that… But she’s knocked the fuck out right now, because somebody had to give her a wing massage.” Bob sighed and reclined back. “I am so boned. After the reception, I gotta stay in Canterlot to help with negotiations for some reason.”
“Because you decided to side with those bugs?” The pink alicorn asked.
“I’m not siding with what they did to Canterlot, or what Chrysalis did to you. Hell, I’m a wee bit pissed at Chrysalis, but I have no loyalty to any ponies; they only almost killed me several times a month for a year straight. I don’t have loyalty towards changelings. The ponies that I like happened to have shown me kindness, that I returned that kindness tenfold, and the changelings that I like, all of one, showed me kindness and love when I was feeling down, even if it was a front at first. Balto snuck into my room last night to cuddle with me like he did when he was pretending to be a wolf. It was a bit weird to have a cold carapace laying across your bare chest, but he clearly still wants to be my friend, and I wanna get to know… Well, my changeling for what he is.
“And yeah, I wanna punch Chrysalis for hurting you, for what she did to Shining Armor. I want to, but I’m not going to. For one, she will gut Canterlot if we hurt her changelings, and her changelings will gut Canterlot if I strike her. Also, changelings are pretty useful if Chrysalis trying to be you, and getting away with it for months, is any indicator.”
“I know changelings can be useful, I know she had a pretty good reason to do what she did, but she could’ve asked again! She didn’t have to hurt anypony to get provisions for her subjects!”
“...After nearly getting her head chopped off because she asked the last two times? I started stealing food because I couldn’t ask for it nicely the first time, Cadance. Chrysalis tried twice and got bit twice because of it.”
“...Good point. Is Balto, er, Azolf really that nice? To the point that you tackled him out of the way of one of Auntie Celestia’s spells?”
“While he was pretending to be my pet, he was a total sweetheart. Wanted to do nothing but play, cuddle, and nap with me.” Cadance sighed. “As I said at the meeting, give changelings a chance. They deserve to live just as much as the rest of us do, even if they live, primarily, on love.”
“I can’t argue with you on that. Just don’t expect me to happily chat with Chrysalis over tea in the near future. I will try to be nice to her subjects, however.”
“And I can’t blame you for not ever being friends with Chrysalis… I gotta meet her after you leave, so I’ll let you know if she can actually be a decent… bug pony.” Cadance nodded.
About an hour later, since none of the guards would give him directions, the human found that Chrysalis’s room was actually right in front of his. Azolf was standing, wearing a guard helmet that he definitely stole, and was holding a spear in front of Bob’s door. It looked kinda cute because the helmet was too big for the bug. When asked, the changeling pointed him right across the door. “Thank you, bud. Hey, when I’m done meeting your Queen, wanna come into my room so we can get to know each other again?”
“Yessir. I would like to know how a human is in bed.” Bob didn’t know how blue, pupiless eyes, could work with a shit eating grin, but he didn’t question it.
“...I’m sixteen.”
Azolf recoiled slightly. “...Nevermind… Wait, you’re younger than I am?”
“How fucking old are you?” Bob asked, pointing an accusatory finger at the changeling.
“I’m twenty five!”
“You’re older than Twilight!” The changeling and the human blinked, before Bob chuckled and scratched the changeling’s chin. “Well, I’ll be talking to Queen Chrysalis. Don’t do anything illegal… other than stealing a guard’s uniform and sitting there while looking criminally cute.” And… Now Azolf was blushing and trying to hide under his helmet. The human giggled to himself before walking into Chrysalis’s room after getting permission from the big bug herself. The Queen was sitting at a desk, reading a Daring Do book.
“Great, my legendary ‘hero’ of the day…” Chrysalis snarked. “I don’t suppose you have a cape and a mask lying around to hide your identity?”
“Well, ain’t that a nice way of greeting me.” Bob chuckled. “Given that you’re basically a bird trapped in a gilded cage, I can’t say I blame you.”
“I’m going to have to give up so much just for Princess Celestia to attempt to find a way to keep my changelings fed. While I am grateful for you saving one of my changelings, and many more that would’ve died in the invasion, I still do not enjoy being trapped here until the terms and conditions for a treaty get thrown around, then we draft a treaty, then we sign off on a finalized version of that treaty… that could take months. And I’m not exactly in shape to counter argue, because a ring was stuck on my horn as soon as I was given this room.” She tapped her horn. “I can’t even use magic because of this thing. Princess Celestia slipped it on me after hitting me with a sedation spell.”
“...The fuck were you going to do, anyways? You just agreed to discussing a peace treaty. Trust comes first…” The human hummed. “Actually, this is Princess Celestia we’re talking about. She can’t even trust something as magically uninclined as I am with baking a cake for her sister. So I’m not exactly shocked there.” Bob leaned back. “I’d offer to take that ring off you, but I don’t think you can’t blame me for not trusting you.”
“And just why is that?” Chrysalis asked.
“...You kidnapped Cadance and proceeded to deceive everyone for months, and is also the leader of a race that gets by on deception?” The human asked. The Queen raised an eyebrow. “What? You guys can transform into whatever the fuck you want, apparently, so you had to of needed the ability to at some point.”
“...I’m just surprised at how perceptive you are. You’re sixteen?” Bob nodded. “To be able to figure that out so quickly… And you have no qualms in being nice to anypony.” Chrysalis was hoping to use that, even if she had to genuinely make a friend in order to do so. The very thought of the sappy, pony concept of ‘friendship’ made her inwardly cringe.
“Hey, if I’m shown kindness, I return it. Azolf was trying to make my sentence, if you went ahead and captured me, light. So I saved him from getting blasted to bits. I still wanna talk to him and get to know him all over again, since he was my pet wolf literally not even seven days ago. I just haven’t gotten the chance.” The human reclined a bit. “I still gotta meet up with Luna and practice a song I plan on singing during the reception; she’s going to help me with it after all.”
“...I would not mind hearing you sing again.” The Queen lied.
“You said I sounded like shit when you last heard me play.”
“...You give off so much happiness while performing. It almost rivals the pink pony, with how raw and pure your happiness you give off while singing.”
“Yet I sound terrible to you.”
“I said your choice of song was cheesy. Not that it was bad.” Unfortunately for the Queen, her facade was quickly seen through by Bob.
“That’s a lie.”
“...You are much harder to lie to than ponies. I was trying to be nice and hopefully get you to open up. It would be better for me to make friends with you, rather than keep you at a distance. Especially in this situation.” Chrysalis cringed, for a fleeting moment, at the thought of friendship.
“That’s cool. However, my loyalty lies nowhere. I am, or was, friends with the same thing that was my pet a few weeks ago. I have no loyalty to Equestria, despite how close I am to Luna. I am simply loyal to my friends, and that’s it.” The Queen nodded. “I’m not opposed to being your friend, but you’re gonna have to do a lot, and I mean a lot, for me to trust you. My trust is already a wee bit thin in anything with a pulse due to my history in Equestria, and you kidnapping Cadance and mind controlling my adoptive, older brother still ain’t doing you favors. No matter how much I can empathize with your situation.” The human got off of his cushion. “Anywho, I’ll see you around, probably the day after tomorrow; I have a wedding and a reception to attend. See ya Chrysalis.”
“That is Queen Chrysalis to you, human.”
“I’m offering you an in; I’m trying to be friendly if I’m not using honorifics. I fucking hate Princess Celestia, so I still call her Princess, her Majesty, or whatever the fuck else that bitch goes by.”
“...Then you may call me Chrysalis. Do try to use ‘Queen Chrysalis’ if you are speaking to me in public, however. I will be lax with your usage of titles around me in private.”
“Cool, we drew a line, and I won’t overstep. If we do become good friends, expect me to call you by a nickname in public. I call Luna ‘Lulu’ or ‘Moonie’ in letters, and I gotta keep it to a minimum with the second one because it makes her blush a little. I think one of her lovers called her Moonie in the past…” The human hummed. “Well, have fun doing… whatever you were doing.” Bob walked to the door.
“Bob,” the Queen said calmly. “It was nice to speak with you, even if I was… a bit snippy at the beginning of our chat.” She bowed slightly and the human gave her a thumb’s up before finally leaving the room. When we walked out, Cadance was doting the hell out of Azolf, whose helmet was now covering his eyes, leaving just his snout poking out from under it.
“Oh my bucking Aunt’s Name, you look so cute! Shiny, you have to let this changeling keep the uniform!”
“...You were just ranting about how you didn’t like changelings, Cady,” Shining Armor shook his head. He was in much better shape after being hit with a rejuvenation spell a few times in the morning.
“I don’t hate changelings, Shiny, just Queen Chrysalis. I can see why you think Azolf is cute now, Bob,” the alicorn giggled as the changeling was trying to bury more and more of his face in the helmet. The human laughed and patted the poor bug’s back.
“Don’t worry bud, I’ll protect you from Cadance’s babying; you’re very cute, and humans like very cute creatures.”
“Bob, that doesn’t bucking help!” The changeling squealed. “Hide me in your room! I need to get away from this mare before she overloads me with affection!” The human shook his head, plopped the changeling up and cradled him. That only made Cadance squeal even more as the human brought the changeling into his room and closed the door.
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Well at least she is making more an effort than Celestia. Celestia seems to assume the worst about anyone not a pony . Truthfully I can't help but wonder if she has anyone in her heart. She pretends she has people in there but how much can they be in her heart if she doesn't know them well enough to notice they were replaced or to notice they are having problems.
11781199
Celestia never being quite honest with anyone (quite possibly including herself first of all) does seem to shape up to being her cardinal flaw in this story, all right. It could even help explain why she has such a hard time trusting anyone else...as I believe I may have commented before, I think that mare needs therapy.
11781459
Yeah honestly I keep wondering if there is anyone in her heart. Considering to put someone in your heart you have to be trust them and know them and I've seen no evidence of this not even with the ponies who supposed to be her family.
11781470
I wonder if Celestia is the reason racism is so rampant in Equestria?
11781515
I honestly wouldn't be surprised considering what Bob said about influencing people without realizing it. She probably had a ton of students and others around her over the years and has influence them without meaning too.
11781520
I find it interesting that Celestia is burning pretty much all her bridges and goodwil if it hasnt happened already.
11781541
Personally I honestly not sure why Luna even stays there with Celestia when she is always being mistreated.
11781567
Luna and Celestia are supposed to have equal power and authority but I think the truth is they arent anywhere close to being equals.
11781569
Yeah and for loving sisters who are supposed to happy to renew their relationship it doesn't look like much of relationship. Luna is being abused and mistreated and her sister doesn't even bother to pay attention enough to see. They live in the same house for goodness sake yet can't find the time to talk to each other. If this was how Luna was treated 1000 yrs ago then I don't blame her for nightmare moon.
11781578
I could be wrong and I hope I am, but I think Celestia knows Luna is being mistreated this time and just doesnt do anything about it.
11781583
Either way what does that say about her? That she won't do anything to be there for her sister. I wouldn't want family like that.
11781593
It says alot about Celestia if that's the case
11781598
Indeed. I honestly just wish that she would move to ponyville. The ponies will come around if they see Bob hanging out with her and stop being afraid so much while Celestia learns that she shouldn't take those who care about her for granted.
Maybe celestia is like this due to her long life she probably has some trauma