Work of the Heart

Coming back into the trailer, I give two of the four pears to Patch’s grandmother. Once we reach the seeds for each one, we take them out to the tree I got them from. Once arranged, they send a call signal to the throne room. Chrysalis looks around and sees the two of us.

“Pharynx? What are you doing at Mother’s place? I thought you went to retrieve the young one.”

“That’s exactly what he was doing, dear,” replies Chrysalis’ apparent mother. I guess that makes Patch Chrysalis’ son. “Patch has lived with me since he became an adolescent.”

Chrysalis’ eyes widen as her mother mentions Patch. “You mean to tell me that Pharynx was talking about my SON?!?”

“Seems like it, queen,” I say. “I know this makes my-”

“Don’t worry about it, Pharynx. Carve may be home, but my old teacher can take over the throne while I’m away. She used to be a queen herself. I’ll be over there as soon as possible.”

Chrysalis teleports out of the throne room, causing the signal to disperse. About fifteen seconds later, she teleports in. Her mother looks pretty impressed by this.

“I didn’t realize you could teleport, dear. Must be that new-fangled way of ruling your kingdom powering that.”

“Quite accurate there, Mother. Now, this must be the place Patch must live in with you, right?”

“I am not sure why, but your son doesn’t seem to think highly of his home kingdom,” Mother explains to me as we and Pharynx head inside.

“But that’s absurd. Why during my reprise?”

“Dear, you won’t know unless you address it to him. You did the same for Wavelength forty years ago. You’re Patch’s mother, and as your own, I suggest you dust off that technique for your own family.”

“Okay. But first, Pharynx, you can go home for now.”

Pharynx nods at me and flies back to the hive.

“Good. Now that that’s taken care of…”

I head in the direction of Patch’s room. The split second before he sees me, he seems to be playing a board game of some sort on the floor. I have no idea what it’s about, but it seems to involve borders and roman numeral tokens. When he does notice me, he looks up and his calm look quickly sours into a scowl. He then gets back to playing his game.

“No greetings, Patch? Are you not even going to wave to me?”

Still playing, Patch waves his hoof for me to exit the room. He is so deliberately glued to his game that he’s barely acknowledged me.

I think back to the time Twilight told me about getting Aita’s attention shortly before Hearth’s Warming. She had to forcibly put away his DS. Seemingly unlike Patch though, Aita was simply homesick. Here, Patch clearly has something against me. I can’t just take his game away without getting harmed.

“Patch?”

My son puts down any tokens he’s floating and scowls at me again. “What do you want? I’m trying to play some Risk.”

“Patch, it’s me…”

“I know who you are.”

I get down on my stomach to meet Patch at eye level. “Listen. I just wanted to catch up with you.”

“Well, I can see by the fact that Pharynx was here that this reunion means A LOT to you.”

“But I had no idea he was talking about you until he called me. That wasn’t even the point anyway. I haven’t seen you in years, and as your mother, I was hoping to-”

“Question willing assistance? Circumvent living arrangements? Go to session? Use a groom for cheap power? Who knows what else after I left to live with Grandma?”

“No… reconnect.”

Patch growls, gets up and starts walking off to the living room. I simply continue sitting, watching him leave my view. If he wants his space, I might as well give it to him.

Did Patch even use to be like this? I understand my first few years as queen bothers him, but that was true at the time too. Well, he never really avoided me before… until the attack on Canterlot nearly seven years ago. When I gathered my hive back home, Carve wasn’t the only one missing: it was him too. That invasion must’ve been the final straw for him. He didn’t even mention anything from after the wedding directly.

This isn’t even like with Twilight. She may’ve had a personal disdain for me following my actions, but Patch was a child when he lived in the hive, not even an adolescent. Each realization leaves me more and more distraught.

Mother walks into the room sits down next to me. It feels surreal that she’s only the height of a normal changeling. “Is everything okay, dear?”

“...I never realized just how much my actions hurt Patch. His childhood must have been devastating for his development.”

“He… never really goes out much, and he’s always with me if he does.” Mother sees me wipe a tear from my right eye, prompting her to scoot toward the front and rest her hoof on mine. “Chrysalis… I know your son is deeply hurt by what you did as queen. If you’re going to reconcile with him, I’m the only one who can personally help you.”

Mother is right. She’s the only one who could give me advice if I really need it. She knows my son even better than I do… yeah. “Well, which changeling is he in custody of anyway? If you incline to help, then I’ll take your word for it.”

Mother and I share one last hug before she begins walking to the living room ahead of me. She stops one last time to look at me.

“I know you’ll have this all under control, Chrysalis. And don’t let anyone else make you think otherwise.”

I get up and turn around to see her leave. “Thanks, Mother. At least you still believe in me.”

Wait a minute. Equestria trusts me too. Everypony will easily recognize me for my most recent self. They can be a great resource of help.