> The Royal Nanny
>  by sc2_Nightmare
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> -1-
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Impossible! How could these ponies defeat me again!” The Queen is outraged. Stomping up and down in the small cave she was forced to retreat to as her hive fell and her subjects betrayed her. “And my own creations turning against me! How dare they! The sheer, inconceivable audac-” Her ramblings are abruptly interrupted as her last loyal drone comes to her ‘chambers’.
“My Queen!” the drone proclaims upon stepping past the tethered rag they used as a makeshift curtain to separate the Queen’s chambers from the rest of the cave. “You have returned.”
“So you haven’t gone blind or deaf in my absence,” she scoffs at what was basically the disappointing remains of her once mighty Queendom while rolling her eyes. “Yes, my Queen. I am blessed to be able to witness your magnificence.” Well, at least the little toady was good at exactly what Chrysalis needed right now; stroking her ego.
“My Queen, did your plan work? Did you get the Elements?” At least at most times he was. “The constructs were faulty. They were destroyed.”
“My Queen? Was it maybe... I mean... It has been a while...” She knew exactly where he was going with this, but she could not let him speak it. He would start to question her strength, maybe even her leadership and would eventually leave her like all the other traitors.
“I AM THE QUEEN OF CHANGELINGS!” He instantly throws himself to the ground and grovels before her. “I am your GODDESS! I am the center of your world and the only reason you exist! I. AM. NOT. WEAK!”
“O-o-of course not, my Queen. Please, forgive me,” the drone whimpers. “You are forgiven.” “Thank you, my Queen. You are most generous, my Queen.” With every mention of the words 'my Queen' he bows deeper and deeper.
She motions for him to rise, but he stays cowering on the ground. “You may rise,” she states, slowly losing her patience.
“My Queen, there is still a little problem...” She lets out a big sigh, which on its own would already make it clear enough that she was fed up with having to take care of everything herself and says: “And that is?”
“We are..." he pauses and the Queen can hear him swallowing hard. "...out of food,” the drone concludes meekly.
She whips around, picks him up with her magic and presses him against the wall at her eye level. Mere heartbeats later she stands in front of him, close enough for her breath to condensate on his chitinous face. “Why did I leave you here?” she presses out through gritted teeth.
“To... To resupply the food,” he responds apologetically.
“And what did you do?”
“I... I tried to resupply the food.” The drone tries to find any ledge to hold onto so he would not be just held up by the Queens magic, but there is none.
“Then why are we out of food?” she asks, not any calmer.
“I... I did not find any,” the drone presses out as his breathing becomes more and more strained.
Chrysalis finds herself in a mood to simply kill him. And she would too, if it didn’t mean she really would have to do everything by herself. So she releases him with another huge sigh. The drone slides down the slope of the wall and catches his breath.
“Very well," Chrysalis states after a brief moment of collecting her thoughts. "We should change our location anyways. We have been staying here for too long.” She slowly struts towards the exit of the cave.
“O-Of course my... my Queen." The drone gets back on his hooves and follows her. "Where should we go, my Queen?”
Chrysalis stops in the moth of the cave and looks back at her last subject from the corner of her eye. “I have a taste for...” A disturbingly evil grin sneaks onto Chrysalis’ face, “crystals.”
> -2-
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The prince of the Crystal Empire almost chokes on his breakfast as he goes through the morning paper. “Everything alright, Shining?” his wife asks in a slightly concerned tone.
“No, not really. Another pony went missing." Shining Armor floats the paper over to his wife. "That’s the third pony in three weeks.”
“Okay, that is terrible," she begins skimming the article about the newly disappearance. "But missing ponies is a job for the Empire's guards,” she rationalizes.
“Maybe, but the fact that I have to learn about this through the paper-” She cuts him off, already knowing where this rant will go: “You are not a simple guard anymore.” But it does little to put his mind at ease.
She gets up and comes over to his side of the table, where she then rests one of her wings around his shoulders in an effort to comfort him. “How many times do I need to remind you," she asks softly. "You are the co-ruler of the Crystal Empire now. And as much as we want to," the heartache is audible in her voice, "we cannot afford to be bogged down with small problems.”
He looks up straight into the huge, purple eyes of the pony he loved more than anything in the world. “It is not a small problem for their families,” he says with determination.
As a mother herself, and knowing her husband well enough to know he will not give in, she offers a compromise: “How about you set up a special group of guards just for the task of finding those ponies?”
He responds with a simple smile, gets up, presses a loving kiss onto her cheek and leaves to immediately establish said special guards group.
> -3-
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Prince Shining Armor,” the member of the Missing Ponies Unit salutes. “Don’t tell me you still have no clue,” utters the prince without looking up at the guard. As he gets no response he looks up. The guard remains silent.
Shining Armor lets out a heavy sigh. “It has been a month. How can you not have even the slightest lead,” he laments, not actually expecting to get a response. But he gets one: “Sir, we have found several leads. But all of them ended in nothing. It is like all of them just... got up and left. On their own. Leaving family and friends behind.”
“Just like that?” The disbelieve is written onto the prince's face. “Yes, Sir. Just like that." The guard presents the compiled report. "Without warning or anything.”
“Well, you will keep looking anyways.” Shining Armor takes the file and looks into it. “Of course, Sir.” “We cannot give up." Shining finds a list of relatives to the missing ponies and adds: "For their families.”
Shining Armor dismisses the guard and returns to the other papers on his desk. The guard salutes again and leaves. Shining goes through the papers, but his mind stays with the missing ponies. Three ponies went missing. Just got up and left. And for a month my special unit has found nothing. How? It sounds like they were not themsel-
There is a sudden knock on the door that rips him from his thoughts. It takes him so long to gather himself that there is even a second, more hesitant knock. “Yes? Come in, please,” he finally responds.
The door opens a bit and a young mare pokes her head in: “P-Prince Shining Armor?” Her voice is soft and only barely audible. “That is me,” he smiles gently, “How may I help you?”
“I... Uhm... Well... I...” She is still standing in the half open door and nervously shifting from one side to the other.
“Are you okay, miss? Would you like to come in?” He gets up and comes over to the door, but she is already in when he steps around his table. He is rather surprised to see that this pegasus pony is quite tall. Maybe even taller than him, if she was standing straight.
“I... Uhm... It is an honor to meet you, my Prince.” She blushes visibly, even through her already red coat.
“Err... Okay?” He is not sure how to react. This is not a situation he has ever found himself in before. Then he realizes that he still doesn’t know her name. “So, may I ask who you are?”
“Oh, yes! O-Of course,” she immediately begins to panic, “I... I am Crimson Butterfly." She offers a hoof to shake, but then pulls it back, only to offer it again moments later. "Y-Your wife, the Princess, hired me to look after your daughter.”
“Ah. Yes, of course.” He remembers Cadance telling him something about finally hiring a nanny. It will be a shame to spend less time with his little girl, but at least he will be able to get work done. And sleeping. Sleeping again will be nice. He gallantly takes her hoof and kisses it. He then immediately wonders why he did that. “It was today that you started,” he asks to distract both himself and her from that silly action.
“Y-Yes, Prince Shining Armor, sir.” She still blushes though.
“Please, Miss Butterfly, Shining Armor will do,” he says almost blushing himself. She blinks at him several times and he realizes that he just did the thing he told her not to do, address her formally. He starts to chuckle. “Okay. I... Yeah... Crimson? Is Crimson okay?”
She lets out a cute giggle and he feels his cheeks turning red. He is not sure what it is about this mare that makes him act this way, but he can’t help it.
"Yes, Crimson will be fine," she responds with a gentle smile. For a moment they just stand there looking at each other until the mare breaks the silence: “I... I better go look after the little one now.” She excuses herself and leaves.
Shining Armor keeps standing in place a few moments longer, pondering what to do next. Is he actually interested in the nanny? Does he have feelings for her? Impossible! He loves Cadance! After what feels like way too long he makes the decision to tell Cadance. Hiding and lying about that he might actually have feelings for the nanny will only make things worse and potentially risk his marriage. And he is not going to be that stupid.


Later that day Crimson Butterfly returns to her home on the outskirts of the Empire. She needs to pack some things to move to the castle. Opening the door she is greeted by an unexpected sight. A single changeling drone is sitting in the middle of her living room.
“What the-,” she gasps and kicks the door closed behind her. “Are you insane?!”
The drone cowers in fear as the queen drops the magical disguise of the red pegasus with the long yellow mane and the soft voice. “You cannot just run around without a disguise! You are risking everything you worthless idiot!”
“I... I am sorry my queen. I... I was just-,” the drone whimpers.
“Be quiet and grateful that I am in a good mood.” A devious grin spreads on her face as she begins to gather some of the essentials she needs to bring with her.
“Does that mean-” the drone starts excitedly but Chrysalis answers before the drone can finish: “Yes. You are looking at the new nanny of the crystal heiress.”
> -4-
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Shining, it has been six months...” The Princess of the Crystal Empire approaches her husband, who is once more hunched over his desk, brooding over the reports by the MPU, as he has done so many times in the past weeks.
“But we cannot give up on those ponies, Cadance,” he responds with a heavy, tired voice. For the past few days the two have been debating this topic and both are equally tired of the entire argument.
She sighs heavily and asks: “Have there been any new disappearances? Any new developments? Anything? Anything that hasn't been there yesterday?”
“No, but... maybe I am just missing-” He interrupts himself as the door is opened without warning. In steps the red pegasus mare with the long yellow mane.
“Look, Flurry. Here are your parents,” the nanny says as she enters, the small child riding on her back.
“Crimson? This is really not a good moment.” Shining tries to motivate the mare to leave, but she stays.
“I am sorry, my prince. But your daughter insisted on showing you her newest masterpiece.” The little filly is waving a piece of paper in the air. Both parents instantly drop their argument and turn all their attention to the young princess and her artwork: a masterfully simplistic piece of four ponies in a big house with towers and walls drawn in crayon.
“Aww. Is that us,” Cadance asks her little daughter. Flurry lets out the kind of cheery giggle only small children are capable of, the kind that makes everyone who hears it smile, and nods. Shining Armor hurries to clean the files of his desk before Crimson puts the princess and her drawing down on the table.
They all gather around Flurry Heart to take a closer look at the drawing. The young princess then starts to explain it.
“Mawa,” she points to the pink figure on the left, spouting a long stick from the round head and two clouds streaching out from the body. Pointing at the blue one with a similar object stuck to the head, that looks like she had been trying to draw it in white first the princess proclaims: "Da." She then moves on to the small pink pony, this time with only the cloudy objects representing wings, and then taps her chest.
“And that is you?” Cadance asks with a smile. Her daughter is clearly happy that her mother understood. "But where is your horn," the mother adds while tapping the tip of her daughters horn. Flurry looks surprised, as if she hadn't even realized she had a horn. Her mood turns bad, but before she can start to cry, Crimson presents her with the pink crayon and Flurry adds a horn to her selfportrait.
“And this...” Shining points to the last pony, drawn in red but with wings that look more like those of a butterfly than those of a pegasus, ”is Crimson?”
Flurry smiles, “Da. Fewy,” and hugs the neck of her nanny. “Fewy?” Shining ask slightly confused.
“Oh, I recently read her a story and she now thinks I am her fairy godmother,” the red mare tries to explain.
“Aww, that is adorable,” coos Cadance in response.
“To be honest, maybe you are, Crimson,” says Shining. The mares look at him bewildered for a moment until he explains: “You came to us in our time of need and like magic, everything about you is perfect.” Crimson blushes slightly. Cadance squints at him and states: “I am right here!”
“Wha- Nono!" He begins to panic. "That’s not how- I mean- I did not- I... I swear!” Cadance smiles deviously while Shining Armor is searching for words.
“Oh, I know, you lovable dork. Come here,” says Cadance finally before giving her husband a long kiss. "I am just teasing."
“Come little princess, let us go play some more,” Crimson says while picking up Flurry again. "And let's find a nice place for your art," the mare adds collecting the drawing. They leave just in time as Shining sweeps his wife off her hooves while the door falls closed behind Crimson and Flurry.
> -5-
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“My Queen, I do not mean to question you," the drone chooses his words very carefully, "or seem impatient, but when will your plan... bear fruit?”
“Hm?” Chrysalis looks up from the present she was carefully wrapping and directly at her last loyal drone.
“H-How much longer until-” “Put your hoof here.” The drone obliges and holds the band in place while the queen ties a knot. “What... What is this even,” asks the drone curiously.
“A gift for Flurry Heart. It’s her birthday today. She is turning five.” the queen answers while tying a neat bow. “You can take back your hoof now.” Again the drone follows his queens command.
“But... my queen... what is with-” The queen stands up and changes into her disguise. “Later. I can’t miss her party.” She picks up the wrapped present and leaves.
“What is a birthday?” mutters the befuddled drone.