KOW Side-stories:
Know thy Enemy
“Princess, can I ask you something?” Twilight Sparkle, Equestria's newest princess, asked her former teacher respectfully.
Princess Celestia offered her fellow princess a kind, near motherly smile as she stepped off of her throne and gestured for her guards to leave for the moment. The stoic stallions bowed and then left, allowing the two princesses some alone time.
“Twilight, you don’t have to be so formal with me,” Celestia said in a motherly fashion. “You are now my equal.”
The young princess smiled bashfully as she looked at the ground for a moment. Truthfully she still wasn’t use to considering her former teacher an equal, even if it two weeks had passed since her coronation/Digimon attack.
“Twilight, wasn’t there something you wanted to ask of me?” Celestia asked calmly, though if one listened closely enough, they could hear the mirth hidden so well.
The young princess let out a cute noise and looked up at her fellow princess, a light blush appearing on her face. She fumbled with her words for a moment, causing Celestia to giggle slightly at her former student’s antics. Twilight looked more embarrassed when she heard her fellow princess giggle, but quickly calmed down and gathered her thoughts.
“Princess,” Twilight said seriously, her face set with determination, “Do you think it’s wise to still be holding the princess summit? We could be on the vague of another invasion, so I don’t think easing me into my new role as a princess should be our biggest concern.”
The mirth left Princess Celestia’s face as she sighed and walked back to her throne, Twilight curiously following behind her. The older princess took a seat on her throne and looked at her former student seriously.
“Before I answer your question, Twilight Sparkle, tell me…what do know you of the Changelings?” Princess Celestia asked seriously.
“Uhh,” Twilight looked at the floor, slipping into an old habit as she searched her vast storehouse of knowledge for a suitable answer. She looked up at her former teacher with a look defeat after a minute of deep thinking. “Not much, princess. Next to dragons changelings are creatures we know so little about. I knew there was a research log on the changelings that was published a long time ago, but it’s hard to find copies these days.”
If somepony who knew Celestia on a personal level, they would know the eyebrow she just rose meant that she was planning on looking into this matter later. But to someone who only knew the princess on the surface, all they would see is their regal ruler composed and deep in thought.
“The changeling’s hive is so massive that it had been divided into three smaller hives,” Celestia said after a moment pause. “The most commonly seen of these hives is the green hive, tasked with collecting the energy that powers the entire hive. Queen Chrysalis is charge of that hive I believe.”
Twilight blinked three times and then robbed her chin, getting into thinking mode/egghead mode, as her friends like to call it. She stayed in this position for nearly five minutes before looking up at the oldest princess, a mild look of confusion on her face.
“But how is that possible?” young alicorn asked in confusion. “If the hive is big enough to be divided three ways, how were they were able to get enough love to feed something so massive?”
Celestia sighed and stood up from her throne. She used her magic to fluff-up her cushion and then took her seat again. “If you asked me, my former student, that claim was merely a ruse to lower the past ponies’ guard when the changelings first made contact. If you recall, changelings from the green hive repeatedly slammed themselves against the barrier your brother had created during his wedding until it fell, and then began capturing hordes of ponies afterwards?”
Twilight got into thinking mode again, as she recalled both the events of her brother’s wedding and the recent coronation ceremony and remembered how the changeling went down easy. It was unbelievable…that she didn’t realize sooner that the changelings she had encountered were poor fighters…so poor that a group of ponies with very little fighting experience were able to take them down so easily.
She looked at her former teacher, and a small conversation was exchanged between the two without a word being spoken.
“The next hive is the red-hive, where the red changelings are trained to be fierce warriors,” Celestia explained calmly. “If the red changelings had been at my dear niece’s wedding I feared we would have been far worse off. It also known that it’s one of the few hives that functions without a queen.”
Twilight nodded, as she made a mental note to write all this new information down when she had a moment. She looked at her former teacher and silently urged her to go on.
“Unfortunately, the orange hive is the hive that we know the least about,” Celestia slowly stated and signed. “We don’t know the numbers the hive have, what function it serves in the changeling hive as a whole, or if it has a queen governing over it like the green hive does.”
Twilight got into thinking mode and began filing every bit of information in the proper places. There was much she learned but felt like something was missing, like a piece of the puzzle that was in her line of sight but just out of reach of her hooves.
Before she could ask for more information, the voice of her former teacher broke through her thoughts.
“Now, to answer your question as to why I just moved up the date of the Princess Summit instead of cancelling it, it’s actually quite simple,” Princess Celestia said calmly. “The changelings might not bother us if they believe all the princess of Equestria are merely gathering to help ease the newest princess into her new role, and that should allow use to plan an effective countermeasure, even with the limited information we have.”
Twilight got into her thinking pose again, going over all the facts in her head. It was not that she didn’t get what her former teacher was saying, but she couldn’t help but feel like Celestia wasn’t giving her all the details. Twilight had known her former teacher for long enough to guess when she’s withholding information.
Once again, Twilight’s thoughts were broken by her former teacher’s voice.
“Now, can ask you a question, my former student?” Celestia asked calmly. “Why are you here? I thought you would be in Ponyville, preparing for your trip to the Crystal Empire?”
“Well…Rarity wanted to come to Canterlot to get a few things and I decided to tag along so I could speak with you,” Twilight replied honestly, and then took a watch out of her saddlebag. “Speaking of which, I really should be going. I have a few things I need to take care of before I meet my friend at the station.”
The young princess put her watch away and offered a quick goodbye before turning and trotting out the door.
“Have fun,” The eldest princess called out with a small smile as her former student disappeared as the large doors closed behind her. Once she was alone, the smile disappeared from the princess’s face and looked at a window. “Yes, we wouldn’t be caught off guard a third time by the changelings…especially considering the age-old magic they now process.”
Author's Note
Note: This story take place roughly around the same time as "when the Wind meets the diamond" chapter of the mean story.
Note: the real I felt like making a side-story is because I didn't want my displaced story didn't get clustered with a bunch of small stories just so I could stracht an inch.
