Birthday Gifts
Glitter had been hidden amongst the crowd on the day that Princess Celestia’s protégée, Twilight Sparkle, was crowned a princess. She’d been as thrilled as the other changelings about a new alicorn princess, even more so when she recalled that she had school that week and she now had an idea for a project. Her teacher had remarked at her academic mind as being something that she rarely saw; usually those like her were sent to Princess Celestia’s school because normal school just didn’t suit their zeal or skill.
While she took the praise for what it was, Glitter had scoffed at the notion of being somewhere else just because of her desire to learn. She was where she belonged, amongst friends, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
That was seven years ago now, and things hadn’t changed much in that time. Flitterwing’s books had become mildly successful, thankfully enough to ensure a comfortable income, and she didn’t have to spend every day working tirelessly to churn out her next book. This allowed her to take a greater interest in her daughter’s education and find more time to be with her.
Since she spent almost every moment she had with her daughter, the change wasn’t that noticeable.
Booker and his manager, a fine mare by the name of Inky Swirl, had engaged shortly after Twilight Sparkle’s crowning. This had been happy news to the other Changelings, and Chrysalis had welcomed the pale orange and silver unicorn into Little Hive like she was a long lost part of the family. She had initially been a bit overwhelmed by the welcome but she seemed to grow to like Chrysalis after a few hours.
When their wedding was announced, the whole of Equestria exploded at the news. Half of the nation wanted the ‘farce’ wedding to be denied by the Princesses, some even outright stating that it would taint the sacrament of marriage. The other half saw it as a great step in Equestria’s equality and tolerance of other cultures. After one particular protest out front of the store that Booker and Inkt Swirl worked at turned ugly, the guard had had enough and sent not just ponies but also gryphons to split it up. Celestia had given a statement to a newspaper the next day.
“We’re the most diverse culture in this world, and our ability to accept other species and make them feel welcome, even to the point of calling Equestria their home, is our finest and most honourable trait. The protests over something as simple as a wedding between two beings who love one another are a blemish on everything we stand for. Be they Pony, Changeling, Gryphon, Zebra, or even Dragon, so long as they hold peace in their hearts they are welcome to the same rights and freedoms as the rest of us. That is the nation that my sister and I have strived to cultivate and help bloom in this world. I, for one, welcome this new development and hope it is only the start of a long series of similar loving couples.”
After that, she had stated that she would personally preside over the ceremony; if this was to be the start of something new, she believed that her approval was paramount lest the rest of Equestria think she were disinterested or disapproved. That declaration had started a week-long bout between the solar diarch and Chrysalis, who had spent months learning the ceremony and had wanted to preside over it herself.
It had begun with a heated argument one day, which evolved into a verbal mudslinging match the next, and then further grew into almost open hostility between them. Shred had commented that night at how amused he was that possibly the most regal and elegant Pony and Changeling on the planet had been possibly one foul insult away from a catfight while Princess Twilight had only sat nearby and completed paperwork and tried to tune out the creative and colourful insults. Shred didn’t dare repeat them, though he did mention that one of them had had something to do with Manticore reproductive habits and that he’d been crying at how painful it was to keep from laughing.
Princess Celestia’s guard hadn’t been immune from this ailment, and one had been taken to the medical wing with a popped vein and hyperventilation.
After the fourth day, the two royals weren’t speaking to one another, each using a proxy to converse with the other. This continued for a good day or two before Princesses Twilight and Luna began to work together to get them to stop bickering. The pair were promptly locked within a room filled with nothing but pillows and themselves and told to sort it out. When the two Princesses returned a few hours later, they found both Chrysalis and Celestia out cold behind pillow forts and with pillows scattered about them. After a brief conversation, it was discovered that a pillow fight had occurred during the time between and that each had managed to land a knock-out blow on the other at the same time.
This raised the question of the force behind the flung pillows and the intensity of the altercation; some pillows had been lodged firmly into the very walls. The only response given was Chrysalis mumbling ‘pillow-pocalypse.’
Still, this hadn’t solved the problem but merely stalled it for a short few hours until they could return to their grudges. Shred mentioned that Luna had been impressed that two of the eldest beings on the planet were acting like children over who could preside over a wedding. In the end, Twilight had taken them aside by their ears –apologizing to them furiously the whole time- and gave them a stern talking to. What was said was a complete mystery to everypony else, but both of the elder royals had returned from the room looking not only sheepish, but very ashamed of themselves.
Chrysalis had taken a backseat on the wedding after that, only assisting where she was needed and giving a short yet poignant speech in place of the groom’s father. In place of Booker’s brother, Grall had given a speech. The whole speech he had been digging at his fellow changeling, poking fun at him and his past mistakes and awkwardness. This had both the benefit of earning a fair few rounds of laughter and good feels when he ended his speech in a sincere and warm family manner.
That day the population at Little Hive shrank by a tenth.
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That had been six years ago, and the couple were both happily married and even expecting a foal now. Glitter, Sandy, and their now slightly awkward friend Doublestep had long since moved up into the older classes. The trio were now mostly thirteen, with Sandy having her thirteenth birthday not a few weeks before Doublestep’s own, making her the eldest. Glitter was still waiting for her ‘cakeday’ as her friends jokingly called it. Luckily she didn’t have long to wait.
She also held the title of being the trio’s brightest member, but Doublestep came in a close second. Sandy was growing into a skilled and graceful flier under the tutelage of her mother, and had earned her cutie mark in the same field as her mother; extreme weather. Unlike her mother’s ability to clear such weather, though, she had earned her cutie mark in causing it, creating the worst –and best- blizzard that Canterlot had seen in centuries.
Doublestep had earned his cutie mark in dancing after trying to learn how to with the aid of his friends. Sandy had been as useless as bicycle pedals on a wheelchair for the endeavour, but Glitter had been all too unwilling to assist. A dozen painful bruises later, Doublestep had earned his cutie mark and nearly hospitalized his companions. Dancing was simply not their strong point; at least, for now.
Being a changeling, Glitter lacked a cutie mark to call her own and so felt somewhat left out of the celebrations. It had been hard for her friends to tell she was feeling somewhat less than fantastic, as she had developed a mask all her own not unlike the one that Celestia donned to hold court or attend public events, a mask to hold her composure and feelings from public eye. Celestia’s mask was one of utter neutrality, but Glitter’s was one of irritability.
She’d picked up the nickname of ‘the grumbler’ from her fellow classmates for her irritable grumbling whenever something went awry or she was having difficulty with something in her schoolwork. Rather than ask for help, she would always work furiously at it until she managed to get it correct, though she would be grumbling under her breath disgruntledly the whole time. It was beginning to dawn on others that she disliked being denied the satisfaction of succeeding at these questions, and her irritability would bleed into her behaviour in the class as a whole, with the end result of her being short and snappy at others.
If you asked her teacher, she would remark that while still the somewhat gentle soul she had been when she was little, she was swiftly becoming one of the less friendly ones.
Upon learning about her feelings and their origins, her friends ‘kidnapped’ her from her home and the three of them had locked themselves in the attic of Doublestep’s home for hours brainstorming a cutie mark for her. They’d ended up with a large ‘A B C’ against an abacus to symbolize her learning prowess and habit of helping others in their education; all white or shades of grey of course. She’d never grown out of that inability to change colour, but she could change the shades of white she was to a degree. Her whole coat would never go beyond anything but white, but her mane, tail and cutie mark could be shaded faintly. Her eyes, also, would stay a pale green regardless of shape. She’d tried many eye styles in her efforts to change their colour, including those of owls and even the reclusive Night Guard, none had worked. Sandy had jokingly remarked that changing her form or disguising herself was clearly not her talent.
That was when the pillow fight began. Unlike the royals when they had their little spat, the foals didn’t have access to near-endless supplies of pillows to throw or enough magical strength to lodge them in walls, so they resorted to swatting one another like they were trying to kill flies with them. One badly swung pillow later and they were explaining why they’d broken a window to Doublestep’s parents.
Sandy and Glitter weren’t allowed back to his house for a long time after that.
Today, however, was Glitter’s birthday. She’d been looking forward to it for a while; her friends had already joined the joy that was being called a ‘teenager’ and she didn’t want to be left behind or left out. Of course, still being the size of a six-year-old didn’t help much. Her friends were double her size, and the less than friendly students at school had taken to calling her a runt. Her mother had explained that she was due a shedding any week now, and that she would grow rather explosively at that event to grow into her near-adult size. She would still grow a little afterwards, but it would be her second, and last, moulting.
She woke as per the usual for a school day and had a quick shower and brushed her teeth before heading to the community table for breakfast. Chrysalis had made breakfast this morning, something she rarely did if Crackle could help it. Pancakes were the breakfast of the day, and Glitter practically inhaled hers.
Why did they taste so good today?
“Enjoying breakfast are we?” Chrysalis asked.
“What’d you do, they taste amazing!” Glitter replied around a mouthful. Chrysalis only chuckled as the other changelings looked down at their pancakes; clearly there was something they were missing out on here. Buzzyear was the only one absent from the table, having had a run in with a rat nest in the Canterlot sewer systems. He was currently in one of Canterlot’s hospitals recovering from an infected bite and a nervous breakdown.
Why did it have to be rats?
“I made special pancakes for the birthday girl, is that so hard to believe?” Chrysalis replied with a warm smile.
“My queen,” Shred began, “we all know that your cooking is sub-par at best, whatever you did it must be incredible.”
Chrysalis pouted at this as the others chuckled. “It sounds to me like someone wants to hold buckets of water all day for the next week,” She said, “And for me to cook for the next month.”
“Maybe you’ll learn to cook in that time.” Shred replied with a cheesy grin on his face.
“Well excuse me for not having to hone my culinary prowess over the last thousand years.” Chrysalis huffed. “I was a bit preoccupied; the lack of ingredients didn’t help either.”
At this point Crackle took up a sarcastic tone and joined in. “Oh whine, whine, whine, I’ve lived for hundreds of years and I’ve never read a cookbook!”
“This is turning into a real panto, and I’m not going to take part in something so childish.” Grall grumbled as he finished off his pancakes. “Not when I have a statue to scrub and roses to prune in the middle of summer.” He turned and started walking towards the door after floating his plate and cutlery into the kitchenette. “I’ll be back later.”
Glitter finished massacring the pancake population of her plate before thanking her grandmother and scurrying off to the room she shared with her mother to get ready for school. Sandy would arrive soon to pick her up so they could go and get Doublestep and hurry to school. It was a blisteringly hot day outside already, the summer heat having not dissipated overnight and now only begun to reheat the whole of Canterlot once more.
She sorted her saddlebags and affixed them to her back before hurrying back out to the common room and giving her mother and grandmother a kiss on the cheek each. With a final farewell over her shoulder, she opened the front door.
She was promptly rewarded for her efforts by being pelted with water balloons.
Sandy hovered over the street holding a bag with more ammunition, while Doublestep stood below her armed similarly. The two of them were laughing raucously at Glitter while she stared dumbfounded at them. Flitterwing appeared at the door behind her daughter and peered out.
“Kids, don’t go throwing water balloons at just anyone, this is Canterlot.”
The voice of Chrysalis echoed from within the building. “Some ponies will take great offense to it, and while I find the idea of pelting Prince Blueblood with water balloons hilarious he’ll try to have you arrested for assault!” Her voice paused as the three considered her words. “Like last time!” She added.
“Let’s just get to school.” Glitter said as she shook her head to get the water from her face. “Seeing as it’s a Wednesday, Miss Bloom might have a pop quiz for us again and we don’t want to miss it.”
“You mean you don’t want to miss it.” Sandy contested. “I’d rather be flying than doing quizzes any day.”
“Featherhead.” Glitter shot up at her sarcastically.
“Bug brain.”
“Air for brains.”
“Whitey!”
Doublestep hissed through his teeth. “Ooh, picking on her albinism Sandy? Low blow.”
Sandy poked her tongue out, only to receive a water balloon to the face courtesy of Doublestep’s bag and Glitter’s magic. With a final laugh at Sandy’s expense, Glitter ran on ahead as the Pegasus recovered and began to pelt her with water balloons.
*
Back at Little Hive, however, Flitterwing sniffed at Glitter’s plate curiously. What in Equestria had been in her pancakes to make her simply inhale them like an industrial vacuum? There certainly was an interesting smell, but nothing she could pinpoint.
“Something interest you, dear?” Chrysalis asked as she collected the plate with her magic.
Flitterwing gave her a prolonged look. “Are you feeding strange things to my daughter?”
“Flitterwing, you wound me,” Chrysalis said overdramatically, “I’m feeding perfectly normal things to your daughter.”
“Mooom~…” Flitterwing groaned. “What are you doing this time? This had better not be like that time with the waffles and hay fries. You remember how that went for you.”
Chrysalis chuckled, recalling how Grall wouldn’t speak to her directly for a week.
“No, it’s not like that little experiment,” she said calmly.
“Then what?”
Chrysalis smiled conspiratorially. “All I’ve done today is given my granddaughter her birthday gift.” She said. While she levitated the plates from the table into the kitchen, she also used it to move a few bottles about in her office, hiding them from sight. “Nothing more.”
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First half of school was the usual boring routine; come in, sit down, listen to a half-hour lecture, complete tasks from a textbook for two… Glitter was, as always, working on things that the others hadn’t learned yet and was quietly grumbling under her breath as she worked her brain around the more difficult challenge questions.
“Having trouble, Glitter?” Rosy Bloom asked as she dawdled over to the table.
Glitter nodded. “Don’t help me, I’ll get it.” She said.
Miss Bloom sighed. “Why don’t you ever want help? It seems to me that you’d be less frustrated if you accepted a little assistance once in a while.”
Glitter sat back and rubbed her temple with a hoof. “If I ask for help, what’s the point in me trying at all? Sure I’ll learn faster, but getting help just seems too… I dunno, easy.” She groaned as she rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. “This headache sure isn’t helping; I don’t know if it was something that was in my breakfast, but it’s distracting.”
Miss Bloom nodded. “Then take it easy for a little while; recess should be soon and you might feel better after some food and drink. You’re two chapters ahead of everypony else, so it’s not like you can’t afford to take a little time to rest your noodles.”
With a grumble, Glitter relented and leaned forward to lay her head on the desk. She hated this desk at the moment. And the chair she technically sat on. The desk was one for students of her age, but not her size, and thusly she had extra textbooks beneath her to elevate her to a height she could see the desk and her work from. So, with her usual silent disapproval of most things around her, she hated her desk.
“Hey, Glitter?” Doublestep’s voice hissed from her right, “Can you help me with this?”
She sighed and hopped off of her chair, her wings buzzing to hold her aloft above Doublestep’s desk. “What is it?”
“It’s the third question in chapter eight; I just don’t quite get it.” He mumbled. “What common chemical is made by a compound of two carbons, five hydrogen, oxygen and hydrogen?”
Glitter blinked at the page, at the letters and figures all dancing about before her eyes and blending into a big illegible blob before shaking her head and rubbing her temple. “It’s uh,” she mumbled, “It’s used commonly in the concoction of acids, but it’s also something that can be consumed. Should be on page… two hundred and seventy eight..? I’m sorry, I can’t seem to focus…”
“Are you alright, Glitter?” Doublestep asked worriedly, “You’re breathing kind of heavy, even for when you’re in flight.”
“Problem first, me later.” She huffed as he flipped the pages. “Find it yet? The solution you’re looking for should be this;” she used her magic and loosely scribbled ‘C2H5OH’ onto a spare sheet of paper on his desk with his quill. “Do you see it?”
His eyes scanned the page. “Yeah, I think so, is this it?”
“I don’t know, I can’t read it.” She hissed quietly. “What’s it called?”
“Umm… Ethanol.”
“That’s it.”
“Are you okay, Glitter? You’re acting kinda weird.”
Glitter huffed. “I’m fine.” She hissed. “I just…” She groaned and rubbed her temples again. “Migraine is tearing my head apart.” She grumbled.
“Glitter, come here.” Miss Bloom ordered.
Not wanting to get into trouble, Glitter complied and flitted over to the teacher before stopping her wings and hitting the wooden floorboards with a clatter of hooves. Miss Bloom gave her a water bottle freshly teleported from the cafeteria. “Here, take this and go outside; the air and sunlight might do you some good, and you’ll need the water if you’re having a migraine.”
“But sunlight will only hurt my migraine worse, won’t it?”
Miss Bloom chuckled. “Shield your eyes, you silly filly.” She said good-naturedly. “Or keep them closed.”
Glitter nodded and stumbled out of the classroom, making a beeline for the usual spot she and her friends would hang around at. Thankfully the school bullies had eased up on Glitter since second year, possibly owing to the incident involving Prince Blueblood getting the tar kicked out of him by Shred. Sure, Shred got into a lot of trouble over it, nopony beats up a prince and just gets away with it, but it had certainly given the bullies something to think about.
“Miss Bloom, did you see that?” Sandy asked worriedly, watching after her friend.
“Hmm, see what?”
Sandy hopped up from her desk and hobbled over to her teacher. “She looked like she was hurt.” She commented. “I could see what looked like a cut or crack on her back. It looked deep.”
Miss Bloom shook her head. “I didn’t see anything, but your eyes are sharper than mine are, being a Pegasus and all.” She mumbled. “I can keep my eye on her out the window, so she should be alright.”
*
Once Glitter reached the spot that she and her friends would always laze about the yard at, she uncapped the water bottle and drained it in a single long swig before she promptly began shivering in pain. She hurt all over far worse than when she’d been beaten by several stallions when she was little; one of only a few memories she had of that time.
The pain had started so suddenly and sharply, it was as if somepony had teleported hundreds of razor-sharp needles beneath her chitin and into her muscles. She groaned as her headache shifted and grew, now being joined by a heat in her stomach that grew and grew exponentially. Right as she felt she would simply burn alive from the inside out, something gave way and snapped- a sound she could both audibly hear and feel.
After the snap had echoed through the yard, the headache and heat erupted within her, and she gave a yelp as her horn burst with energy and magic exploded into the air around her. She could barely keep up with what was happening all around her.
She remembered screaming as the pain returned with a vengeance, and then darkness.
*
Back inside, the class were completely calm as they worked on their textbooks. They only had a couple more minutes before recess, so they were mostly just idling and wasting time until they could go outside. Sandy, who was already a billion miles away and staring out of the windows, was distracted as she watched Glitter struggling with her own inner pain out in the yard.
“Miss, Glitter doesn’t look well.” Sandy spoke up. “Maybe we should contact her family?”
Miss Bloom dawdled over to Sandy. “She didn’t sound well, did she?” She asked. “And she does look to be in pain.” She added, before pausing as a wave of magic swept over the school and through the classrooms. Hurriedly she moved to the window and stared out in shock as Glitter’s form exploded in a flurry of magic. The other unicorn in the room all cowered from it, as if the pulse were something terrible to behold. Sandy hurried to join Miss Bloom at the window.
“What in the name of Celestia is going on out there?”
Miss Bloom set her jaw. “I don’t know, but whatever it is it’ll drive the headmaster batty; all that magic is going to kill the lawn.”
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Chrysalis sipped at her cup of tea as she waited for Celestia to get to the task at hand while her magic continued to knit relentlessly at a stuffed toy. She was in the habit of getting ahead of the Hearths’ Warming season in knitting her donations to the orphanages of Equestria. Celestia was busy signing some papers of otherwise inconsequential note; something that Blueblood had demanded had caused a stir and made its way through parliament, and thusly given Celestia a headache in the form of two hundred forms to read and sign.
The solar goddess’ magic wrapped around a white rook and moved it.
“Check.” Celestia called, never once looking at the board. Other than her voice and the rustling of the papers she was going through, the only sound in the room was of a clock ticking away up on the nearby ornately decorated mantelpiece.
This was a routine that Chrysalis and Celestia had gotten to in the more recent years with the settling of the Changelings and the ripples they had caused with their integration. Chrysalis didn’t have much paperwork to do these days in regards to her station and had even adopted other duties to give herself something to do. She attended parliament, open court, and even ran fundraising drives for important causes.
The first time she attended parliament, she had been met with some… less than enthusiastic peers. Some thought she was a breath of fresh air and a welcome insight into how to run the country with some new and foreign ideas that could streamline the way the country worked, having run her own for so very long. Others were… not quite as enthusiastic. Prince Blueblood, especially, had been opposed to her presence and had attempted to have her removed as an interloping foreign dignitary in private Equestrian matters. When that didn’t work, he had delved deeply into Equestrian law to find some way to have her removed. While Chrysalis had been irked by his behaviour she had expected it, and was somewhat impressed that he would do as much research as he did simply to try and control parliament.
When he finally did find something, he was shot down in flames as Celestia informed him that, while she was of a different species, she had been an Equestrian citizen since she surrendered her crown. She still owned the Bad Lands and the Hive within, but the lands had been annexed into Equestrian territory for later addition to the borders. By all legal rights, Chrysalis was both a Baroness and the controlling force of a, quite frankly, rather substantial amount of land. While it wasn’t yet arable, some of Equestria’s top minds were working to solve the issue. Chrysalis had chipped in, adding that the Bad Lands held some very valuable mineral deposits that Equestria could benefit from, such as Iron, Gold, and Platinum. As the Hive had never really seen fit to mine these materials in any large-scale sense, they were sure to be plentiful.
This had shut him up and, as Princess Luna had put it, put him in his place; if the pompous prince could find value in the dead wastes that were the Bad Lands, he would certainly turn his attention to getting his hooves on it in one way or another. Unfortunately, this meant that, somewhere down the line, Chrysalis would have to tolerate a meeting with him to discuss mining operations or some such.
Back in the current day, Chrysalis gave a sigh of relief. “Finally, I thought you were waiting for me to die of old age!” Chrysalis said jokingly before looking down at the board and judging her next move.
“Well excuse me for preferring the longer game.” Celestia replied just as sarcastically. “I thought you might appreciate the time to use the little-filly’s room or go and have Twilight help you with your strategy. At this rate I’ll checkmate in four moves.”
Chrysalis laughed sardonically. “I believe we call it the ‘royal suite’ in our circle, don’t we? Or would you rather the ‘ancient throne’?”
Celestia signed off another sheet and stacked it with its forty-odd brothers next to her. “I have an ancient throne, thank you.” She said, her eyes reading through the paper at a pace that would have put her protégée to shame. “It’s enchanted for maximum comfort, so I don’t think I’ll be changing it any time soon.”
Chrysalis moved a piece to rescue her King and Check Celestia’s. “Check.” She called. “And by ‘enchanted for maximum comfort’ I’m going to assume you mean that it’s enchanted to massage the royal buttocks.”
She was impressed by how much Celestia would let her get away with, really. They’d had conversations that had turned one another red with rage, or arguments which had given air to insults that would have made monkeys blush, but Celestia always seemed to take it with good humour and given back as good as she got. Celestia seemed to enjoy the company of somepony of Chrysalis’ age and conflicting personality, someone she could call equal without it being her sister or protégée. Luna just got angry, and Twilight was bad at taking jokes.
“Must be a powerful enchantment.” Shred commented from where he stood in the room, earning a round of both laughs and nervous recoils from the other guards in the room. It was uncommon for the royal guard to say anything in respect to what the princesses would be conversing about, or behave as anything other than eye-candy statues; but Shred was different. Chrysalis had given him permission to speak his mind when he felt like it, for better or worse, and over the years he’d grown more confident in what he would say and to whom.
Only Luna was exempt from this behaviour. He enjoyed a good laugh, but Luna had hospitalized him for his good-natured teasing once and he’d reined in his comments around her. Celestia seemed to let him get away with the most, though she would usually get him back for whatever he did to earn her ire. Chrysalis had initially been worried that Shred was going too far and earning himself a bigger amount of trouble than he was worth, but Celestia seemed to take it all in good humour and told Chrysalis that if he went too far, he would be reported to his queen for adequate punishment. She said something about him being the captain of a ‘special branch’ of the guard that was –technically- not on the books that she had simply called the Ambassadorial Watch. It simply allowed him a little more freedom and the authority of a Captain.
It was either that or he’d return to beating up ponies for the smallest slight against his queen, and Celestia had had enough of that.
The solar diarch glanced over at him and, using her magic, replaced the bucket of water he was carrying with a larger and heavier bucket, making him grunt a little. It was more than double the weight of the previous bucket he had been holding and he took a moment to regain his stance.
“Oh, you’re so witty, Princess.” He breathed. “What next, concrete horseshoes? A nice rock helmet maybe?”
“Don’t tempt me.” Celestia returned over her shoulder before taking a sip of her tea and signing a final page. “Perhaps next time I’ll make you do all the paperwork.”
“That sounds like punishment, with all the paperwork you do.” Chrysalis stated. “Honestly, I’m amazed that Equestria has any forests left. Have the nobles not protested your rampant deforesting?” Her ear flicked as a pulse of magic washed over the room before she took a discreet sip of her tea. “Hmm, she’s early.” She commented nonchalant.
Princess Twilight Sparkle teleported into the room and looked about worriedly, clearly hoping that Celestia would understand her flustered state. “What was that?”
Celestia was also looking up and about alert. Her eyes turned on Chrysalis, who was perfectly calm and eyeing the chessboard as if planning her next move like nothing were amiss; the eyes of the solar princess narrowed and she got to her hooves and looked out the room’s windows and across Canterlot, where she saw a pillar of magic possibly a hundred feet tall towering into the sky.
She turned back on Chrysalis. “What in the name of-“
Chrysalis tilted her head and looked over at Celestia wearily. “Birthday Present.” She said bluntly.
“What on Equestria have you done?”
Twilight hurried to the window and stared at the pillar of magic as it petered off. “Whatever that was, that surge of magic was enormous!”
“If you’ll excuse me,” Chrysalis said as she rose and stepped over towards the room’s balcony doors, “I have some work to do, and soon a lot of paperwork to complete.” She grimaced as she leapt into flight and headed towards Glitter’s school. “And a daughter-in-law to hope doesn’t peel my chitin with a dull wooden spoon.”
Back in the tea room, Celestia watched as Chrysalis became a smaller blotch against the sky before turning irritably on Shred and bearing down on him like a bear on a rabbit. Her eyes glared into his, as if daring him to look away. To his credit, he only cowered a little. He’d stared down dragons and phoenixes in his past, after all; while Celestia did have all the power in the world at her disposal she was still easy on the eyes, and therefore a little less imposing than they had been.
Her voice snarled through the air and caused the other guards to tremble in their armour; never had they seen their princess this angry since the invasion. Except, perhaps, for the wedding arguments with Chrysalis, but those had been both amusing and terrifying.
“What. Has. She. Done?”
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Chrysalis landed at the back door of the school Glitter went to, looking up at the many faces that stared back down at her. She dipped her head to them before turning to where the form of Glitter lay limply on the ground. The lawn all around her had been scorched black by the magical burst, and arcs of magical lightning flicked around the six meter circle showing just how dense it still was.
She eyed the magical field before letting emerald flames lick across her form several times. She knew that that much magic was toxic to anypony except the one to whom it belonged, in this case Glitter, and she was changing her form to shield herself from the fallout. Like ponies wearing lead clothing to protect themselves from radiation. She wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but she began to dawdle over to where her granddaughter lay on the scorched earth.
Her ear flicked as she heard the door open behind her, and she spun her gaze around.
“Stay where you are!” She yelled, managing to get Sandy, Doublestep and Miss Bloom to stop in their tracks. “That magic is still toxic. I will tell you when it’s safe to approach.”
The trio nodded to her, and she turned back to Glitter and returned to her progress. Again a sound caught her ears, and she looked up at Celestia and Twilight Sparkle.
“Princesses, please keep your distance; I am unsure how that much magic would affect you and I’d rather not find out.”
Again she began walking towards the form of her granddaughter, only to stop when she heard hooves nearby.
“Oh for the love of-” Chrysalis growled, “Flitterwing, please stay here.”
Her daughter in law stared at her before nodding and sitting.
Finally content that she could approach her granddaughter, Chrysalis stepped over cautiously and entered the magical fallout. The arcing magical lightning snapped to her body, trying to ground itself on her body. She paused and focused magic on her horn before stalking forward until she stood above Glitter’s body. The magic was now snapping onto the end of her horn, causing little sparks to explode from her horn every time it did. She exhaled to calm her nerves, before attempting to draw in the magic around her. It hurt to draw the foreign magic into her body; it contested with her own magical frequencies and churned angrily within the reserves she held. For a few minutes this was all that happened, and the field of magic faded back down to common background levels.
She tapped her horn against her granddaughter’s, returning the foreign magic to the one it belonged until she could contain no more. Chrysalis still held a substantial amount of magic that, while she could contain physically she couldn’t contain practically. It was still too wild and different from her reserves, too unrefined, and she pressed her horn to the ground to release it into the soil.
The result was the lawn around them not only bursting back to life but that it grew four feet in half a second. Chrysalis huffed at this and cut it back down level with the rest of the yard before bundling the cuttings up tightly and laying them to one side. Emerald flames licked across her body once again.
“It should now be safe to approach.” She called. “Flitterwing, your daughter might need your assistance to remove what is left of her moulting, as fragmental as it is.”
The observers moved over, the ponies stopping near Glitter while Flitterwing stepped past her daughter and slapped Chrysalis with all her might, managing to get the royal changeling to stagger rather heavily and earn hisses from those nearby. She didn’t turn her face back to her daughter-in-law, merely staying in her recoiled stance.
“What the buck did you do?!”
“Before a changeling goes through their moultings, they can be… evolved into a Royal through the introduction of royal jelly, a cream-like substance made from condensing a changeling queen’s magic into matter.” Chrysalis explained. “You know this, Flitterwing; it was taught to you in medic training, remember?”
Flitterwing narrowed her eyes at her mother-in-law. “When did you-” her eyes widened as the puzzle solved itself, “the pancakes. You fed her royal jelly in her breakfast pancakes.”
Chrysalis nodded. “Her birthday gift.”
Flitterwing’s eyes narrowed once more as she began to growl, her wings flaring angrily. “What were you thinking, feeding my daughter something like that without consulting me?! How dare you not involve me in something like this! Where do you get off doing this to her, you have no idea what that could have done to her!”
She continued to glare at her mother-in-law angrily as a tear rolled down the royal’s cheek, the elder mare never looking down at her.
“Why, mom..?” Flitterwing asked shakily, “just… why?”
Chrysalis sighed. “Did you ever grow up feeling different from everypony around you? Out of place, or like you were too different to fit in..? The closest thing that we have that resembles the ponies around us is the royal caste, of which I am the only member. Well, until today, anyway.
“When I was little, I did feel different as I grew up. Granted that most of the hive treated me as they did my mother, like royalty, but that didn’t help but to deepen my feeling of isolation. It wasn’t until my adolescence and I could go out and socialize with the Hive in a greater extent that I managed to recover from it. I can only imagine how Glitter has felt, being half the height of her friends, being unable to relate when conversation over mane-styles or fur would be discussed. I just… I didn’t want her to feel so different.”
Flitterwing sighed. “But now she’s more different than she was before; now she’s unlike both her friends and her family.”
“She’s still a changeling.” Chrysalis mumbled. “And we can talk with the others to ensure that they treat her no differently, but now she has more in common with her friends. She’ll have a natural mane, eyes that have pupils… Granted they’ll be draconic pupils, but she’ll have them all the same. She’ll be the same height as them now, and it’s probably about time for her too.”
Flitterwing sighed. “You’ve never really thought your grander plans through.” She pointed out. “Did you honestly just not think of a reason to explain to me, or did you think I’d be overjoyed that you decided to meddle with my daughter’s genetics?”
Chrysalis sighed. “I don’t know, I just… I wanted to give her something important; something to make her teenage years more... memorable.”
Flitterwing huffed. “You certainly did that.” She grumbled, before narrowing her eyes at her mother-in-law again. “Any royal jelly you have left over, I want it destroyed.” She hissed. “All of it. This cannot happen again without consent, even accidentally.”
Chrysalis nodded. “I’m sorry.”
Flitterwing sighed and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter anymore.” She replied. “For now, I would suggest damage control. No reporters, you understand me? Not until we’re ready. The last thing she needs at her age is to be harassed by the press.”
“Of course.”
“I need to see what your stupidity has done to my daughter. She’s not a queen, she’s just… a royal.”
“Yes, Flitterwing.” Chrysalis mumbled. “She will not become a queen until she goes through the rites, all of which require more changelings than we have, so… she’ll probably never become a queen.”
“And no more stupid plans!” Flitterwing snapped. “This is on par with the wedding incident, and we all know how that ended up!”
“Which wedding, the royal one or Booker’s?” Chrysalis asked.
“Both of them.” Flitterwing growled back, making her cringe. “You’ve really screwed up, mom; I don’t know if I can help her through whatever comes her way. I love you, you know I do, but you’re really testing me this time.”
Chrysalis nodded dejectedly. “I’m sorry.” She said, before hopping back into the air and flying off towards the castle.
Flitterwing watched her fly away before turning to her daughter and gingerly stepping over. She nudged Twilight Sparkle aside gently and with a polite ‘excuse me’ before slowly resting on her knees over Glitter’s form.
Twilight Sparkle appeared to find her tongue. “I’ve not seen anyone chew her out like that since… since I did it.” She voiced, before grimacing. “She’s going to be hiding in her office for hours.”
Flitterwing grimaced. “I’ll handle her later.” She said. “Once I’ve calmed down and taken stock on Glitter’s take on this.”
Her magic gingerly took a hold of the remaining fragments of spent exoskeleton on Glitter’s body, pulling them off and incinerating them in the open air. The all-white changeling reflected the sunlight and world around her smoothly, though Flitterwing could see that it wasn’t the usual sticky substance that coated her body doing it, but rather than her new carapace was already dry. She looked like she had at Booker’s wedding with her chitin buffed to the nth.
At least she could spare her daughter the humiliation of being bathed.
She tilted the young changeling’s body to one side to inspect her torso a little better, before inspecting her wings and back plate. Almost nothing went without scrutiny, only her face managing to avoid being inspected for now, even when she had to ask the others for a moment of privacy and to look away.
After the group were allowed to turn back around Flitterwing was inspecting Glitter’s hooves for any abnormalities when Sandy spoke up.
“Miss Flitterwing, you know that you don’t have to help her on your own, right?” She asked. “I mean, me and Doublestep are her friends, we’ll help.”
“It’s ‘Doublestep and I’, Sandy.” Miss Bloom corrected, earning a sarcastic groan from the Pegasus.
“Of course we’d help.” Doublestep added, “Horsefeathers, she’s the only friend I have that can dance.”
“Oh ha-ha-ha, pick on the cripple.” Sandy retorted. “She’s your dancing buddy but my flying buddy!”
Eventually Glitter stirred, and Flitterwing smiled down at her as she began to wake. Her eyes flicked open, protesting at the light for a moment, before they locked onto her mother’s and stared back confusedly.
“Mom..? What’re you doing here?” She asked, before coughing and holding a hoof to her throat. “And why do I sound different? What happened?”
Flitterwing sighed. “I’ll tell you in a moment, sweetie; just let me check your magic.”
The moment their horns connected, Flitterwing’s eyes widened. She felt around to see if there was anything wrong before pulling back and blinking. “That was… not totally unexpected.” She mumbled.
“What is it?” Twilight asked.
“… I need to be sure; Princess Sparkle, if I could..?”
Twilight nodded and lowered her horn, allowing Flitterwing to connect her horn to the princess’. After a moment or so she pulled away and nodded.
“That’s what I thought.” She mumbled. “Glitter’s magical reserves have increased almost fifty-fold; she can store almost half as much magic as you can, Princess. I knew that royals could hold enormous reserves, but I didn’t think it could be that much more than us…”
“Mom..?”
Flitterwing smiled down at her daughter reassuringly. “Sorry honey, I was just lost in thought. I’ll try and explain.” She said. “Do you remember the pancakes this morning? The ones that you said tasted really good?”
Glitter nodded. “Granna’s cooking is usually so… meh, but whatever she did this morning was really good!”
Flitterwing chuckled at her enthusiasm. “This morning your grandmother did something that she… she really shouldn’t have.” She stated. “The pancakes were specially made with something called royal jelly; it’s made from condensing the magic of a royal changeling into a physical substance. In normal adult changelings, this substance has incredibly nourishing properties. To a changeling who has not gone through their first or second moulting, it reacts a little… differently.
“Royal jelly can alter a young changeling physically. It’s not been done in centuries, because we’ve not had enough food to spare to excuse its production in any quantities. Your grandmother cooked royal jelly into your pancakes this morning, and since then it went about changing your body for what happened to you.”
“So my headache all morning..?”
“That would coincide with magical expansion on a massive scale.” Twilight Sparkle commented. “When ponies use up their magic too quickly, our reserves expand a little to accommodate such heavy usage in future, a bit like bodybuilding in that regard. Because your reserves were expanded very quickly, it would explain the headaches.”
“Fifty times your original capacity in but a few hours,” Flitterwing muttered. “Your headache must have been almost crippling.”
“She was having difficulty concentrating on her schoolwork, though she did manage to help Doublestep with his before I sent her outside in the hope that the fresh air would help her.” Miss Bloom commented.
“He tried to show me his textbook, but the words just blurred together.” Glitter pointed out. “Mom, what’s happened to me?”
Flitterwing sighed before smiling down at her daughter. “The royal jelly in your pancakes changed you when you shed your youth carapace, which was probably brought on by the changes that it was causing you to go through.” She said. “Your grandmother has made you into a Royal. Without consulting with me about it whatsoever I might add.”
Glitter giggled. “You know Granna; she never has been one for such things.”
“Sounds like someone I know.” Sandy mumbled sarcastically.
“Ha-ha-ha, it is to laugh.” Glitter retorted with her usual grumpiness. “One of us has to be a grump or we’d overjoy each other to death.” She scowled as she rolled to her belly when sunlight struck her eyes and she noticed how much warmer one side of her body was than the other, courtesy of the sun. “I hate summer.”
“She’s fine!” Sandy half yelled, throwing her hooves into the air. “She’ll go on about how much she hates sprouts next. Watch, any moment now.”
“Well they are revolting.” Glitter huffed. “Like those sweets that have liquid liquorice in the middle.” She shuddered at the thought before attempting to stand, pulling her head back as something white draped across her vision. “What in the name of Celestia is that?”
Celesita chuckled. “That, Glitter, is called hair.” She said.
“What?”
“You’re a royal now, sweetie; you have a mane, as well as eyes like your grandmothers’ and even the stomach plating that she has. We’ll see about going to a manedresser after school; Sandy and Doublestep can come along if they would like.” At this comment Sandy shrugged while Doubestep shook his head, he was fine with his mane the way it was, short and bristly.
Glitter huffed. “I’m still all white though.”
“You’re an albino, Glitter; of course you’re still all white.” Sandy pointed out. “You couldn’t shapeshift yourself some colours, what do you think your grandmother could do, pull miracles? I thought you were supposed to be the smart one.”
Glitter grumbled. “Can I go?”
Flitterwing nodded. “I suppose, just try and spend some time getting used to your new body; you’re bigger than you were and you’ll be unused to your new proportions. Expect to trip more often, and I’ll meet you at your class at home time.”
“Okay, thanks mom.” Glitter said before kicking off the ground and zipping after Sandy, who had the common sense to flee from her friend. “Get back here and I’ll show you something smart, namely what you look like plucked!” Glitter snapped.
Doublestep moved back from the group of adults and gave the royals a bow each before pulling a hardhat from his saddlebags and placing it on his head, then waving a packet of water balloons at his friends as he chased them down.
“I would suggest we head somewhere private to discuss these events.” Celestia voiced as she watched the three teens fill the water balloons. “I am unsure about anypony else, but the middle of a water balloon fight is hardly where I would like to hold discussions.” A thrown rubber sphere of water narrowly missed her head and splashed against Miss Bloom’s face. “Yes, my point exactly.”
“I need to stay here to supervise the children, but I hope you have a nice day.” Miss Bloom said with a bow. “Highnesses, Mrs Flitterwing.”
With that she dawdled off to watch the foals as they entered the yard, some of who had armed themselves to the teeth with water-based weaponry of their own and were chasing down the trio who were now fighting together against the oncoming horde of fellow students.
“I suppose we can continue this in my meeting chambers.” Celestia said, taking wing. “I shall see you there, my little ponies.”
Flitterwing and Twilight bowed to her before she turned and flew off, and Twilight turned to Flitterwing with a curious look.
“So what does royal jelly do to ponies? We’ve never had any spare to test it.”
Flitterwing hummed. “It makes you sick.” She said. “Like ipecac potion; it’s too much concentrated magic for ponies to safely consume. To be honest, I’m surprised that changelings can stomach it,” she admitted, “from what medic training told me, it’s supposedly like eating a tin of treacle.”
Twilight gave a good natured laugh. “I know somepony who would give that a go.” She said, before winging into the air. “Well come on, we have a meeting with Princess Celestia to get to and a royal changeling to stop from drinking herself into what my friend Pinkie would call a ‘stupid Chryssie stupor’.” She motioned with her hooves to denote where the quotation marks fell into place.
“I shall follow your lead, Princess.” Flitterwing said with a bow before hopping into the air and following the lavender alicorn back to the castle.
As Flitterwing drifted into the distance, Glitter was pelted by a pair of water balloons and promptly tripped onto her face. She got back up on her hooves and shook her head. “I’m fine!” She called, before getting hit in the face again.
~(0)~(0)~(0)~(0)~(0)~(0)~(0)~(0)~(0)~(0)~(0)~(0)~(0)~
Flitterwing was resting in what must have been one of the most comfortable couches in the whole of Equestria, eyeing a plate of similarly exquisite biscuits while Princess Twilight Sparkle went about working on some paperwork nearby. Princess Celestia had left to fetch Chrysalis from her office where she was no doubt hiding. Shred stood just inside the room talking with Booker and Crackle over the Hive Mind. He featured a new black eye, something that he apparently got when one of the royal guards had made a rather unpleasant comment about a fellow guard in the lunch hall.
Shred had won the fight, barely, but he’d earned himself not just a black eye but also disciplinary action from Chrysalis. This time, instead of the bucket that he still carried, it was something more appropriate for what he had done, and was both extra duties and being forced to train a whole new group of fresh recruits, something that most of the guard detested. Fresh recruits were cocky and headstrong, often doing stupid things and getting one other hurt in their actions.
Still, he’d taken the punishment rather well. Since, at the time, he had been bleeding from one nostril and could only half see, it was probable that his punishments hadn’t truly sunk in yet. They most likely would at about dinner time.
Princess Twilight Sparkle filed the last of her work before she sat next to Flitterwing, taking a biscuit with her magic. “You can have a biscuit, Flitterwing; you don’t need to wait for permission.”
Flitterwing gave a sheepish smile. “Sorry; I’m not exactly well learned on how I should be acting in this kind of situation.” She said. “We lived in the castle for a few months, but we never really had any meetings with the Princesses like this.”
“Chrysalis has.” Shred pointed out.
“Oh, yes, this is going to go so well when she gets here.” Flitterwing replied sardonically.
“Well you don’t need to worry about offending me; Pinkie Pie would probably have inhaled the plate by now, and Chrysalis usually only nibbles on any biscuits or such that are on offer.”
The door to the room opened and Celestia walked in, followed closely by a very sheepish Chrysalis.
“Speak of the devil.” Shred said, earning a scowl from Flitterwing.
‘Not now, Shred, please; this is important.’ She sent over the Hive Mind. Shred dipped his head faintly to acknowledge her request.
“Sit, Chrysalis; we have much to talk about.” Celestia ordered, before taking a seat herself. She waited for Chrysalis to sit on a chair before speaking again. “What happened today goes against several laws, Chrysalis, especially child protection laws. You willingly gave a foal a known dangerous and heavily controlled substance in her food; despite the fact that she’s a changeling this is still a grievous crime. You are lucky that she is a changeling and is otherwise unharmed, or I would be giving you a term in the castle dungeon for your blatant disregard for the safety of others.
“As your daughter-in-law said back at the school, this cannot happen again. We have no idea how changeling-pony hybrids would react to changeling royal jelly, nor if what happened to Glitter today is only one of the possible outcomes from changeling foals consuming it; and I am certain that at least one of your changelings would prefer to never find out.” She finished with a pointed look. “Your foolishness has greatly disappointed me today, Chrysalis; I sincerely hope your position is not going to your head.”
Chrysalis nodded faintly as she stared at the floor, or, at least, that’s what they figured she was doing; her mane had drooped over her face and her eyes couldn’t be seen beneath. She was shaking faintly, though whether this was with fear or nervousness they couldn’t tell.
“I’m sorry.” She muttered with a shaky breath.
“We know you are, Chrysalis, but-”
“I bucked up, I understand.” Chrysalis huffed as the ponies in the room blinked at her chosen language, expecting something far worse. “I’m sorry. All I seem to do is buck up. First the starvation, then the invasion, then Slithoof’s death, then the assault on Glitter in the markets, then the hydra attack, then Booker’s wedding, now this… Is there anything important I can’t buck up? I don’t know anymore.” She hissed a breath through her teeth before continuing, “I was a useless bucking queen and now I’m a useless bucking ambassador. I’d resign and just never leave Little Hive, but I don’t think I’d manage that without screwing up and burning the place down.”
The room was quiet except for the clear and audible sounds of the ex-queen sobbing heavily in her seat for a few moments after this outburst, everypony recoiling from her spiel. Flitterwing was the first to break the silence.
“My q-” she began before pausing and taking a breath, “Mom. Mom, look at me.” She waited for Chrysalis to lift her face to her, but found a distinct lack of compliance and bared her teeth. “Look at me!”
Reluctantly Chrysalis did so, lifting her head so she could look over at her daughter-in-law through her tear-filled eyes. Flitterwing visibly calmed as she looked back. “Yes, you screwed up.” She said calmly. “Everypony screws up. We all make mistakes. That’s life. We make mistakes and we learn from them. You need to remember that you’re in a position of power. When you make a mistake, it can have massive consequences. True, some have been worse than others, like the invasion, but we have learned, haven’t we?”
“We certainly learned never to invade Canterlot in the middle of a wedding.” Shred commented.
“Shut up, Shred. This isn’t a joke!” Flitterwing hissed sidelong at him, before returning to Chrysalis. “You’ve learned from your mistakes, yes, but there’s a systematic failure in every one of these cases that you’ve not learned, and it cannot continue. Don’t get me wrong, mom, we’ve all missed it until now, but this event showed us just how big an issue it is.” She steadied her breathing for a moment before continuing. “Glitter could have died today, or her friends or teacher could have died trying to help her. I know you wanted to give her something special, something unforgettable and I understand what it means to you that she’s of royal caste, but… did you, at any point, not think to just ask me? If you’d simply explained it all to me beforehand I probably would have said yes, but under controlled conditions and my strictest supervision. You went behind my back and blatantly disregarded both my authority over my daughter and the safety of her and those around her. You overstepped your bounds today, and you violated the trust she has in you; for that I am deeply disappointed.
“Just… you’ve the same problem that Glitter has with her schoolwork; horsefeathers, I think she got it from you. She works on the questions that really tax her mind, and she gets stuck all too frequently. So she sits there, and she works at it relentlessly, for hours if she needs to, but she won’t ask for nor accept help until it’s impossible to do anything but accept it. You do the same thing, I’ve seen it now; the invasion was all planned solely by you, and we all know how that turned out for us. Today was all on you, something you planned without consulting me, our best mind on changeling physiology and health care, and you could have killed somepony. You need to ask for council more, you need to pass your ideas and plans past those who it involves; you’re not a queen anymore, Chrysalis, you no longer have absolute right. We’re under Equestrian law now and we cannot cover for another one of these mistakes.”
“If it causes bodily harm or costs a life, our hooves are tied, Chrysalis.” Twilight pointed out. “There’s nothing we can do in that case. This is why Prince Blueblood pours over obscure law and such to make his outrageous claims in parliament, to cover his ass should something go awry. Yes, some of the things he manages to get passed are a massive pain in the flank, but we can’t always veto him because he has the law to back him up.”
“As it stands, Chrysalis, the only course of action I can take is to officially warn you about your actions today and place a decree that forbids you from ever creating royal jelly without the strictest supervision. Magic like that is dangerous; not even Luna or I will toy with such volatile magic without extreme caution. I will also be having Glitter sent through a full physical and have a manifest of the laws she is now under because of her change, which includes your new restriction on royal jelly.”
“If I catch Glitter making it she’ll be wearing an anti-magic ring on her horn for a month.” Flitterwing growled before sighing and moving over to sit next to her mother-in-law. “Mom just… promise me you’ll ask for help in future. It’s what we’re here for, you’ve the greatest boon to your decision making that anypony could ask for, the Hive Mind; we’re here to committee for you, you just need to ask, okay?”
Chrysalis nodded and curled around the younger changeling’s form, something that Flitterwing reciprocated calmly.
“I’m so sorry.”
Flitterwing sighed. “I know, mom.
“I know.”
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Oh my, an update!
-Hug- !
Well, I think it's a neat idea for Glitter to be a royal changeling.
if I had to nit-pick anything it's that I don't think royal jelly should be that dangerous.
3736256
My idea was that condensed magic, such as royal jelly, has the potential to explosively expand; this would make it highly dangerous and therefore a substance that would be strictly controlled.
3736290
ah. sense made.
3736290
I rather like the idea of royal jelly being magical nitroglycerin.
Pretty interesting story so far.
Celestia really needs to work on some harsher punishments if the monument to the dead changelings needs to be cleaned daily. :D
3736354
Nah, after all these years the graffiti has died down, Grall just keeps it shiny clean; marble is much more impressive if it's perfectly clean after all.
Awesome update!
3736363 Thank goodness.
That was unexpected.
Well, I'm not going to bitch about it. It's fine by me.
Looking forward to the next update.
Those feels at the end man, those fucking, beautiful feels.
i kinda like how celestia is so amazingly calm about all of the new changeling issues. thou i am curious as to why chrysalis and celestia didnt both perform the ceremony.
Unexpected twist, definitely not unwelcome. She's now Royally adorable
Worth the wait!
Crysalis.....failure.
I did get a good grin out of the royal pillow battle
"
FYI, for those who might not know, treacle is also known as molasses.
Another little factoid, is that on January 15, 1919, a giant tank of molasses detonated in Boston, killing 21 people and injuring 150.
My mind goes odd places sometimes...
3736852
For something which is essentially just liquid sugar, it's impressive that it got that high a kill and injury count.
3736863
Considering it was 2.3million US gallons of the stuff going 35mph, I'm surprised it wasn't any higher...
3736875
Still fun to point out that it was SUGAR EXPLODING. What the HELL did they do to make SUGAR EXPLODE?
That's like a concrete floor turning into acid.
3736881
1. It was an especially hot summer
2. The holding tank wasn't up to snuff
...at that point, physics took hold.
3736333
Which means Royal Changelings come from feeding dynamite to babies and as awesome as that sounds, it would in fact be highly unethical and exceedingly dangerous, and Chrysalis was quite right to feel bad about it.
Remember: when doing anything that may result in an explosion, especially one with any form of fallout like feeding magical dynamite to babies, it is important to maintain a controlled environment! Mythbusters always puts safety first, and so should you!
Im far more happy about the update, and a good one, lovely little shift, and fitting one in the way of chrysalis is. And a bit of fallout for sure. But no fallout here.
What the hell?
She almost dies, then gets up and has a water balloon fight like nothing happened?
Also on school grounds and doesn't get disciplinary action when the teacher gets pelted in the face?
And then the teacher shrugs that off like it didnt happen either and bows to the princess.
Also, chrysalis actually thought turning her granddaughter into an unstable magic bomb, then send her off to school was a good idea?
I am honestly dissapointed with you. You're getting to be lazy with the ideas for this story.
3737198
Wait up, I have your answers here somewhere;
She didn't 'almost die', she 'could have died', big difference; all she went through physically was blackout levels of pain before waking up in a larger, more energetic body. Mumsie and she will be going through the transitional stuff in the next chapter.
This is Equestria, the land of spontaneous musical numbers and Pinkie Pie physics. It's the middle of summer and they're a bunch of children; dunno about you, but when I was at school Water Balloon fights were a rather common thing. Sure we got into trouble over it, but it was inevitable. Hell, one year the principal of my high-school JOINED IN.
One sec,
*didn't*
okay, the question: again, it's the middle of summer in Equestria, this sort of thing is probably the norm. For all you know she could have supplied the ammunition. She didn't, but you can hopefully see my point.
This is something that I, also, found tricky to write and I can see your point, but I'll explain better in the next chapter why Chryssie thought the ends justified the means. I gotta leave something open for next chapters, because I ain't done yet. I don't even know where I'll be finishing this story yet; I have several ideas up in the air all at once and I'm bouncing the ones I like. We'll see in due time, hmm?
Again, one sec;
*disappointed*
okay;
I'm getting lazy..? Really? Was it the 'turns Glitter into a Royal' bit, because that bit had me questioning myself, but at the same time I didn't actually worry about it after discussing it with a friend. Y'know why? Because while it's probably an idea that's been done before, it's one I like and it's one I had planned from the beginning. That's right, the events in this chapter were planned from the start!
I wanted to do this with Glitter because, well, I wanted to juggle her design a bit. I knew I would get bored with having her as a white drone long before I started, and I'm still working on her final designs on my tablet (which is why the mother/daughter bonding bit is reserved for the next chapter.) Where this is all headed, that's ultimately up for me to decide and I hope that everypony enjoys the ride, 'cause it'll be a bumpy one.
3737198
Well much so far has been made of changlings getting away with a lot, so yeah.
So, this Royal Jelly could hypothetically be used to produce some form of magic-based explosive? Sounds like fun. Also, it sounds like exactly the sort of highly dangerous substance that ought to be heavily controlled.
Speaking of dangerous things, Chrysalis should really follow everyone's advice, and start getting some aid with planning. Not that she can't be trusted to make plans on her own, it's just that sometimes, we need a little help for everything to go right.
3736499 I love your avatar, despite the fact that it reminds me that the end is coming soon.
3737263
What is this? You invite us to bitch, and then have the audacity to defend yourself!?
Also, you forgot to capitalize Chrysalis in your spell check of my post.
In all seriousness though, I don't agree with the "could have died" bit, as opposed to "almost dying". Especially when you admit to her having so much physical pain that it causes her to blackout. Literally her brain has shut down to protect its self from the amount of stress happening to the rest of her body. But, I guess this can be chalked up as tomato tomäto.
As for the water balloon shenanigans, I will concede, as you are correct. It's Equestria, and all the silliness that comes with.
And finally for the rest, there is nothing to immediately argue. As the answers to be seen in future chapters. Still though, I can't see how Chrysalis could let Glitter go to school, especially since she knew what might have (and did) happen, and how much easier it would have been to prevent it from happening where it did. But, I suppose that's where you'll have a surprise for us in the upcoming chapter.
3737497
'Course I'm going to defend myself, just because I invited you to bitch at me doesn't mean I'll not defend myself.
And I'll concede I missed the capitol; in my defense I had *and still have* a headache which is a little distracting. It was correct in every other sense and 'chrysalis' is a correct word, what'd you want from me, spellcheck?
Her passing out from pain was, as you've pointed out, her brain saving her from the stresses on her body; but to defend it a little here it worked better to have her pass out from the forces working on her body than to be awake through it all, which would have made me do all the explanation stuff in this chapter rather than the next. I got bitched at enough for the last 20k+ word chapter I did. Sod writing another.
That and I would assume that you'd rather get a 10k chapter now than wait possibly another month for a 20k+, hmm?
3737518
If you think any chapter is good with 10k words in it, then by all means, make a 10k word chapter.
Unlike some other readers, word count doesn't bother me so much. Hell, I kind of wish some of them were 20k, I've enjoyed them so much.
You know, thinking about it now, I actually think I would like to wait that extra month for the 20k+ chapter over the 10k now.
3737538
You wanna know why I originally wrote a 22k chapter? I'll tell ye, it wasn't just for fun (though that was an added bonus) it was because I'm tired of the other end of the spectrum.
We've all seen them, short little stories with barely 100-500 words a chapter that can span for 10, 20 chapters each. Don't get me wrong, they can be cute. I used to shudder at the thought of stretching my stories to 3000 words.
Entire stories.
I concede that they have as much a right to be here as any of the longer, more drawn out stories on FimFiction, like this one, but... I do get a bit weary of finding entire stories of 1000ish words spread over 5+ chapters. No offense to any of the writers of such fics, but I find them, well, unfulfilling to read. The stories can be fine, and their plots at least somewhat interesting; but there's not really enough meaty goodness to sink my teeth into. They're too short, and, while I read them all the same, I don't get the same satisfaction from reading through one as I would a longer story.
That was why I wrote a 22k word first chapter to a story which has expanded to now be, what, 60k words long? I'm not using it as some sort of medal or anything, I originally wrote it as a way to issue a sort of challenge. 'Here I am,' I said, '22k in one chapter and I have thousands more to go; let's see what you can really do.'
I liked the idea that I could inspire those who write shorter stories into, maybe, lengthening their work and broadening their horizons. Rising to the challenge and writing epics that we can all find enjoyable.
Again, I'm not saying that I want short stories to die out; they can be fun little snacks between larger and meatier meals that take hours to read through. All I'm saying is that, while we all start out with short stories like that, we can evolve and do better. Set goals for yourselves. Make stories that meet the requirements of the site, 1000, then double it, then double it, so on and so forth. We all want to get to the featured board, but it all starts by taking the step and making your story something rich and fulfilling, something with depth, thought, and commitment.
I like to think of it as a way that this fandom can be enriched, even if it's only something that's a silly idea that I thought up one summer morn' and didn't really tell anyone.
It's a silly idea, but it's my idea.
3737566
So what I'm hearing is that when this story is finished, the next story you write will have 44k words with subsequent 20k word chapters, ending with at least 120k words to it.
No, what I really mean to say, it isn't a silly idea at all. There might even be some words of inspiration hidden in here, somewhere.
3737647
Man, 44k words in a single chapter? UUUUUGH. I so don't wanna. I think I'll limit myself to a max of 20k, because buck makin' it longer than that. I know it sounds hypocritical, but it's a lot of work to do that. I sometimes struggle to hit 10k, and I'm sure you guys (and gals) would prefer to get more frequent chapters than me writing such long ones would offer.
Long story short, I wrote my massive f*ck off chapter, someone else take a turn.
3737661
At least it wouldn't be the story after that.
I'm not sure fimfiction would allow a 66k word chapter to even be posted. Or atleast, I don't think anyone has been insane enough to try and post something that large.
But I understand what you're getting at. It's probably better to try and keep yourself in a certain range until you get comfortable before pushing yourself further.
...Chrysalis you screwed up big time, and at least you acknowledge that you screwed up. Though if Glitter is now a royal changeling that does bring up some interesting things about succession. Also... Chrysalis is only a baroness? I would think with all that land she would have a higher title.
3736363
You'd think he would be smart enough to *not* polish it every day. Statues have been rubbed down to nothing for less.
If I were in this world, I would steal the jelly and drink halve of it, then turn the rest into vodka
Bitch, Bitch, Bitch, Bitch, Bitch, Bitch...
Naw, I don't mind. Making Twilight a princess was jumping the shark, but this was honestly expected. In fact, as soon as Glitter was eating abnormally delicious pancakes, I was thinking: she's becoming a queen, isn't she?
Good chapter, what took you so long? Not like I'm one to talk though
Also, is it weird that I knew the compound was ethanol as soon as I saw it? I was just like... obvious hydrocarbon is obvious. And familiar. Wait a minute...
Did you mean donkeys? I could see donkeys being vulgar.
imageshack.us/a/img33/5764/likethischapter.jpg
3737429
I know, it's so sad. At least I will have the game to console myself with.
3739391
oh yes, because the species traditionally depicted as the one most likely to throw excrement simply for the fun of it couldn't possibly be vulgar at all. >.> <.< >.>
B*tch nothing I'm ecstatic that you updated after so long
WHAT HAPPENED AT THAT FREAKING WEDING I MUST KNOW
3740019 Exactly.
No, monkeys cursing implies monkeys can talk, so that would imply some weird human thing perhaps, or a whole bunch of other implications.
It'd be much simpler if it were donkeys.
What's to hate? It makes sense to me; Chryssy's passing the torch. Easy.
Another great chapter, although it would've been better without that ham-fisted gay marriage propaganda in the beginning.
3741792
Gay marriage? Wat? Man, I ain't bringing my real-world politics into this, and I find it offensive that you think I would try and push any of that stuff into my works.
Though if you really want my opinion on it, I don't care one way or the other. It doesn't concern me. I was trying to show the last few dregs of serious opposition to the Changelings dying out over the last few years in one fell swoop, but okay.
3741896 Then that might just be my impression. I've heard enough of this lately in the net, and you wrote that; the part with Bookers wedding, with protests, and Celestia's statement; in the same tone that can be seen everywhere, regarding same sex marriage.
Frankly, I don't give a crap, one way or another, but the constant nagging about this, wherever I look just pisses me off.
This look good i give a try tonight after reading chapter fallout equestria to night yay
Silly Chrysalis, you're not a queen with unlimited authority anymore, stop acting like one.
Another excellent chapter. I look forward to the next