~1 month after awakening~

It had been a rather busy month, a part of him regretting not interfering with the destiny of the Pillars of Harmony, as they would later be called. Ebony looks contemplatively at his palm as he muses to himself over how things had been progressing. With the Pillars in Limbo, that meant sometime soon the battle between Discord and the Alicorn Sisters would be occurring. The chaos caused by Discord had been enough to hide his harvesting of wood to make a lot of paper, but he had held off trying to make any books until after Discord is taken down. In the meantime, he had the changelings gathering copies of common scrolls he intended to convert into book format. Turning his gaze to some of the changeling drones, he makes note they had been showing increasing levels of personality and identity equivalent to the amount of love they had been fed at a consistent rate. He also noted the changelings holes have begun slowly closing up, something he chalked up to the corruption being counter balanced by his actions. Having an in-depth knowledge of how too much chaos corruption can affect an individual made finding a solution a lot simpler. Also having spent a long-time studying changeling biology in the time that no longer exists, he was aware of a lot of their biological functions, which then he could compare to their current biological functions.

Some of the changelings, with the Pillar matter settled, he had been sending into pony settlements in disguise to gather intelligence. Sure, it cost him a few jars of condensed love, converted from base residual energy, but it was a price well paid in his opinion. Queen Chrysalis was firmly entrenched in his new hive and seemed to have her own plans based on what she had heard him mentioning, but he didn't mind. Afterall, what is a queen if not someone who rules independently and for their own people's future. He silently makes a mental notation to be more careful on what he shares with her, just to see what happens in a more controllable format. It wouldn't do for future projects tobe put at risk or damaged by giving her too much information.

Dusting himself off as he stands, he focuses on the mountain that would later become the city of Canterlot with an annoyed frown. It would seem his missing lab somehow in this world ended up being shoved inside a giant crystal within the crystal mines, which means he would either have to change history to retrieve it, or hope no one else get into it before he could access the lab. Personally, he blamed Discord for the location of his lab, just enough of a chaotic twist to annoy him without being provable that Discord had a claw in the matter. He made a mental notation to paint Discords statue plaid the first chance he gets. While he's musing on all the ideas to get back at Discord for the perceived moving of his lab, he feels at light tapping on his leg, looking down at one of the bulkier changeling drones. Searching his mind for a name to match to the drone's form, he snaps his fingers recalling to himself," Yes Mandible?"

"Queen want, not happy, demand speak", Mandible speaks in broken Equish, the drone like many growing slowly more used to using words as its mind regains more cognition.

"Okay i will be right down," Tussling the head find of the drone, who he makes a mental note was beginning to develop into a warrior drone. Hopping off the top of the structure he makes his way down the stairs within, into the pseudo labyrinth of tunnels that composed the hive internal structure. Nodding and smiling to changelings as he passes them working within the hive, he makes notes how much the hive has grown since he helped get it started almost a month ago. It made him feel good inside to help another group get off its feet, a sort of hobby he had picked up in his many travels even back in the Rhydinverse. Unfortunately, those good cheerful feelings were meant to die in a fire the moment he saw the livid upset face Queen Chrysalis was making, clearly something had got wrong worse than Celestia being denied cake for a month. "I am going to go out on a limb and blame Discord for whatever most likely has you upset.....that or something I didn't expect occurred."

The Discord comment actually got a chuckle out of the queen before she resumes frowning, "Well your right on at least part of your guess. It would seem Discord has been teasing the Alicorn Sisters with dropping statues of you at random places all over the place. Mutated caricatures of you, but still images nonetheless, which is making the princesses send out groups to try and find this strange hornless minotaur as you have been dubbed." She frowns again sitting back in her throne watching Ebony take a seat next to her, "Which wouldn't be such a bad thing if they didn't somehow, most likely another prank by Discord, discover by "accident" a group of gatherer drones thus making Celestia and Luna aware of changelings.", the word accident she emphasizes with air quotes using her hooves. "Since the gatherer drones were in fact only retrieving herbs and spices and not actually committing crimes, and as you advised using false identities that matched no other ponies, the princesses let them go after sending me a formal invitation to tea and discussions. And while that wouldn't be a bad thing, I have little doubt you won't come up in the conversations."

"I see....", Ebony places his palms in his lap as he sits back in his seat, closing his eyes in contemplation. Perhaps he had been too passive when dealing with Discord and the Alicorn Sisters. Celestia was easy at this time to deal with as long as one kept a cool head and followed perceived protocol. Her sister Luna on the other hand had a personality that was growing more wanting to prove herself, to step out of the perceived shadow of her older sister. It didn't help that Discord gave ponies a reason to fear the unknown and darkness with some of his more extreme antics, something which hurt as a consequence Luna and her nightguard reputations. "If you want, I can make an appearance and try to unruffle some mental feathers. I do after all miss having tea with guests at my own tower, in my homelands. And by making an appearance, short of a prank by Discord, which is highly likely knowing him, maybe we can both profit from this bit of diplomacy."

Rubbing the bridge of her forehead with one hoof, Chrysalis looks at Ebony with one eye, "So you're telling me, despite knowing that Discord is most likely to not only intervene but also pull a prank on this meeting, that you still would be willing to attend with me? I know you told me you were in a petrificational stasis before waking up in this current time period, but are you sure your brain is fully not stone? Thats like walking into a tavern and handing every pony a knife, then asking them to throw them at you at the same time and expecting to walk away without a scratch."

"Actually, I have done that before, and yes I get the reference, its reckless and dangerous. As well as most likely to ruin many of my future plans, but I have to point out 2 things. One, no plan survives the first encounter in any situation, no matter how much one prepares. And secondly, no person has ever accused me of being perfectly rational and sane, not even my closest long-term allies. Sometimes walking into the trap filled room is the safest option, rather than letting it spring when least expecting it." Ebony casually shrugs chuckling abit at the look of annoyed confusion on the changeling queens face. That was a look he was so used to getting over the years, especially when people thought they knew him and then he would do something stupid seeming, yet efficient enough to work.

Taking a breath to center herself and shaking her head in annoyance, Chrysalis looked back at Ebony, "If this goes wrong, I am going with plan B, and you can deal with the sisters on your own. I already have had the drones preparing a backup hive in another part of the forest in case the worst occurs. With a third location planned if that backup hive isn't viable. I am not sticking around if you, Discord, or the sisters in any combination get into a knock down drag out fight. With what is fated to happen up north I intend my kind to survive and thrive, with or without your help. Oh, and I will also be taking the printing press if I have to flee, I like how it looks and its form gives me many ideas."

While he had been expecting her to bail if things got dicey, he hadn't been expecting her to steal his book making project as well. Blinking to himself, Ebony scratches the back of his head chuckling abit," Fair enough". Changelings were very adaptable survivors he reminded himself, so reusing something left in their care, and improving on it wasn't a foregone conclusion." But if you're going to take the press, make sure to also take the two crates I marked as research ideas, that way if this play gets vaporized or worse, the plans aren't wasted, and you have a leg up in a few future plans I had set aside."

Again, the changeling queen found herself looking at Ebony like he was nine cents short of a dime, and pondering if it wasn't safer to trust Discord at this point with the lack of sanity she was hearing. Then again Discord was to blame for her current predicament, so maybe better the mad pony she knew then that mad pony she didn't know. She had perused some of those notes of ideas on the few times Ebony had been gathering wood to turn into paper. Watching him cut and crush the wood into thin paper slices had been very disturbing. The main two research ideas she had been interested in related to one labeled modern plumbing and the other being labeled hot springs. Waving dismissively to Ebony she resumed communing with the changelings of her hive in the hivemind, she had plans to make if she was to attend this teatime talks in the near future.

Author's Note

comment appreciated, ideas and notions welcomed, if your going to downvote at least tell me why, knowledge helps me improve as a writer....if there is something a person wants clarification on, just ask