Tell Me a Duck Story
A collaborative project with Lord OneFish and listener
Queen Chrysalis strolled through her chambers, thinking about her plan. It was foal-proof, no room for error. With it, she would have a source of nourishment for her hive for decades to come. Not only was the plan the result of years of planning, but she had her loyal army behind her. Celestia wasn’t going to win this time.
She sighed, feeling regret at the necessity of the conflict, silently wishing for another way. But there was none. She had to take immediate action after what Celestia did to her beloved kingdom. The time window for her to put her contingency into practice was shrinking by the hour. She started to hyperventilate, worried that because of her, The Hive would-
Her train of thought was derailed by a sudden knock on her door.
“Come in,” replied the Queen at the sudden knocking, wondering who could be the little brat who’s bothering her.
Moments later a changeling entered the room, it’s compound eyes darting for a moment before resting on Chrysalis.
“What do you want, young one?” curled the Queen behind the changeling, eliciting an eep from him.
“Oh… uh, excuse me my Queen - I have a briefing from general Mantis about the operation we’ve been preparing for.” replied the guard, levitating a number of papers from the satchel slung around his thorax.
“Wonderful. Please, read away.” she said, rolling her eyes.
He cleared his throat “...the war room decided last night that the Changeling Army is going to deploy its forces aroun-”
"I know, I was the one to suggest the time," Chrysalis interrupted, quickly skimming through the papers the changeling spread out through the table. “Please, try and keep to the details I haven’t been informed of yet.”
The messenger looked a bit flustered, and started rummaging around the files he was carrying
“Uh, I’m afraid your majesty that everything here seems to have already been approved by you. I don’t know why they would send you something you’ve already read, I’m just the messenger-”
“Then tell Mantis that until he stops sending me useless information I will not be attending any of his silly little war councils. That insect thinks he runs the place..”
"Yes my Queen, is that the reason you want me to give to Mantis or would you prefer I give him a different one?" asked the guard, fearing the Queen’s anger would be directed at him instead of through him.
"Well, personally I've been dying to bathe... On second thoughts that’s far too intimate to function as an excuse. Tell them I had personal matters to take care of - that should suffice. After all, can't a queen have a nice, warm bath?" trailed off Chrysalis, suddenly noticing the puzzled look coming from the changeling, "What's wrong, uh?”
She stopped momentarily, unsure of his name.
“Chitin, Your Majesty,” he replied, understanding the Queen’s problem. Having several thousand children could have that effect.
“Well then Chitin. Do you have a problem with me taking a little bath?" she trailed off, staring at the changeling with a serious look.
"Oh, absolutely not my Queen. By your command, I shall tell general Mantis to appoint the conference for 5 hours from now, assuming that Your Majesty has finished with her bath. Take no rush my Queen, the committee and war room will be patient for your speech— I also recom-" the changeling once again got interrupted by an impatient Chrysalis, earning a glance from him.
"Perfect, little one. Those dirty little ponies in Canterlot will never expect this attack! Oh Celestia, you're going down this ti-" she forgot the changeling was still in the room with her, with a slight chuckle she fixated her occasional regal position, "Right, right. Go along my child, be sure to take your papers with you."
"Aye, my Queen." the guard complied, using his magic to fold the long documents back into place. He was surely tired of carrying so nonsensical documents around the kingdom.
The changeling proceeded to exit the room, closing the door slowly, trying not to startle his beloved Queen. When he was outside, he was sure he heard a rubber ducky squeak and quite an unfeminine yelp. He also heard a sudden tumbling of some metal object. Immediately, he reopened the door only to find Chrysalis on the floor, with her rump up, and a rubber ducky on the grasp of her hoof.
“My Queen! What has happened? Are you okay?” started the changeling, shuffling to the queen’s side, trying to help her up from a seemingly awkward position. For the changeling, it was quite funny to see such an important figure of the changeling kingdom like this, but hey, he at least should have some cordiality too— after all, she’s his queen.
“Yes, yes, I am fine. Just a silly little trip,” the queen replied, shaking of from the fall she just had a while ago. Still grasping her beloved rubber ducky, she continued, “I fell on that useless little wrench someone left yesterday! Which I forgot of moving earlier today. Would you kindly move that devilish prop to the Management Centre where it’s supposed to be? I’ll take care of the brat who left this thing later— it feels as if they’re plotting something against me!”
The changeling nodded, taking the seemingly innocent utility in his grasp. Somewhere in his mind, he was facehoofing at the whole situation. Who would even trip on a wrench, anyway?
A certain object that the Queen was holding caught his attention, it was a yellow rubber duck, quite big for his own tastes, but good looking regardless. The rubber toy had a tiny sailor hat on, with the inscription of ‘CYAGD’ plastered around it. What could that acronym mean? Probably it was something personal of the queen…
Or probably was something silly.
He returned his glance to his queen, who was staring at him the whole time, “What? You don’t like him? He’s truly the embodiment of evil, believe me.”
The changeling raised a brow at the queen’s statement, thoughtful all the time. What could she possibly be thinking about? He wondered.
“Indeed, my Queen. Uh… he’s really malevolent-looking—The stare in his eyes is truly… evil.” he tried to follow her Queen’s train of thought, trying not to gain a stare of disaproval from his Queen.
“Anyway, you have something to do which I requested of, hmm?” replied Chrysalis, trying to urge the changeling guard out of the room—she wanted to have a nice shower with her little ducky after all. She took a grasp of her yellow toy once again, and she fetched a towel with her magic, covering her hindquarters with it.
“Yes I do, my Queen. The devilish wrench shall go away in a whiff!” the changeling tried to be enthusiastic this time, but failed miserably.
Chrysalis trotted behind the changeling, hushing him to exit the room already. After all, she needed some privacy to enjoy the bath, or else she’d had those annoying paparazzi from last week…
Once the irritating changeling was outside the room, Chrysalis packed all of her things she would use in the shower. Oh, this was going to be a good bath, she thought. Finally, after months of reconstructing the kingdom after the awful battle between the Gryphon and Changeling kingdoms, she could have an unbothered, pleasant bath… and with the company of her beloved rubber ducky of course.
She shuffled towards the door of her bathroom, with every step she wondered about the upcoming invasion of Canterlot. Moments later she shook her head, it’d be best for her if she had her mind cleared about it—she didn’t want to get perturbed at all while showering.
Opening the entrance to her shower room, she scanned her surroundings for a brief moment. In the far end of the room, there laid the glorious object she called her ‘bath’. At the sides of the room, were two gigantic mirrors covering both of the walls. They were probably used for Chrysalis to comb her tail, or for other uses. At the sides there also could be found two cabinets, filled with a whole variety of shampoos, soaps, and mane combs. She didn’t payed much attention to the other furniture resting on the room, she only focused on getting close enough to the bath itself.
She finally entered the room, by doing so she was greeted upon with a cold breeze—The Queen shivered a little, but nonetheless continued her trot towards the tub. Getting closer to the tub, she took three different shampoos, two tonics in between from the cabinet at her left, totally not caring about their brand. She also took ahold two soaps, and a random mixture she has never used before when showering. It had a note from the local brewery shop, ‘Don’t use when there’s already three shampoos mixed in tub. Caution.’ Of course, Chrysalis didn’t see such warning—she just wanted to wash away all the stress created by past events.
“Oh, Celestia… How long have I waited for this opportunity, eh? It’s been quite a while if you hadn’t noticed, what you did to my kingdom will not be forgotten in the past— neither shall I forget about such event, but in the meantime I’ll just…” she squeezed one bottle of shampoo in sheer anger, “I’ll just take it easy right now, yes.” she tried to calm herself, while taking a glance at her toy.
“Indeed, master Ducky, I shall start up the tub.” she giggled, hoping that absolutely no one is watching her… or worst, recording her little talk with her companion.
Hot water started to pour down the tub, filling its capacity to the top. The Queen was now ready for her hopefully long-lasting bath, softly squeezing her rubber ducky, she quickly jumped inside the tub, creating a small wave of water to collapse down on the floor. She took her crown away, and softly placed it on a nearby table along with the two soaps and the mysterious bottle she took earlier.
Still grasping the bathroom utensils, she carefully started to pour each of the shampoos and tonics at a time, creating a small bump of chemicals on the surface of the water. She stirred the mixture of shampoos with her hoof, producing an entire wave of bubbles to wash over her. Luckily her companion had already been placed in a toy ship, and endured through the sudden flow of water.
“Captain Ducky!” she said playfully, “Thou shalt not escape this tub!” she continued, mimicking a certain alicorn.
“Thee shall know the principles of our plan! It is quite easy if thou does pay attention.” she said, remembering the plan she designed nearly six months by now.
She giggled in an evilish manner, now changing her tone to a more civilized one.
“First, we shall attack the central plaza in Canterlot, this will create a major uproar in the city, thus bringing most of the guards into its epicenter. While this is happening, there will be no guards left in the castle itself, here’s where I take my role.” she uttered, playfully splashing the little toy ship with water.
“I shall trick that tedious Twilight Sparkle and get her out of my way, by simply taking her beloved foalsitter’s form,” she chuckled “Hmm, this should be easier than expected.” Chrysalis once again giggled, still stirring the water to create the wanted effect.
At one point after all the stirring, the whole tub was filled with bubbles, many of which were falling down the bath, slowly creating a large puddle of water. The mare looked down at the tub’s sides, revealing a already wet floor-mat. She sighed at the occurrence, probably the maid changeling will clean that up.
Or probably not...
She continued her malevolent speech, thoroughly describing her future actions to the city of Canterlot—somewhere in her mind she felt that she was being watched…
The Queen shook off the thought, knowing that she was in her own personal bathroom and it was locked with a soundproof spell that only her changelings could interfere in.
She hovered both of the soaps over the toy ship, “After Twilight Sparkle is dealt with, I shall confront Celestia myself whilst my whole Changeling Army is destroying the Canterlot forces. Yes! I can call it a sure victory from now on.” she finished, softly squeezing the rubber duck and getting a ‘Quack’ in response. She let go of the two soaps, both which splashed on the tub producing a small wave that rocked the ship to and fro. Luckily, Captain Ducky was still glued to the ship, still wearing his little sailor hat.
Chrysalis scooped up some water from the tub, sprinkling it on her face, it refreshed her completely. Sure, the water was hot but she didn’t mind.
“Captain Ducky, you have no idea how much I’m going to enjoy taking the ponies down on the day they should be celebrating! Oh... It’s so delicious, I can almost taste the emotion that’ll be flowing on that day.” She said, watching the ship slowly stop tipping about and stay still on the water. “Oh, just like this ship, I suppose.”
She nodded to herself. “Look at this Captain Ducky. It’s just like this ship! It’s so calm. So peaceful. But then, here comes the changelings!” She said loudly, slapping her holey arm down on the water, the sudden waves threatening to capsize the boat, the water slapping at the sides of the tub, the waves almost cresting over the walls and onto the floor.
The boat knocked against the sides, causing Chrysalis to grin. “Okay, Captain Ducky. Do you see what I mean? She asked, gently grasping the rubber duck and squeezing, eliciting a soft ‘squeak’ from it.
“I knew you would agree! Those ponies have had it too good for far too long! All that love! And happiness!” She said, frowning slightly, the warm water slowly stopping again as she stilled herself. “If only Celestia realized just what she has.” She rolled her eyes. “Besides, those ponies are too colorful...” She made a slight gagging motion. “I mean, what’s wrong with a nice black color?”
Captain Ducky didn’t say anything. He just looked at her with his soft, warm eyes.
Chrysalis sighed. “I see what you mean, Captain Ducky. I mean, sure... A forcible takeover of the pony species might not be the best way to feed my changelings. But, just look at them! I mean, they’re so bigoted and racist against anything non-pony that they just saw my scout and ran off screaming.”
Her eyes hardened, the water starting to cool slightly as she picked up the boat with Captain Ducky. “It’s either them or us, Captain Ducky. Which side are you on?” She asked, staring him down.
The duck stared right back, before Chrysalis dropped him in the water, sighing. “You’re right Captain Ducky. I can see the determination in your eyes.” She looked at him for a moment, before pushing him slightly, sending him to the other end of the bathtub.
“Our time draws to an end, Captain Ducky. I am afra-” She started, before the door burst open and a changeling guard stood there, his weapon brandished.
“My Queen! I heard... “ He started to say, before the scene sunk in.
Chrysalis was in the bathtub, looking at a simple rubber duck with a hat on it, before her gaze ripped up to the guard, her eyes wide with anger.
“What have I told you about disturbing us while we bathe!” She shouted at him, standing out of the water suddenly, water sloshing all over the bathroom floor.
“I am sorry, My Queen! But I heard voices and....” He pauses, before asking a question a little fearfully.
“I.. am sorry again, my queen. But we?” He asked, confused.
Chrysalis froze for a second, before her eyes flashed green, and a sopping wet towel was thrown at the guard with her magic, her voice following close behind it.
“I said nothing of we! It is just I in here!” She shouted at the guard, who shrank back a little bit.
“Now! Begone!” She shouted at him, shoving him out the door and slamming the door to her royal chambers shut, sighing as she sunk back into the bathtub, the water up almost up to her mouth with how low she had sunk.
She glanced at Captain Ducky.
“They must never know of our love, Captain Ducky.” she said, softly kissing the rubber toy on its lips.
~The End~
