To Tame a Substitute Queen

“Now young Aita, What games do you remember playing in your homeworld?” Chrysalis asks as she sets me down on the throne. “What do you remember that relates to finding your target?”

I think for a moment, then gasp. “Hide and seek! Yeah! Everyone in my old home loved that game!”

“Now Twilight, Sunset, can you help me with this demonstration? Just prepare to momentarily exit the room. Your distance must be substantial enough to be inaudible from here.”

Twilight teleports her and Sunset Shimmer to the entrance of the throne room.

“Okay, now close your eyes, Aita.” I do as Chrysalis says. “You two may go now.”

“Oh so this was where the searcher counts to ten, right?”

“Mhm…” Chrysalis confirms. Sunset and Twilight leave the room so that Chrysalis can demonstrate. Eventually their hooves fade out before they stop.

“You can open them.” I open my eyes again. “Now before we start, we’re either looking for the emotion the bearer last felt in our presence or the signature they left.” I hover off of the throne onto the ground below and subtly stick my tongue out to try to detect any emotions. All I sense now is… willingness. Of course, I can tell who that emotion came from.

“I think I found it.”

“Good, Aita. Now, light your horn and start sniffing.”

I do as Chrysalis says and notice I can actually smell in space, not just what happens to enter my nose. I turn my head in various directions and find two strong trails to my left as they lead out of the throne room.

Following these trails leads me to Sunset and Twilight, which is impressive considering the hundreds of feet it took for their hooves to be no longer audible. I turn my horn off and embrace Twilight.

“That was fast, Aita,” she remarks.

“Chrysalis was right, Twilight! I better go up and thank her.” I race back over to the throne room and hug her now. “Chrysalis! You did it! You taught me how to trail!”

“Very good, Aita! I told you you would learn quickly with me. Sunset Shimmer? Twilight?” Twilight and Sunset teleport into the throne room. “What were you planning again?”

“Aita, now that you know how, I’ll need you to find Carve and talk to her. Twilight and I will stay up here with Chrysalis while we wait for you two.”

“You got it, Sunset!”

I run out of the throne room, the hole I went through closing shortly after.

“Alright, find the scent, perform the spell, follow the trail… got it.” I walk around the upper halls, trying to identify the scent meant for Carve. It’s much harder than Twilight, or even Sunset, because I haven’t spent nearly as much time with Carve.

I think back to that night before the disaster last Hearth’s Warming started. She definitely had different scent markings compared to Rusty Flashlight, Pane Fall, Trace Light, and even Mom. A better comparison would be Starlight and Sunset to Carve and Chrysalis.

All things considered, I am trying to untangle a web of signatures imprinted in my mind. But eventually, I finally get a match with Carve. She seems to have gained some confidence since we last talked, or was it determination? Oh well, I found the emotion I’m looking for.

I finally light my horn up to amplify my empathic field of vision, and that scent I found has a clear imprint in space like Twilight and Sunset did with theirs. I follow that imprint by walking toward the lower levels of the hive. After five minutes of trailing later, I finally find Carve walking around the halls.

I wave hello, prompting her to turn around to face me after hearing my hoofsteps stop. “Aita? I thought you were up in the throne room.”

I shake my head to mean that not now am I with the rest. “Maybe a few minutes ago, but Sunset Shimmer had the idea to have me come get you.”

“Wait, that would’ve taken you a lot longer than a few minutes to find me, right?”

“Not anymore.” I light my horn for show and start sniffing around, which leaves Carve’s mouth agape. “It was like I learned to play Hide and Seek all over again!”

Carve blinks twice, then recomposes herself. “Huh, that makes sense now. But how’d you learn to trail so early? I thought we didn’t learn that until our adolescent years.”

“I think part of that was Chrysalis’ clear instructions during a test run we did with Sunset and Twilight.”

“What idea did Sunset Shimmer have?”

“Maybe talk a little bit? Get you to the throne? There’s really nothing to do right now, Carve.”

“Really? But didn’t Chrysalis tell me I should run one of her errands without relying on her?”

I facehoof. “Look, I don’t know the first thing about what you do, but I’m pretty sure Chrysalis does, so just come up with me, okay?”

Carve gives out a disappointed sigh. “Fine, let’s go.”

I come back to the throne room with Carve behind me, so Chrysalis approaches us with confidence, particularly in me.

“Greetings, Carve, Aita…”

“Hi, Chrysalis. A-Aita told me nothing’s going on… is it true?” I turn to Carve when she speaks, mostly because of the slight flutter I hear in her voice compared to when I first talked to her.

“Yes; it has been a relatively uneventful afternoon…” Chrysalis sits down and lightly holds Carve’s chin up with her left hoof. “Were you actually out searching for an errand of mine to run anyway?”

Carve nods. “Yeah, I even stopped by the nursery to see if I should name anyone, but a passerby told me Areola already did that while I was up here trying to get your attention.”

“Carve, I never meant for you to eventually exhaust yourself trying to take my place; just let my duties come to you. It’s a good thing Twilight and Sunset sent Aita when they did; I don’t think I could take the prospect of inadvertently exhausting you.”

I notice Chrysalis is speaking in the same tone she used on me discussing my future reference with the DS back at the party. I smell quite a bit of understanding from her in the perspective of a spectator. Unfortunately, that is mistranslated by Carve in the exact same way I did: tense wings, stomach to the floor, and eyes locked on Chrysalis. But Carve is a substitute queen; what’s her excuse? She should be around Chrysalis all the time.

Suddenly, I’m lifted off the ground and put next to Sunset Shimmer, who was moving me. “Did you notice that too?” she whispers.

“Yeah. Why don’t you talk to Carve about it?”

Sunset agrees by patting me on the back. She then walks to Chrysalis and Carve, Chrysalis stopping when she sees Carve in the same position I was the moment before she and Areola started arguing.

“Carve? Are you okay?”

“...I-I don’t know, Chrysalis. I don’t know why I’m doing this.”

“Someone might know though. Mind if I take Carve out of the room for a while?” Sunset asks. “I’m sure Aita can fill you in in the meantime.”

Chrysalis approves by waving her right hoof forward, then turns to Twilight as Sunset takes Carve into the hall.