Vengeance at nightfall

(chapter 33) an unexpected audience

Days after the first incident, Nightshade and Angel had been trying to monitor how to dragons were, entering a new place for the first time can be difficult after all. However, Metamorph remained mostly absent in these foreign affairs, and they honestly couldn't understand why, was it because of Pyrite? Did he have other things to attend to? Or was he just messing around with sapphire? Regardless of what it was, it was troubling for Nightshade, and Angel had picked up on her lack of focus more than once and eventually convinced her to take a well needed break. After hours and hours she finally said yes, and decided to wander through the castle, although she had been living there for a couple months she still didn't have it's entire layout in memory. When she happened to take a path down a hall that lead to the entrance, she was surprised to see Metamorph talking to his mother, as well as three of her guards. Although she hadn't fully stepped into the room yet, one of them had already spotted her, and his compound eyes stayed locked on her until the others noticed.

“miss shade, it's a pleasure to see you again. come here, don't be shy, we were just talking about how great and action packed life in Canterlot has been,”

Nightshade trotted up to Metamorph’s side, Chrysalis’s voice sounded calm, but when she mentioned that Metamorph told her about what had been happening she felt a little bit more cautious.

“why don't we get more acquainted with each other, do you have a room we can discuss these things in?”

Nightshade nodded immediately and turned to lead them to the main hall, but as she did, Chrysalis gave her son a confused look, not expecting the bold leader of change to be so quiet.

When they got to the hall Nightshade asked if they could get some tea, and Metamorph left to help the cook choose a tea that his mother liked, leaning Nightshade alone with her. After they had left the hive the first time, she was more than ready for any possible visits from the Queen, but after so long she had forgotten how to properly deal with the situation; so while Metamorph was gone, they sat in awkward silence for a little while.

“so, my son tells me you have experienced many physical changes around him, is this true,”

Nightshade nodded, once again, confusing the Queen,

“how? If you are not a changeling, changing your form shouldn't be so easy for you,”

Nightshade lifted a hoof to run through her mane as she looked away from her.

“it really shouldn't be, but my magic fluctuates, so occasionally, if I get too upset it may change for a while depending on how bad it is,”

Nightshade looked up at Chrysalis, expecting a more confused or unpleasant expression, but instead, she just nodded.

“and this kind of change made your eyes like that?”

Nightshade sat up and giggled nervously,

“oh yeah, it's the only one that really stuck, what happened to make them like this is actually kind of terrible though,”

As she said this she rubbed the back of her neck, smiling a nervous smile the whole time.

“what did happen?”

When Chrysalis said this, her expression became more challenging, and Nightshade's face went pale,

“w-well um, I kinda killed a vampire pony that was sent to kill me, I swear, I didn't mean to kill him at first but it was kind of an immediate reaction to being in danger,”

Chrysalis sat up, and inspected a hoof with a bored expression,

“and my son was where during this?”

Nightshade ruffled her wings slightly, stopping them from flapping open in defense.

“he was with me, I tried to protect him because I knew he wouldn't recover as well as I would after something like that,”

Chrysalis just chuckled, her humming voice sounding as vicious as she looked,

“but you would have helped his recovery, after all, your love just happens to be really strong and edged with magic, it seems like you've been providing a buffet for him every day,”

Just as Nightshade was going to question her visit, Metamorph walked in and took his seat beside her, smiling brightly as he wrapped a hoof around her.

For the rest of the conversation, Metamorph would tell his mother about the things he happened to witness and get into, with the occasional comment or detail added by Nightshade. When it came to the mentioning of Pyrite and dragons being welcomed in to Equestria, the Queen’s face took a more vicious turn, making Nightshade lift her wings slightly, afraid of what she had to say. But in a moment of weakness, Nightshade blurted out the rules that they would have, being sure to mention the one that forbade them from consuming changelings. And from there she seemed pleased, and for the rest of the discussion she seemed more calm, eventually, she said she had to go, and Nightshade offered to escort her to the castle entrance.

“so, why did you just show up like this? I mean, I would to simply visit my son if I was your, but it didn't seem that way,”

Nightshade said, when they were far enough away from the hall,

“when I heard about how happy he was from his letters I just decided to pay him a visit, not to mention that I was worried about the mare he had fallen for,”

Chrysalis said, her response was almost ignored because of how much one of the guards stared at her, but she looked away again, trying to focus.

“it is an understanding thing to do, I just hope that you'd like to visit more, you're surprisingly more fun to talk to than I originally thought,”

Nightshade said, as she looked up at the tall queen,

“you flatter me Nightshade, but I wouldn't want to make you any more uncomfortable with my presence,”

Chrysalis smiled down at her, and just as Nightshade was about to feel better she heard a loud shriek, that could only come from one pony.

“oh no, here comes my annoying cousin again,”

Nightshade dropped her ears and sighed, knowing he would probably run up and down the long corridors screaming like a mad pony, and as she saw him begin to run around she silently cursed her bloodline.