//------------------------------// // 11th: Tracks // Story: The Rule of King Cocoon of the Changelings // by Hooves Like Jagger //------------------------------// The Rule of King Cocoon of the Changelings I'm getting the hang of this flying as a pegasus thing. Even with Chrysalis on my back, we're making pretty good time back to the Hive. Granted, we could have been there a while back if I hadn't gotten so magnificently lost, but I'm not complaining. Three days was enough time for me to stop sulking about getting rejected by the first human I've come across. Plus, I'm thinking that maybe Sweet Tea's time in our dungeon has changed her mind about some things. More than that though, I'm kind of jazzed to see if Baal finished my armor. I mean, yeah, getting home is important and stuff, but there's no reason I can't check out my cool armor. I hope it's cool because I'm not wearing it if it makes me look stupid. You think I'm joking, but I'm serious. "I thought we'd never get here," Chrysalis sighs. "Well, maybe if someone was a better navigator..." "Or if someone just knew where he was going..." We'd been arguing on and off about this since around midday on the first day. We've simply agreed to disagree. The gaping maw of spiraling sand that marks the entrance to the changeling hive has finally come into view. A few changelings are buzzing about the entrance, forming something of a welcome wagon for Chrysalis and me. As I fly directly over the entrance, a captain and a cadre of his subordinates approach me. "Welcome back, your majesty," he greets me. "We've been eagerly awaiting your return." "I'm flattered. I need to talk to Bloodbuzz and Plundergrub right away," I inform the changeling. "Very good, your majesty. We will arrange an audience, but first I have instructions to take you to the Hive Minds." I'm not shocked that the Hive Minds want to talk with me. I did kind of run off all of a sudden right after they told me there were things in the Hive that needed my attention. "Lead the way." "Yes, your majesty." We descend into the dark depths of the Hive. It hasn't changed one bit since I saw it last. It's still just as menacing, spacious and slimy. I mean, would it kill them to hang some pictures in the castle or something? Maybe I'll order that they hang up a Picasso or a Monet... or Picoltto and Manet. If those were actual artists here, I would not be surprised. The changeling captain lead up the stairs of the castle until we could go no higher. I was surprised to find that the top floor of the castle was really just the roof. Immediately ahead of the stairs was a round table like you would find in a war room, but you couldn't rightly call this a war room because it technically it wasn't a room. All of our activities would be exposed to the changelings buzzing around the Hive. "Your majesty, you've returned!" one of the Hive Minds greets me as I approach the table. All six of them stand at attention until I motion for them to be at ease with my hand. I joined the seven changelings at the table, with Chrysalis fluttering up and sitting down on the tabletop. "So... how're things going?" That was the only question I could think to ask. I don't really know what kind of things go on in the Hive. The constant buzzing of changelings flying around assures me that it's a busy place, but I just realized I have no idea what they're doing. "We're still in a population deficit," one of the Hive Minds informs me. "What do you mean 'still in a population deficit'?" "We don't have the resources to keep up with the demand for drones," another Hive Mind explains. "The Old Queen's attempt to gather love from Canterlot was a failure, so the most pressing issue at the moment is what to do next." I looked over at Chrysalis. I don't know if she's sulking because they called her "Old Queen" or because they called her plan a failure. "So... you want me to pick the next city to try and get love from?" All the changelings at the table nodded their heads. "Look, guys, I'm not too keen on attacking ponies. Isn't there another way to get the love?" "I'm afraid not, your majesty. We must restore our forces before they drop to an unsafe level. The Canterlot Siege set us back more than we anticipated, so we might only have one more attempt to make some headway." "Well, that's comforting." Nobody told me I was inheriting a dying kingdom when I signed up for this, but in everyone's defense I never actually signed up for this. "Would you like to hear the potential targets we've prepared?" a Hive Mind asks. I nod, prompting the start of a long list of cities I'd never heard of. I didn't pay much attention to the list. It was actually more like a menu than a list, considering that we were going to eat whatever we picked. I don't want to make a decision. I have to and I probably will, but I don't want to. There are incentives to attacking a city. If the changelings are in good shape, that means I'm in good shape. It's also an excuse to look around the city for any humans that might be lurking around. Whatever incentives there might be, there is still the reality that one decision on my part could tear asunder the lives of innocent ponies. It would be great if I could avoid leaving such a big footprint on Equestria. "What are your orders, your majesty?" If I had come here as just a pony, finding my way home would be simple. For whatever reason, I'm King of the Changelings. Kings leave footprints, it's just what they do. They leave big ones, small ones, good ones, bad ones, but they always leave them. The whole point of being in charge or putting someone in charge is so that they can change things. People, ponies, and probably changelings all expect things to be different when a new leader takes charge. That's why back in America we have elections every four years. That's why here in Equestria Princess Celestia kicked Discord off this throne. Maybe some higher power put me in charge of the changelings because I'm supposed to make things different. I don't want to make things different; I just want to go home. "It doesn't make much a different to me one way or another. Quarterholm sounds like a good a place as any." "Very good, your majesty. We can launch an invasion at once." "... Like right now?" "That's what 'at once' usually means," Chrysalis grumbled. "I'd prefer to scope out the place for myself a little before we just up and invade it." As much as I'd love to just get it over with, I still need to look around for humans. Part of me also believes I could save a few good ponies from the coming disaster. There is also the possibility that the UCR is running around either in the Quarterholm or in a nearby city. "Do we have an outpost established there?" "Yes, we have established an outpost in that town, your majesty. There should not be a problem with you visiting the city beforehand. We'll arrange for an escort to the city immediately." "Hold your horses. There's still some stuff I gotta do here at the Hive. One of those things is talkin' to those dudes." I point to the roof entrance where Bloodbuzz and Plundergrub have appeared. I'm surprised to find that I actually recognize them. Come to think of it, I think I can pick out some subtle differences in the Hive Minds as well. "Of course your majesty. We will go ahead and arrange your escort. Send word when you are prepared to depart." With that, the Hive Minds rise from the table and depart, allowing my good ol' buddies BB and PG to approach me. "Plundergrub, at your service your majesty!" the changeling scout throws me a clumsy salute. Bloodbuzz opts for his usual bow. "We've been awaiting your return, your majesty." "How is our prisoner?" I ask. "She's been very quiet, your majesty," Plundergrub informs me. "She's not dead, is she? You've been feeding her, right?" "Of course, your majesty. Aside from eating, she does very little besides lay around." I guess when you're a prisoner in the changeling Hive, you don't have much to occupy your time with. I don't know what I expected her to be doing. "I'd like to try and speak with her." "Because that worked so well last time," Chrysalis giggled as Plundergrub and Bloodbuzz bowed. "Follow me, your majesty," Bloodbuzz offers before turning and heading out. Once again, I'm lead through the unfamiliar castle, but this time we head down. We go way, way down into the castle's dark bowels. Considering the deepest part of this castle goes to Tartarus, we're still pretty high up. We got to the point where the stairs could take us no further down: the dungeon. The castle's dungeon does not look like you are probably imagining it. I'll venture to guess you're envisioning a dark, narrow passageway with barred cells on either side. That couldn't be father from the reality I was looking at. Just like going up the stairs ended with the open roof, the bottom of the stairs led out through the exposed bottom of the castle. After a short landing, there were more stairs that spiraled down the support beam that I assumed reached all the way down to Tartarus on its hollow inside. I was lead down the spiral staircase, a journey which gave me yet another stunning view of the surrounding hive. All along the exterior of the spire were large niches dug into the side with enough room for even me to stand up and pace around a bit in. Each was outfitted with a cot of questionable integrity, a mirror, and a bucket. All the way to Sweet Tea's cell, I wondered what kept the prisoners from simply wandering out of these niches and escaping up or down the staircase. The answer gave me a pleasant surprise with its ingenuity. Just as Plundergrub had explained, Sweet Tea lay in a lump on her cot, separated from the rest of us by a film of changeling slime. I gave the slime barrier an experimental flick. It wobbled a good bit, but didn't show any signs of damage or loosening. There was only one tiny gap in the bottom corner, presumably for putting food in and getting the bucket out. "I'd prefer to do this alone." Bloodbuzz and Plundergrub bow once more before departing back up the stairs. I glance of at Chrysalis, who hasn't made a move to leave. "You too." "I think not," she insists. I guess there's no helping it. "Sweet Tea," I call out to my prisoner. She rises from her cot and turns to look at me. "So... you've finally come yourself," she rasps. It's frighteningly obvious that even three days in the Hive had been rough on her. There's no doubt that being torn from a dream and dropped into a nightmare will do that to someone. "I only just got back from Appleloosa." My confession makes her eyes grow wide. She gets on her hooves and dashes towards the barrier, jumping up against it. The membrane stretches a little, almost to the point where she could touch me. "What did you do? What did you do?!" she screams at me. "I didn't do anything. I left Appleloosa just as I found it, if not just a little worse for wear," I assured her. My words did little to ease her worries. "What about Quickdraw? What did you do to him?!" she shouts, even more incredulous than before. "We had a bit of a scuffle-" "I swear if you hu-" I give her a rough push through the barrier, knocking her onto her back. "Calm down! Quickdraw is just as alive as he was when you last saw him." Sweet Tea sniffles and gets back on her hooves. She doesn't look at me. With her eyes fixed on the floor of her cell, she says something very strange. "When I get out of here, I'm going to help make sure you get taken down," she promises. For whatever reason, my eyes dart over to the mirror in her cell. "You're not going to get away with this." "With what? Removing you from a place you don't belong?" My question brings her eyes up to mine. Her stare could burn a hole right through the cell wall and into my head, but at the same time it makes a chill run through me. "I do belong here. You don't understand what it was like for me back on Earth." "I'm not going to pretend I do, but just because you had it a little rough doesn't mean you can just walk away from your life. Like I said: that kind of stuff isn't supposed to happen. You don't belong here." "No, we belong here!" I can't help but raise and eyebrow at this statement. Her own words make her draw back too. She slipped up. "I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm really not. Your thinking is wrong, and therefore I must punish you." I bend down and slip my arm into the little hole. "Cocoon? What are you doing?" Chrysalis panics, jumping over to me and tugging at my arm. She's too weak to stop me, and even as Sweet Tea retreats to the corner of her cell I have a clear shot. I inhale through my nose slowly, gathering energy into a my index finger. "Don't do it!" I exhale sharply, making a stream of fire jump from my finger. It flies up and strikes the mirror in Sweet Tea's cell. The mirror cracks when it is impacted and whatever was holding it to the wall gives out. The small, charred glass falls to the floor and shatters. As I remove my arm from her cell, Sweet Tea gets up out of the corner and examines my handiwork with wide eyes. "You won't be needing that. It's not like you could actually look at yourself anyway." Beside me, I hear Chrysalis let out a sigh of relief. "I'm going to find a way home, and when I do I'm going to bring you and anyone else I find with me. That's how it's going to play out." "We all don't have lives as wonderful as yours to get back to," she mumbles just loud enough for me to hear. "I'd love to empathize with you, but quite frankly I can't stand your attitude. When I'm convinced you'll cooperate, you can roam free." I don't wait for a response from her. I turn and start heading back up the stairs. I know it was wishful thinking to believe she had changed her mind, but I'm still disappointed. She still sees me as the bad guy. What worries me more is the way she was talking. She didn't say "I", but "we". Maybe I'm just paranoid, but Discord did say he was out to kill me. There is no doubt in my mind that he's miffed about what I did in Appleloosa. I don't know what he's scheming, but is there any way to know what the Avatar of Chaos is thinking? When you add looking out for Discord's plot to taking care of the changeling swarm, looking for humans, and finding a way home, my juggling act is becoming a burdensome one. "Cocoon, you should really say something before you blast stuff. You nearly gave me a heart attack." As soon as she finished her statement I whipped around and faced the princess buzzing in the air behind me. "Why exactly did you care so much?" Chrysalis getting worked up about the well being of someone else was hard to believe, especially when that somepony was a prisoner. Before answering she snorts and rolls her eyes, a sure sign that it was not compassion that led her to try and actually physically stop me. "After we went through all that trouble to get her, it would be a waste if you just offed her right afterwards. Besides, you'd probably use it as an excuse to leave the Hive behind and look for more." Not only are those reasonable concerns, but they fit Chrysalis to a T. "Now it's my turn for question time: why blast the mirror?" "Discord," I reply. The look of confusion on Chrysalis's face tells me I'm going to have to elaborate. "All the times I've talked to Discord, it's been through a mirror. Discord brought her here from my world and he's out to kill me, so I was worried he might contact her and help her somehow." "You sound paranoid," the little changeling Princess observes before flying on up the staircase past me. I shake my head and follow after her. Maybe I do sound paranoid, but I'm also better safe then sorry. Sweet Tea seemed convinced she wasn't going to be staying long in her cell. Perhaps I should order more guards to keep an eye on her. "Anything else you need to do while we're here?" Chrysalis asks. "I wanna go see Baal about that armor. Do you think he's done by now?" "It's been a month, so he's probably been done for a while. He works fast," Chrysalis explains as we reach the landing that leads back into the castle. "Must be all the legs." I look around the landing for Bloodbuzz and Plundergrub, but they're nowhere in sight. Instead, there is a different changeling captain with a group of scouts accompanying him. They all throw me a coordinated salute when I approach. "Your majesty! I have urgent news from the perimeter guards!" the captain informs me. "That doesn't sound good. What's the news?" "There's an airship approaching from the south. It's flying a white flag and requesting an audience with you." "An airship? Is it Equestrian?" I question. "Yes, your majesty. What are your orders?" "Take me to it!" I command, marching over to the group of scouts. They automatically arrange themselves into a throne and allow me to sit down. "At once your majesty!" "Hold on, wait for me!" Chrysalis calls after us right as we take off without her. With her tiny little wings, she isn't able to catch up as we exit. Leaving Chrysalis behind is not what is on my mind. This could finally be what I've been waiting for. It's possible that this airship is manned by a human or simply has one on board. They read one of my signposts and found me, just like I'd instructed. I imagine that if the airship was aggressive, it wouldn't be flying a white flag and asking to talk with me. Flying out into the high noon sunshine, the oppressive heat of the desert hits me hard. Even in the harsh sunlight, I can see the airship in question. It appears to be on a flight path that orbits the entrance of the Hive. With the number of changelings that are now flying around the Hive entrance, I don't blame them for keeping their distance. As we approach it, I can tell the zeppelin-like craft is very considerable in size. The ivory and gold hull could easily house several hundred ponies, but I don't know if the two large, blue balloons on either side of it could support that much weight. Atop the main hull of the ship is an open, flat plaza. Just like the changelings had told me, there is a group of armored unicorns waving white flags standing near the hatch down into the ship's interior. My heart sinks when I see the figure accompanying the flag waving guards. I don't wait for the chair to fly in closer. As soon as we're over the airship, I jump of and begin flapping my wings to guide my descent onto the zeppelin's smooth surface. It's a harsh landing, but I wasn't looking for a graceful entry. I half expected to get blasted by one or all three of the ponies on the deck when I arrive, but I find them all surprisingly civil. Of course, things between me and this pony never remain civil for long. "To what do I owe this pleasant surprise, Lou?" The hooded unicorn began crossing the the platform to where I stood, her long, green robe flowing behind her. I listened as my entourage of changelings took up a position behind me, but I didn't dare take my eyes of of Lou. "We have it on good authority that you've kidnapped a pony from Appleloosa. We've come to get her back," Lou explained. She turns momentarily to her guards and gives them a nod, prompting them to return to the depths of the airship. "Well, that is certainly interesting." I guess there had to be some sort of consequence for absconding with Sweet Tea, but it wasn't something I'd considered when I did it. I guess this is my mistake coming back to haunt me. "I'm a reasonable mare, as you know." I can't tell if she's joking. "So if you return her to us, we will turn this ship around and go back home." She begins walking up to me, making the changelings around me land and form a protective circle. I extend my hands and signal for them to stand down. "Leave us," I order. No objections are voiced as my minions slowly fly off, leaving me alone with Lou aboard the airship. "I didn't take her just so you could fly out here and get her back," I explain. Lou resumes sauntering up to me, her green cloak dragging behind her. "Well, no one really knows why you took her. Her friends, her neighbors, not even her fiancee could give a possible motive behind the kidnapping. I will admit, though, that it was a well thought out plan. All that for one mare. I'd love to get the full story from you," she confesses, walking past me to the bow of the ship. She turns her back to me and stares out over the empty desert. "Is that so? Quickdraw didn't tell you why I took her?" "Like I said, the fiancee didn't know why you'd take her away." There are two distinct possibilities in this situation: either Lou is lying and Quickdraw did tell her or Quickdraw lied and Lou really doesn't know. Either way, I don't see the harm in telling the truth. "Sweet Tea and I are the same: we're not originally from this world." Lou stood fast, not even turning to acknowledge what I'd just said. All in all, she's acting very strange. I feel very uncomfortable and I know something is wrong. Even if I can trounce Lou in one on one combat, she's no pushover in the brains department. She's off her rocker and intelligent, a deadly combination. She's also incredibly confident today. She sent her guards away, she approached me without hesitation, and to top it all of she isn't keeping her eyes on me. She's probably got a great poker face under that hood. "Interesting, go on," she urges me. "There really isn't much else to say. I don't belong here, she doesn't belong here, and there is a handful of other people out there who don't belong here. Contrary to whatever you think, I'm just looking for a way back home. I'd rather not have the whole of Equestria as my enemy, but rather I'd like to ask them for help," I plead with her. She goes silent again for a few seconds, before she finally turns and faces me. "Okay, let's say I believe your story. Is everything you've done really to help you get home?" Her question puts me in a corner. "Even if I want to go home, there are other things I have to do as King of the Changelings, things I'm forced to do because of everypony's attitudes towards changelings. I'm doing my best not to leave a mark on this world." "... Is that so?" I watch as a bandaged hoof reaches out from Lou's cloak. She undoes the fastener on the front, letting the hood and heavy cover go slack. A gust of wind catches it and carries her concealment away, revealing what lay beneath. Wearing a smaller, lighter green cape with the same golden vine embroidery, the mare before me was very, very different from the one I met in Manehattan. My eyes instantly fell upon the gruesome burns that covered her body. I could tell the scarring was particularly bad on her hindquarters, but her right hoof, the left half of her face, and her chest were covered by bandages. I could only imagine the extensive damage beneath them. The scarring around her visible eye made her violet gaze seem more intense. Her mane was shorter and drawn up into a tail, but I could tell her actual tail was probably singed off for good. "Trying not to 'leave a mark', huh? I don't believe anything you've said, not for a second." She continues to drill into my skull with her stare. "Now, either return your prisoner or suffer the consequences," Lou demands, delivering her ultimatum. I'm still too hung up on what I'm seeing to give her my response. So far I'd managed to avoid killing anypony, but it seems there are more ways than murder to leave a mark on this world. I wrack my brain for an excuse for what I've done. Lou is my enemy, but she's a resident of this world who should've never had to deal with me in the first place. This is a direct result of my actions. I didn't have to fire a parting shot. I didn't have to stop her attack. I didn't have to ruin her operation with the Sphinx. I was too naive. I won't escape this world without leaving footprints. "My prisoner isn't going anywhere. I won't yield on that point." Lou titters and begins making her way back to the ship's interior. "I'm a little glad things turned out this way. I'll look for you on the battlefield," she threatens before disappearing. It doesn't take long for the swarm that accompanied me to descend and aid me back into the air. Lou's word's keep ringing in my head as I watch her ship change course for a point on the desert horizon. I strain my eyes a bit when I think I see something other than sand out on the horizon. "... Captain..." "Yes, your majesty?" "Alert the Hive. We're about to come under attack." "Yes, your majesty!" the changeling captain barks before our whole group picks up the pace back into the Hive. Before we descent into it's depths, I take one last look back at the horizon. Not counting Lou's airship, there are three, larger ships making their way towards the whirlpool of sand.