“You sure you have everything you need, sweetheart?”
“Yes, Mom! Thank you!”
“And how about you, sweetie? Did you remember your backpack? I left it for you by the door, so you wouldn’t miss it on your way out.”
“I got it, thanks Mom!”
“Are you sure you can’t stay another few days?”
“Yeah, they miss me back in Ponyville. They’re having another festival or something, I said I’d help Pinkie decorate, you know how it goes.” Twilight Sparkle chuckled, shrugging her shoulders as her mother nuzzled her cheek.
“Of course, sweetheart, I understand.” Twilight Velvet smiled, leaning close to press a kiss to Spike’s forehead tenderly. “You two have fun. I love you.”
“Love you too, Mom.” Spike giggled, hugging her face until Twilight Sparkle began to trot away.
“Love you too! Good luck with the garden!” Twilight Sparkle called back over her shoulder, her voice growing fainter and fainter as she galloped away from sight.
“Have a safe journey!” Twilight Velvet yelled back to her, watching them until they were around the corner and gone. She watched for a few moments longer, then sagged against the fence with a sigh.
She stood there for a few moments in silence, then turned back towards the wheelbarrow filled with tulip bulbs, using her magic to lift the first three out - but before she could start, she had to stop again. “Wait a moment … What did you leave behind this time, Twi?” She murmured, walking towards her front stoop, where a small slip of paper lay on the top step.
Your time shall come!
“Your time shall come…?” Twilight Velvet read aloud, frowning to herself in confusion. She looked around the yard, half-expecting to see the note-writer waiting for her, but no one appeared, leaving her to frown down at the note again. She stood for a moment in silence, then turned back towards her house, trotting inside. She didn’t hear the azalea bush shuffle behind her, nor see the shadow that darted from window to window, tracking her movement through the house.
“Yessss, yessss, she’ss terrified, she’sss ssseeking sssolace in memoriesss of her children... ” The shadow hissed, watching as Twilight Velvet pinned the note on a corkboard in the kitchen.
“Such fear … such anxiety… watch how she ssssssquirmss!!” The voice hissed gleefully, watching Twilight Velvet lift a quill with her magic, beginning to pen a missive. A missive of fear!
“Dear Twi and Spike, thank you so much for the sweet note! It was truly a surprise, I almost missed it where you left it by the front door! I -”
“WHAT?!?”
“Goodness!” Twilight Velvet startled sharply, her eyes drawn to the window. “Did the neighbor’s cat get out again?”
Outside, just below the window, Chrysalis the Changeling Queen huddled with the tiny remains of her army, taking in deep, gasping breaths of rage through her nose, no less than six tiny hooves pressed to her mouth to keep any sound from escaping. She huffed in silence for several long minutes, her slitted eyes glowing with rage, before she could compose herself enough to slink away from the window.
She lead her tiny group from shadow to shadow, darting from one bush to another until they made it safely back to their current base of operations - an alley behind a popular doughnut shop in Upper Canterlot Square. There was a large enough space behind the dumpster for them to huddle together and hide during the daytime, and there were plenty of stale doughnuts to help supplement their badly flagging supplies of love. Luckily for them, pudgy Canterlot ponies loved doughnuts.
“An inspirational note!” Chrysalis keened. “She thought it was an encouraging note! Sent by her - her daughter!” Chrysalis spat, very nearly cracking her horn in half as she paced back and forth in the small space.
“The plan! The plan!” Trilled one of her underlings in its high, buzzing voice. Several others soon took up his cry, as changelings tend to do, mimicking one another in a half-nonsensical wall of sound.
“Right! The plan! We can still salvage this!” Chrysalis hissed, slowly regaining her composure, turning herself around in the cramped space, pushing her buzzing underlings aside so she could face the wall squarely, where a smudged handful of papers were tacked up.
THE PLAN
1. Wait for all other ponies to leave the house.
Twilight Sparkle ✓
Wyrmling ✓
Twilight Sparkle’s father ✓
2. Break Twilight Sparkle’s mother’s spirit with threatening missives
3. Feed off of her fear
4. Frighten her with random noises, traps
5. When she is weakened from lack of sleep and fear, kidnap her and lay a trap for Twilight Sparkle!!!
6. Trade Twilight Sparkle’s mother’s life for the kingdom (mothers are very important in this society)
7. Rule Equestria as Queen!!!!!
“Very well… tomorrow, we shall re-attempt step two. We have a week before the father returns from his conference - that’s more than enough time to break something as fragile as her spirit.” Chrysalis released a sharp sigh, then turned back to her underlings. “For now, conserve your energy. We will begin again in the morning.”
Chrysalis settled down, folding her long legs and wings around herself, and closed her eyes as her buzzing companions did the same, surrounding her with their small, dark bodies to keep her warm through the night. “If that mare isn’t too stupid to be afraid, anyway.” She grumbled to herself, her lip curling into a snarl as she fell asleep.
+++
The next day, the changelings and their queen arose just before dawn to sneak over to Twilight Velvet’s house. Their stores of love were far too low to allow shapeshifting, so they had to rely on their natural camouflage, hiding in dark shadow to disguise their black, chitinous coats. They had set up the perfect hiding spot under the massive azalea bush to the left of the house, digging down to create a sort of trench to hide in.
A changeling scout, holding the new, improved threatening note between its teeth, cautiously ventured forward, looking around before dropping the note on the front stoop.
“Soon, the mother shall know what true fear is…” Chrysalis hissed eagerly, baring her long fangs in a grin as the sun began to slowly rise.
The changelings huddled together in their pink fortress, watching the front door eagerly, although it was several hours before Twilight Velvet made an appearance. Bedraggled and wearing a robe, she shuffled outside, her glittering unicorn magic keeping a coffee cup afloat near her mouth for frequent sips. She walked right past the note - again?! Chrysalis hissed under her breath - and bent down to pick up the morning newspaper, slowly shuffling her way back towards her house.
This was it! The moment of retribution, when Chrysalis’ patience and brilliant planning would come into their true moment of glory! The moment when all of her weeks, months of longing would finally be repaid, as the terror, the sheer horror of the note’s meaning spread over this dim pony’s face like hot glaze dripping onto a particularly flat doughnut!!
...Maybe I’ve been spending a little too much time outside the doughnut shop, Chrysalis thought with a scowl.
Twilight Velvet stopped suddenly, bending down to pick up the note with her hoof.
Your day of recognition is almost here!!!
“Recognition?” Twilight Velvet gasped, reading the note over twice before the meaning suddenly became clear, and her eyes filled with tears.
“Yes! Yesss!!” Chrysalis hissed, feeling a strong, potent emotion coming off of her in waves, even from here. Was it rage? Fear? Grief?!
“They must be planning me a treat for Mother’s Day!” She cooed, clutching the note to her chest tightly before galloping inside, forgetting her newspaper entirely.
“Wh - What happened?” Chrysalis demanded, watching the scene with increasing dismay, unable to understand how it went so terribly wrong so quickly. “What happened!?” She screeched, and her entire changeling contingent had to hold onto her tail to keep her from charging out from under the bush.
“Your Majesty! The neighbors!” They buzzed in a panic, climbing on top of the much-larger Queen to hold her down as she raged. “They will see you!!”
The mailpony passing by wondered if all of the azaleas were particularly bouncy this year, or just the ones in Twilight Velvet’s garden.
“She said - she said recognition! Which one of you bumbling swaybacks put recognition instead of retribution?!” She snarled, finally falling still under their small-yet-firm grips, her rage-filled eyes rolling from changeling to changeling.
“W-We can still get her, Your Majesty!!” Buzzed her highest-ranked changeling, lowering herself to be visible to the Queen’s wrathful gaze. “The traps!! We will set the traps, and they will be sure to drive fear into her heart!”
“They had better, and if any of you mess them up -!!” She snarled warningly, baring her fangs as the small cadre rapidly shook and nodded their heads in confused agreement.
The next day, Chrysalis set up a trap for Twilight Velvet - a strand of the reddest, visceral nature which she had found in the dumpster, covered in bodily organs. Twilight Velvet wrapped herself up in the heart-covered Hearts and Hooves Day tinsel garland and twirled her way inside, while several of Chrysalis’ underlings dry-heaved under the azalea bush at the gory sight.
On the fourth day, Chrysalis set out her final, most deadly trap - a Snarling Snapdragon. Unlike regular snapdragons, the blooms on this plant were shaped like tiny dragon heads, and would reach out and grab passing insects for their nutrition. She had ripped up every inch of it from Celestia’s garden with her own two hooves, and she had the bites to prove it! Surely, with such a massive plant placed right in front of her door before dawn, Twilight Velvet (in her usual groggy state) would trip and fall right into them, and be rendered immobile as she was chewed on!!
But when Twilight Velvet emerged, clad in the same ratty bathrobe as the previous days, she let out a shriek not of horror, but of glee. Chrysalis stared at her, mouth agape, as the unicorn lifted up the mass of writhing, snarling blossoms, carefully floating it over to the azalea bush.
“I can’t believe Night Light remembered how much I wanted my own Snarling Snapdragon! He must have remembered from our visit to Celestia’s gardens - oh, where ever did he find one?” She cooed happily, lifting a trowel between her teeth as she began to dig a new hole for the Snapdragon bush to live in. ”When he gets home, I’m g-”
“I’VE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF THIS NONSENSE!!” Roared the Changeling Queen, snapping out of her catatonic state, shifting from numb confusion to searing rage. She reared up to her full height, ripping apart the azalea bush as she emerged, sending a few changelings sprawling to the ground.
It was Twilight Velvet’s turn to watch in horror as her beautiful pink-flowered bush was ripped apart, and a beast crafted of shadows and pure rage emerged. “Chrysalis?” She whispered.
“YES!! It is I, Queen Chrysalis, the Changeling Ruler!” Roared Chrysalis, satisfied to finally see some true fear on the unicorn’s face. “The dark queen who very nearly destroyed your son’s wedding, and your daughter’s destiny as princess! And I have returned, at last, to claim my rightful place - as ruler of all of Equestria! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!!!” Chrysalis trumpeted, arching her mighty neck to the sky as she howled out her wicked laughter.
“I … I …” Twilight Velvet stammered, staring up at Chrysalis in shock and horror, her bottom lip trembling.
“Yes! Fear me, tiny pony!!” Chrysalis cackled, landing on her front hooves to stare down into Twilight Velvet’s face, her slitted pupils widening with glee. “I can taste your fear, and it is delicious.”
“I … I h-have some - some tea on, if - you would like to come in for a cup?”
Chrysalis stared at her for a moment, then blinked, very hard, assuming she had misheard the pony’s whimpers for mercy. “Pardon?” She snapped, impatient to get the kidnapping business over and done with.
“I was making some hot tea for my breakfast - if you haven’t had breakfast yet, I mean.” Twilight Velvet stammered a little, swallowing.
“Break...fast?” Chrysalis asked, tilting her head slowly at Twilight Velvet in open confusion. “You … you want to invite me … to breakfast?”
“If you’re hungry. Seems a shame to waste it.” Twilight Velvet shrugged, her eyes darting to one of the changelings when a small tummy-rumble escaped. “It sounds like they’re hungry.”
“Quiet!” Roared the changeling queen, whipping her head around so fast that the entire cluster of changelings flinched, trembling before her. “No one is hungry! We are here to kidnap you, not exchange pleasantries at a tea party!!”
“Oh, very well. But perhaps, while you kidnap me, could you bring me something else to eat, then? I’m quite hungry.” Twilight Velvet asked, looking down at her own middle, which growled in response. “Talking about breakfast did it, I think.”
“Breakfast is not - my seven steps - my plan - !!!” Chrysalis snarled, her nostrils twitching with rage, wings buzzing angrily for a few seconds before she stomped one foreleg. “Fine. We will have breakfast, then kidnap you. And don’t get any smart ideas!!” She growled, breaching the distance between them with one long reach of her neck, snarling threateningly into her face. “This is only so you don’t starve to death trapped in my dungeon!!”
“Of course!” Twilight Velvet agreed, giving her head a tiny shake, and although she tried to hide the way her eyes widened, Chrysalis could taste the tang of her fear on her breath. She stumbled backwards, and the group followed Twilight Velvet inside, leaving the Snarling Snapdragons growling beside the much-abused azalea bush.
+++
“Do they eat food? Um - normal food, I mean. Pancakes?” Twilight Velvet tried to ask, stumbling over herself as the tall, dark and threatening form of the Changeling Queen strode into her small kitchen, made all the smaller by the sudden cluster of bodies now filling it.
“It is not enough to sustain them.” The queen replied coldly, watching Twilight Velvet as she worked, hastily pulling a whistling kettle from the stovetop, using her magic to begin whisking a powdery substance with a liquid one in a large bowl. What a strange magic. “But it slows the rate of their decay.”
“I’m - I’m sorry, decay?” Twilight Velvet asked, horror coloring her voice - more horror than she had noted when Chrysalis emerged, the queen noted with dislike.
“Yes. Without love to feed from, changelings weaken. They revert into their dormant forms, waiting to be woken up to serve their queen.” She said coolly, almost bored, as she looked down at the smaller creatures that huddled around her.
“That’s - how terribly sad.”
“Why would that be sad?” Chrysalis asked, pulled into a conversation she had never intended to have with her kidnapping victim.
“Well … aren’t they your children?” Twilight Velvet asked in confusion, stirring the bowl of powder and liquid together before she poured it into a hot pan. “I can’t imagine watching something like that happening to my little ones, and I only have three of them. You have - goodness, at least ten.”
“Children implies that I created them.” Chrysalis replied with a small whuff of amusement. “They serve me, until they are no longer useful. That is their purpose.”
“But - well, you must enjoy having them around, don’t you?” Twilight Velvet frowned, setting the bowl aside as she poured herself a cup of tea. “You don’t seem like someone who would keep anything around unless it made you happy, at least a little.”
Chrysalis snorted, narrowing her eyes at Twilight Velvet. “What would you know of my decisions? You are a small minded pony.”
“Well, perhaps that’s true.” Twilight Velvet allowed, using her magic to lift up a spatula, carefully turning over the three small disks in the pan, which sizzled as they began to solidify from the heat. “I suppose I’m just heartsick for my little ones, makes me see things that aren’t there. That’s them, you know, on the board.” She directed, pointing with the spatula to the bulletin board behind them.
“I know who your spawn are.” Chrysalis growled, but she turned to look all the same, scowling as she got a closer look at the photos and papers pinned to the board. It told a story of their entire lives, it seemed; there was a picture of the wyrmling when he was tiny, barely out of his egg, cradled in Twilight Velvet’s forelegs as a toddler-sized Twilight Sparkle looked on. Pictures of the family as they grew up together, and then suddenly - only pictures of the pair as young students, with Celestia in the background instead of the parents. More letters from the intervening years, more mementos, but fewer pictures of the family all together. Pictures of Shining Armor when he entered his training for becoming a guard - so much smaller than he was now.
“It’s hard to see them grow up with someone else.” Twilight Velvet murmured, her voice far away for a moment, before she shook her mane gently, returning her attention to the pancakes as she turned them once more, then scooped them onto three plates. “Who’s hungry?” She asked, gasping as the plates were all but ripped out of her grip, the changelings gobbling down the pancakes before she could even offer them syrup, much less forks. “All of you, it seems.” She murmured, then frowned, rising on the tips of her hooves to peer behind the group as they licked her plates clean, noting one that wasn’t quite so aggressive as the others about the food. “Is he alright?”
“Who?” Chrysalis asked, picking between her fangs with the edge of one hoof, eyes wandering over the kitchen.
“That one - or perhaps it’s a she? They look a bit … peaky.” Twilight Velvet frowned, gently making her way through the cluster of changelings, who looked at her in something like astonishment. Ponies didn’t go towards changelings, they ran away from them! They weren’t sure what to do with a pony who didn’t run.
“We’re supposed to have peaks, we have horns.” Chrysalis drawled, rolling her eyes as Twilight Velvet laid the back of a hoof against the changeling’s forehead.
“You don’t look so good, little one. Here, you can have my tea.” She fretted over the wobbly changeling gently, magicking over her cup and easing it into the black-coated changeling’s hooves. “There we are. Milk and honey are good for what ails you. I’ll make you some pancakes, too.”
“Why are you fattening up my changeling?” Chrysalis growled, eyes narrow as she watched the unicorn drop three more circles of the paste into the pan - ‘pancakes,’ apparently.
“Well, that’s just what mothers do.” Twilight Velvet gave a little shrug, pouring herself another cup of tea.
“That sounds fake.” Chrysalis huffed out a small, biting chuckle.
“Well - isn’t that what your mother did for you?” Twilight Velvet asked, glancing over at the changeling queen, whose tall horn very nearly brushed the ceiling in her kitchen.
“I wouldn’t know. I never had one.”
“Wh - What?” Twilight Velvet stammered, and as she turned around, Chrysalis felt an unwelcome, prickly surge of emotion waft over her. She wasn’t familiar with it, and it made her skin feel twitchy. It wasn’t delicious like love, but sour and wet, like a sea mist that clung to the inside of her nostrils.
“What.” Chrysalis growled, a little threateningly, surprised to find herself off-hoofed by the intensity of the mare’s emotion.
“You didn’t have a mother?” Twilight Velvet whispered, her brows knitting, her eyes wide and dark with distress. Was this - was this emotion pity? Did she pity her? “That’s - I’m so sorry, Chrysalis.”
“Changelings don’t need mothers!” Chrysalis snarled, her legs stiffening under her, wings humming against her back in agitation. “Certainly not changeling queens!! You - you just finish your stupid breakfast, and be ready for our return - soon!” She barked, rapidly hustling the changelings out of the cramped kitchen, her eyes darting back and forth. “Tell no one of us!” And with that, the changeling queen buzzed out of Twilight Velvet’s house, leaving the back door half torn off of its hinges with the intensity of her sudden exit.
+++
“Mother-pony.”
She was in a field, with Twi and Shining Armor, and they were laughing as they galloped through the flowers, chasing after Night Light.
“Twilight … Velvet.”
Then the scene changed, and she had a baby Spike on her back instead of Twilight Sparkle; she was big enough to gallop alongside her now, and they raced down the beach, laughing when the ocean lapped at their hooves.
“I … I need your help.”
Twilight Velvet jerked suddenly to alertness with a little gasp, eyes wide before she realized where she was. She was in bed, her bed, in the darkness. It had to be past midnight, given how dark her room was; but what had awoken her?
“Oh!” She gasped sharply, jerking upright, then relaxing when she recognized the slitted, bright-green pair of eyes glowing in the darkness. “You - You scared me, Queen Chrysalis. Are you here to kidnap me?” Twilight Velvet asked, brushing her mane away from her face. “I packed a bag.”
“No. I mean - not yet.” Chrysalis hedged, brows furrowing as she looked down at the smaller pony, and Twilight Velvet realized after a moment that she was uncertain how to proceed - a very unusual expression for a dark queen.
“Is something the matter? Are you alright?” Twilight Velvet asked gently, turning to face her, barely able to make out the shape of her face in the darkness, dimly illuminated by her glowing eyes. She looked … worried.
“Yes… no. The changeling…” Queen Chrysalis spoke softly, then cleared her throat. “My changeling. She is - worsening. And I … I realize that … I do not want her to go into stasis. I do not wish for her to … leave.”
“I understand.” Twilight Velvet replied gently, pulling herself out of bed. “Follow me.” She instructed, and to her surprise, Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, followed her without a fight. “Is she here?”
“Yes. I - I had to carry her. She won’t get up.” Chrysalis said, softly, and Twilight Velvet could swear that she heard concern there as Queen Chrysalis lowered herself, showing the small, black figure tucked between her wings.
“Bring her downstairs; we’ll settle her in the sitting room, where we can heat her up with the fireplace.” Twilight Velvet murmured, trotting past her.
“Where did you learn this?” Chrysalis asked ten minutes later, watching Twilight Velvet bustling around her sitting room, gathering towels and hot water bottles, piling them high around the changeling who laid limply on her sofa. “Your meaning-designation does not imply a skill in medicine.”
“Do you mean my cutie mark?” Twilight Velvet asked, gently laying a hoof against the ill changeling’s forehead, frowning to herself as she shivered beneath her touch. “Cutie marks are not infallible, nor definitive. Where do you think Twi gets her love of learning from?” Twilight Velvet cast a smile back to Chrysalis as she dug through her bag, producing a small root which she sliced the tip from. “Here, chew on this. It will help.” She murmured, pressing the root to the changeling’s lips, frowning when it fell away a moment later.
“Changelings are not ponies.” Queen Chrysalis murmured, watching the changeling lying limply on the sofa with a tired, half-lidded gaze. She was quiet for a long time while Twilight Velvet worked, and when she spoke again, it was soft and distant. “Were you afraid to have another foal?”
“I’m sorry?”
“I wonder … did you fear you would run out of love for the second one, the wyrmling? For … yourself?”
“Love doesn’t work like that.” Twilight Velvet spoke softly, frowning to herself in concentration. “Love isn’t - a finite resource. Not if you use it right.” She was quiet for a moment, focused on her work, but when she settled back to adjust the poultice, she spoke again, gentler this time. “I worried about that, when I was carrying Twi. Worried I would like her more than her brother, or that I wouldn’t have enough love to give to two foals. Worried about it a lot.
And what I discovered was … once I had my Twi, my heart grew to make enough room for her, too. I had love abounding, more love than I knew what to do with. I loved her, like I loved my husband, and my Shining, and my parents, and my siblings. It was exactly the same when Spike came to us - our capacity for love just grew along with him. Love is like … fire. You don’t diminish a candle by using it to light another. The more candles, the brighter the light. Does that make sense?” Twilight Velvet asked, turning to face Chrysalis, her face damp with perspiration in the dimly lit room.
“I … do not understand.” Chrysalis frowned, very small, as she looked down at the changeling, her brows becoming more and more furrowed as she watched her breaths grow slower and shallower. “Do … do you have enough love for her, too?”
Twilight Velvet looked at Chrysalis in surprise, then looked down at the changeling, slowly smoothing a hoof over her forehead. “Of course I do.” She murmured, stroking her more gently, until the changeling’s eyes shut a little less tightly, and her expression became less pinched. How could she have forgotten?
“What are you doing?” Chrysalis asked, eyes darting between the changeling and the unicorn.
“The love you know, that you seek, it is only one kind of love.” Twilight Velvet murmured, smoothing her hoof over the back of the changeling’s neck, kneeling down so she could gently cradle the changeling’s horned head in the crook of her foreleg. The changeling, too far gone to put up a fight, leaned into her touch limply, heaving a tiny sigh as she settled down. “You sought the love my son shared with Cadance. But the love between a mother and child is just as strong, like the strength of love between friends. It is the same love that made you come find me tonight.”
Chrysalis startled when Twilight Velvet turned her gaze to her. “Changelings are not capable of that kind of love.”
“Then how did you realize you would miss this changeling?” She asked, gazing back down at the limp, black form tucked against her. “You brought her to me, because you wanted her to be well. You worry about her. That is love, even if you do not know what that is yet.”
Queen Chrysalis, tall and unbowed, stared down at Twilight Velvet, something unreadable in her expression, motionless except for the way her pupils flared; wide, dark discs in her face, then slitting to thin black lines, a thread of black in a sea of bright green.
They remained that way for some time, and then, Twilight Velvet began to murmur to the changeling, very low and soft, as she rocked her in her arms. .
“You have to get well, little one. We are all so worried about you.” She crooned, her hoof smoothing gently over each bump and horn on the changeling’s head. “We all love you, very much. I love you, too. We all want you to get well, and stay with us for a long, long time.”
She opened her mouth to say something else, but there was a sudden, sharp knock on the front door; all heads swiveled towards the sound, and Chrysalis opened her mouth in a feral hiss, baring her fangs.
“No, ssh!” Twilight Velvet hushed her suddenly, clutching the sick changeling protectively to her chest as panic washed over her. Who could it be, in the hours before dawn? Something bad, and the thought filled her heart with dread. “Hide.” She hissed, and as she pressed the changeling back to the sofa, its large, blue eyes blinked open, focusing on her face much more clearly than it had only a few moments before. “Hide!” She repeated, her voice panicked, and Chrysalis nodded silently as the changelings began to mill about her long, spindly legs.
Twilight Velvet trotted towards the front door, catching a glance at her reflection in the hallway mirror. Good - she looked almost as rumpled and out of sorts as if she had just been sleeping. “Hello?” She yawned as she pulled the door open, her blood suddenly chilling as she recognized no less than ten of the royal guards, and - “Princess Celestia?” She gasped, her eyes widening.
“Greetings, Twilight Velvet. We are sorry to interrupt your sleep at the early hour, but there has been a sighting of the dangerous Queen Chrysalis this past night. In fact, she stole something from my royal garden.” Princess Celestia’s voice was grave, and as Twilight Velvet looked over to the garden, she recognized Princess Luna, leading another ten royal guards in the careful retrieval of “her” Snarling Snapdragons.
“The Snapdragons.” Twilight Velvet murmured, feeling very out of breath, her chest becoming very tight when Celestia looked at her.
“Yes. They were stolen. We have reason to believe that she may be in the nearby area.” Princess Celestia explained, clearly trying to keep Twilight Velvet calm, misreading her fearful reaction. “I would be happy to have the guard check your house, if it would help you feel more-”
“No.”
Princess Celestia and all ten guards looked at Twilight Velvet in surprise; Twilight Velvet quickly tried to cover her mistake, shaking her head softly.
“I, ah, I mean, no, I won’t waste your guards’ time. If there was anything in my house - it would have woken me up, I’m sure.” Twilight Velvet hastened to explain herself, clearing her throat as she smoothed a hoof over her tangled mane.
“All the same, I would feel better - for you - if we could check. Your safety means a great deal to our realm, and to the Princesses Twilight Sparkle and Cadance especially.” Celestia nodded her head elegantly to her, and the royal guard took a few steps forward, anticipating her next command.
“I know.” Twilight Velvet spoke, suddenly sharp, and all but slammed her hoof onto the opposite side of the door frame, making the closest guard jump back a few steps in surprise. “I hardly see my daughter anymore; it is even less now than when I saw her as a small filly, entering your apprenticeship. But it does not surprise me that she would be concerned for my safety; for all she knows, I could have moved to the Griffon realms.”
Princess Celestia’s expression went inward, and her eyes narrowed, ever so slightly, at Twilight Velvet. “Is there some anger that you wish to express to your daughter, that you are perhaps placing on the wrong party?” She asked, coolly, making the royal guard glance between one another nervously.
“No, I don’t think my anger is misplaced in the least.” Twilight Velvet replied, her voice a few degrees above absolute zero. “You take my son for your royal guard, and he weds a princess who moves him hundreds of miles away. That, at least, was his choice. But you take my daughter, barely more than a filly, and you send her off to a magic school that she ‘needs’ to be in, sending her younger brother along with her as - what, an assistant? And then you send her away to learn how to make friends, a lesson she could have learned if she had been home, and not missed her entire childhood!” Twilight Velvet realized her voice was getting louder when the royal guard frowned at her, and she realized suddenly that she didn’t care. “And now you come back to my home, to see who else you can take from it? Well I tell you - if you want to take anyone else from this place, you will have to go through me first!”
“... who else is in your home, Twilight Velvet?” Princess Celestia asked, low and dangerous, as the pair of mares locked eyes, a silent battle of wills taking place.
Suddenly, from behind Twilight Velvet, a mighty crash resounded, and the sharp, high whine of buzzing wings.
“The Queen Chrysalis!” Princess Celestia called, and the royal guard pushed past in a rush, galloping through her home. “Catch her!”
“Get out of my house!” Twilight Velvet yelled back in her face, and a royal guard had to circle back to stop her, placing himself between Princess Celestia and Twilight Velvet. Suddenly, there was no one to hold back, as Twilight Velvet took off at a gallop, racing after the guards.
They soon came to a halt, and Twilight Velvet could see why; her sitting room was empty, the only sign of any other presence the abandoned pile of blankets on the sofa, and the back door which, once again, hung off of its hinges.
+++
The next morning, Twilight Velvet slept until almost noon, and when she finally pulled herself out of bed, she dragged herself downstairs to sit on the sofa for another half-hour, staring out the window. She didn’t want to go out into her front yard and find the empty hole where the Snarling Snapdragons had been, and she didn’t want to see the half-uprooted azalea bush, either.
But Twilight Velvet was a conscientious gardener, and eventually, she forced herself to alertness, gathering her gardening tools. She walked outside, and forced herself not to be sad that there was no note, nor gift, nor anything waiting for her on the front stoop. If there was no note, it meant that Chrysalis was far, far away; that was a good thing, even if it didn’t feel like one right now.
Twilight Velvet lifted up her shovel with her magic, the tip dragging along the ground as she shuffled over to where the Snapdragons had been. Slowly, she covered up the mound of dirt, half-heartedly tucking a few bulbs in as an afterthought. She sighed when she looked at the ragged mess that used to be her azalea bush, and bent down to survey the root damage.
… and pulled back with a box in her hoof. She realized, suddenly, that it was a crushed doughnut box, and she ripped it open, staring down at its contents: a small white note, and a single Snarling Snapdragon, root intact.
Twilight Velvet
I am sorry you could not keep your plant. I felt very bad when I thought about the Princess hurting you. Is that love? I hope it is. I hope you are safe. I will visit you again when it is safe.
-C
P.S., the changeling is all better now. She wants to visit you again, too.
Twilight Velvet smiled to herself as she read the note, then re-read it, over and over. Eventually, she turned around to go back in her house, and found a small pot to place the Snarling Snapdragon in. As the little flower growled behind her, she picked up a pin, using her magic to carefully make space on her kitchen corkboard, placing the note in the middle of it.
“Well,” Twilight Velvet said to no one in particular, “it’s a start.”
