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by tom117z

Chapter 26: 26 - Visiting Hours

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Carduus, Vladimir and Longshot exited the bar they had been sitting in for the last few hours. The streets of Canterlot ahead were mostly empty, and the three headed down the lonely street in the direction of the castle.

“Are you sure you want to go back on duty with your injury?” Longshot asked his changeling friend.

“It’s just a scratch, I will be fine. I just need my gear, and then I’m making sure Twilight is safe; as I should already be doing.”

“The Princess is hardly going to leave her undefended after what happened, you worry too much.”

“I thought I was worrying too much about five guards lining a hallway, and then look what happened!”

Vladimir, who was leading the group, stopped; he put a hoof on Carduus’ shoulder and gave the changeling a sympathetic look. “Carduus, you need to stop beating yourself up. You couldn’t have prevented what happened.”

“Let’s… let’s just get back to the castle, all right?”

They walked the rest of the way in silence until they finally reached the gleaming spires of Canterlot Castle. The castle was under somewhat of a lockdown after what happened, Solar and Lunar guards filled the courtyards and roamed the corridors in a coordinate effort to prevent any further mishaps and catch any possible remaining traitors potentially trying to flee the castle before they were discovered.

The gates of the castle had countless reporters, and a few onlookers, crowding around the entrance. Despite the Princess’s best efforts, word had gotten around the city that a ‘changeling dignitary’ had nearly been assassinated and was receiving urgent medical attention. It had yet to be confirmed to them however if anypony was killed during the attack, and who the dignitary was; though given the activity many outlets had correctly assumed Princess Twilight was the victim.

It was safe to say the media was having a field day.

The two ponies and one changeling wisely decided to shy away from the main entrance and instead opted to use one of the side entrances not open to the general public, which took them into one of the castle’s many courtyards. From there they entered the castle proper and quickly made their way towards the armory.

However, they never made it. As they were walking down one of the corridors, it came out of nowhere. Even before Vladimir or Longshot had a chance to react, Carduus was knocked cleanly off of his hooves and he slammed head first into the wall opposite. The two ponies were about to sound the alarm, until the black missile spoke:

“DADDY!!!!” Iuvenes shouted as she tried to bury herself in her father’s chest.

“H-hey s-s-sweety,” Carduus slurred as he realised ‘concussion’ might need to be added to his list of injuries.

“Iuvenes!” Panacea shouted out as she emerged from the same adjacent corridor Iuvenes had. “Let your father up!”

“Yes mother…” Iuvenes reluctantly did as she was told, and Carduus managed to get to his hooves as his wife approached him.

Only to receive a slap in the face.

“Ow!” Carduus complained. “What was that for?!”

“I told you not to get hurt!” Panacea shouted, grabbing onto him and pulling the changeling captain into a passionate kiss.

“And… what was that for?” a slightly bewildered Carduus asked.

“For not getting killed,” Panacea smiled.

A cough caught both of their attention, and they turned to see Vladimir and Longshot standing awkwardly to one side, having witnessed the entire affair.

“Oh, sorry about that,” Panacea blushed visibly – quite the feat for a black chitin creature. “Are you friends of my husband?” she asked.

It was Carduus who spoke, “Erm, honey; this is Captain Vladimir Vespertilio and Sergeant Longshot, they work for the Equestrian royal guard and military respectively.”

“Oh? Well it’s lovely to meet you both!” Panacea shook both of their hooves. “I’m Panacea, Carduus’ wife.”

“A pleasure,” Vladimir greeted.

Carduus looked at his other half. "What are you doing here anyway? I thought you would be back at the hive."

"We all felt what happened to Princess Twilight, I was scared for you. The Queen told me you were fine but I had to see for myself."

Iuvenes peaked out from between her mother’s hooves, and looked at Longshot quizzically. “Why does he have a crossbow butt tattoo?”

“Iuvenes…” Panacea sighed with a face hoof, while Longshot merely gave the nymph a friendly smile.

“That, oh that was something I got to show how cool I am! And that I’m good with a crossbow.”

Iuvenes looked doubtful. “But then why does that one have a bat tattoo?” she pointed at Vladimir.

“Oh, he got jealous and got his own!”

Vladimir raised an eyebrow at the ongoing conversation. Iuvenes sat down, and her face wore a quizzical expression.

Tilting her head to the side, she enquired: “But... then why do all the other ponies have them too?”

“Well they all saw mine and decided they wanted their own, I’m very popular you see.”

Longshot and Panacea wore grins. Vladimir and Carduus just decided to facehoof.

Iuvenes put her hoof to her chin as she thought over what Longshot said. “Hmm, I don’t know. You are not trying to trick me are you?”

Longshot feigned offence. “Moi? Trick you? Why I never!” he stuck his nose in the air as if he was one of the over-dramatic Canterlot nobles.

“Oh for Celestia’s sake, Sergeant stop teasing the poor kid!” Vladimir insisted. “It’s called a cutie mark, and all ponies get them when they discover their special talents.”

“Oh,” Iuvenes said. “So if he is good at using a crossbow, does that mean you're good at being a… bat?”

Vladimir’s eye twitched.


Queen Chrysalis walked through the halls of Canterlot hospital, having taken the form of a black mare with a green mane. Not the most inconspicuous disguise but it was enough to get her through without much hassle.

Celestia and Chrysalis had parted ways when the former got called away by Princess Mi Amore Cadenza for one reason or another after the pink princess had returned to the castle in a hurry; so Chrysalis had headed off to the hospital by herself.

Of course she was never really alone, not with so many agents hiding in the crowds just waiting for some foolish pony to try and cause trouble.

A scenario that had luckily not yet played out.

As Chrysalis approached the royal wing she briefly passed the element bearers as they headed in the opposite direction, likely having just come from visiting Twilight themselves.

When she approached the guards standing idly by the entrance they moved to block her, before she was consumed by green fire, and she morphed from her pony disguise into her usual self. The two ponies were momentarily caught off guard and reached for their weapons, before realising who it was before them, and standing aside to let her past. However, they couldn’t stop themselves from eyeing the Changeling Queen with suspicion as she walked on past.

Shining Armor and a pony whom she recognised as Night Light stood just outside the door to Twilight’s current residence, and they stopped their conversation when they spotted the Queen. She hesitated momentarily as they stared in her direction and an awkward silence ensued, before moving forward towards the door.

As she passed, Shining Armor merely looked away, while Night Light gave her a respectful nod, before the two returned to their conversation.

As she pushed the door open, her heart tightened in her chest as she spotted her beloved daughter lying in a bed, various machines surrounding her with one in particular beeping away as the mare slept.

Chrysalis barely heard the door swing closed behind her as she fell on her rump and found herself unable to turn away from the sight that was any parent’s worst nightmare. Eventually, after what seemed like hours, the changeling queen’s gaze slowly left that of her injured daughter and towards the mare sitting at her bedside.

Twilight Velvet had made no acknowledgments of Chrysalis’ presence, instead she remained seated at Twilight’s side, holding one of her hooves in her own and holding a book with telekinesis, reading from it.

Chrysalis realised it was the same Daring Do book she herself had given Twilight as a Hearthswarming gift so many years ago.

“Twilight Velvet?” Chrysalis called out softly, the mare in question finally lowering the book and slowly turning to face Chrysalis.

“So, we finally meet,” she said.

Chrysalis shuffled awkwardly. “So, how you are feeling?”

“I’m fine. Or as well as I can be given the circumstances.”

“Yes well, I just wanted to thank you. For taking care my daughter for so many years.”

“No.”

Chrysalis blinked in confusion. “No? ‘No’ what?”

Velvet sat up straight in the chair. “No, I didn’t take care of your daughter all these years - I took care of mine. Until recently I never knew about you, I took care of her because I love her, and always will.”

Chrysalis looked away. “I’m… glad that Twilight had somepony who cared so much in her life, and was there when I couldn’t be…”

Twilight Velvet got up from her seat and walked slowly over to the Changeling Queen, and much to her surprise she quickly enveloped Chrysalis in hug. She was even more surprised to find herself hugging back.

“And I’m glad that her real mother also cares for her so much…”

--“You are my real mother.”-- Twilight’s words played back in Velvet’s ears.

Velvet sighed. “And I’m glad we can both be here for her,” she said as she broke away.

“Thank you,” Chrysalis said sincerely. “But, there is something I must do.”

Velvet looked up at the tall queen. “Do what?”

“I can no longer feel her within the hive mind, and according to Princess Celestia, the Moon Princess has had trouble piercing the veil surrounding her dreams. Now that I am here I may be able to access the parts of her brain that connect to the hive mind manually, I need to know what she sees in her dreams, and if she is in pain.”

Velvet looked down on Twilight’s seemingly peaceful face, before looking back at Chrysalis and nodding.

Chrysalis took up her place next to Twilight, her jagged horn lit up a brilliant emerald green as she lowered it to meet Twilight’s, she closed her eyes in concentration as she let the images come to her.

Carduus drove his blade into the guard’s eye socket. Once the guard slumped Carduus swung his blade at the next guard. However something else caught my eye, turning around I saw two of my own guards fighting three of those… traitors, and they were losing. Before I could process what was happening one of the traitors did one clean sweep with his sword, and took off the heads off both changeling guards, the very same two that I had met outside of my room that very morning. They didn’t deserve that, they didn’t deserve to die! Why was this happening?

“NO!” I screamed, I sent a beam of lavender magic violently towards the killer, blasting him back into the wall, where he impacted with a horrifying crack before slumping over, completely still. I had killed him. I had actually killed somepony.

I had barely gotten over the immediate shock of what I had to do when the other two traitors looked in my direction and made a run straight for me, only to be pounced upon by Carduus and one of the non-traitorous Solar Guards. Carduus swiftly dispatched his target but much to my ongoing horror his friend sadly did not, instead he took a blade to the abdomen. As his killer turned to face Carduus, I instinctively grabbed onto her weapon with my magic and pulled it from her grasp-

Chrysalis cringed as she looked on Twilight’s dream, and could only watch in silent horror as the image shifted.

-sends her regards,” the guard, Broad Sword I believe, whispered to me.

I barely had time to consider what he had said before blood sputtered from my mouth as I felt something breach my chitin and embed itself within my body. Looking down I could see the hilt of a dagger poking out of a gushing wound, darkness began to close in around me. In that moment my blood became fire, it was the worst physical pain I had ever felt, I had read enough books in my time to recognise the effects of an extremely potent poison. I collapsed to the floor as somepony caught me, the pain seemed to leave my body as I failed to say something.

I had wanted to say “I’m okay, I think I’m okay” to reassure the pony, Celestia I think? Who was holding onto me.

Why was this happening?

The scene shifted again, reverting back to the initial fight again, Chrysalis has seen enough.

Chrysalis took in a sharp intake of air as she exited Twilight’s mind, she nearly collapsed as she struggled to resist breaking into uncontrollable sobbing.

‘But who sent their regards?’ Chrysalis mulled over the incomplete sentence she had heard.

“W-what? What did you see?”

Chrysalis briefly entertained lying to Velvet, to give her a comforting lie to conceal the horrific truth of what had just been witnessed, but she knew the mare was far too intelligent to be taken in by such a lie.

“She’s in pain, so much pain. She is reliving what happened over and over. I could feel what she felt and..."

Velvet too now had tears in her eyes. “Oh Celestia, my poor sweet, innocent baby…” Velvet reached out and grabbed onto Twilight, sobbing into her chitin.

Chrysalis fought back her tears as steely determination took the forefront, she would find the ones who did this to her precious child, and she would end them. And nothing would stop her.


Celestia and Cadance were walking down one of the many corridors in Canterlot castle, en route to somewhere only Cadance knew.

“Twilight’s condition hasn’t changed, the doctors are keeping an eye on her,” Cadance informed Celestia.

The solar alicorn sighed. “All we can do now is hope for the best, until then I intend to help Queen Chrysalis find those responsible.”

Cadance gave a small smile. “Well aunty, I have something that might be able to help with that.”

Cadance pointed towards a small door at the end of the corridor they walked down, before stopping in front of it.

“Why are we stopping here? Cadance, what have you done?”

“I haven’t done anything, but something happened while I was leaving the hospital…”

Celestia looked at her adopted niece quizzically as Cadance opened the door to reveal a sparse room with a single table in the centre. Sitting at the table, a Solar Guard was restrained, with two others standing beside him watching the pony like hawks.

Celestia couldn’t hide her confusion. “Cadance? What is this? Why is he restrained?”

“This pony approached me as I left the hospital, he claims to have been part of a group of guards who followed Broad Sword in his schemes.”

“What?” Celestia glared at the pony, who wilted under the wrathful gaze of the sun.

“He claimed to me that he no longer believes what they are doing is right, and that he has information for us.”

Celestia nodded, but maintained her glare. “Get me Luna, she and I will talk with this guard.”

“I will, but there was one piece of information he mentioned specifically he could provide us…”

“And that was?”

“He knows where Broad Sword is hiding; he knows where their hideout is.”

Next Chapter: 27 - Flashback: Young Love Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 13 Minutes
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