//------------------------------// // 143- Anqi Sheng // Story: Changing Expectations // by KKSlider //------------------------------// Cracking the vault was easy enough. Stealing a kiss from Luna under the excuse of needing more love, I simply fired a concentrated laser at the vault, fully powered by my massive boosted mana pool. It might have survived in its heyday, fortified by countless enchantments, but the now magicless metal lasted only seconds against my volleys of magic. The ringing in my ears settled down just as the dust was, and I heard Celestia cough behind me. “Trying to impress somepony?” “Your sister,” I winked. Using God-Splitter, I ripped off the final pieces of the vault door, creating an opening large enough for drones and ponies to fit through. I would have to duck through, which I did once the advance team had given the all-clear. The vault was structurally similar to the one in the Fourth Hive; it was a single, long room. Only, instead of shelves upon shelves of books and tomes, this vault was a long hallway, with pedestals spaced equally across its sides. Between the pedestals, lowset book shelves held crumbling books that were either completely destroyed or barely intact. On the pedestals were objects of completely different sizes and shapes. I walked along the room’s length, curiously inspecting a few of the objects as I passed. Each pedestal had a metal plaque with an engraved sentence on it, but the language was unreadable to me. A few had the symbols from the ancient changeling pictographic language, but most were in the esoteric language that we had only just deciphered. “An interesting collection of trinkets,” Luna remarked, reaching out with her magic to pick up a two-pronged, twisted wooden staff. “Don’t touch anything,” I warned her. Immediately, she recoiled from the artifact. “We have no idea what any of these do, and I don’t want to find out if any are boobytrapped. The last thing we need is some sort of ancient toxic gas being released, or a giant boulder falling down and crushing us.” “I doubt the possibility of the last one,” Luna said, gazing at the smooth metal ceiling, “but I get your point.” “No other exits,” a changeling reported to me. “No signs of any secret rooms that we can tell, neither. This metal is playing havoc with our scanning spells, but they are pretty reliable.” I nodded, “I’m glad to hear that, actually. The last thing I want is another closet full of skeletons… Any of you know this language?” One changeling raised her hoof, “I was working on translating the Soulmancy books you found.” “The what?!” Celestia yelled. “The books of botany, those books!” I yelled back, quickly putting myself in between the drone and the alicorn. “She said botany. Botany!” “Those don’t even rhyme,” Celestia glared at me. “Are you messing around with Soulmancy?” “..... Not yet,” I admitted. “Do you realize how dangerous that field of magic is?” I stared at her, “No, you censored all public information on anything you deem ‘icky,’ meaning it’s hard to glean what the dangers are. I know I can’t really do much soul stuff for a while, but I can read a book just fine.” Celestia began to argue, but stopped herself. “You will not use such magic in Equestria; it’s too dangerous. Not without supervision…” “Oh hell no,” Luna suddenly complained. “I am not teaching Phasma any magic. I have caught a glimpse of the unimaginable horror that was his magical training already, and I refuse to accept the responsibility of properly training him.” I frowned, “What are you talking about, Luna?” “Your Faust-forsaken teleport spell,” she shook her head. “The amount of effort it would take to rectify your misgivings about magic and its workings is beyond me. Celestia, do you not run a school? You should be the one to supervise him.” I backed away from the bickering sisters, and leaned close to the changeling drone. “I don’t like where this conversation is going. Translate for me, I want to find out what’s down here,” I whispered to her. “Gladly, My King,” she whispered back. “You’re not letting them tell you what to do, right, King Phasma?” ‘Great, Celestia has undermined my own standing so much my own soldiers are questioning my independence. I’m going to have to have a few conversations with her about this.’ “Of course not, now what’s this?” I ushered us towards the first artifact that caught my attention. “It says…” she trailed off, reading the plaque. “The… urgh. I’m not sure, My King. It has something to do with equality, but the word itself is unknown.” I looked over the two-pronged stave. I could feel its feint magical energy; its time here in Nisir had diminished its enchantments, but had not wiped them out entirely. “Any idea what it does?” I asked, not expecting an answer. “Errr…..” The changeling brushed the metal plaque, wiping away some dust that had collected on it. “This word here we believe means ponies. I don’t recognize anything else.” “Ponies and equality,” I repeated. “I wonder if it makes its target an alicorn. Or, more likely, an earth pony. Strips ‘em of their unicorn horn or pegasus wings, you know? That would be a potent enough tool for changelings to research. Without all three tribes working together, conquering Equestria would have been a hell of a lot easier. Let’s see what the next artifact is.” We moved onto the next pedestal. A golden amulet with a circular charm with a swirl lay on the plinth. “What’s this one? And, uh, I should probably ask for your name.” It was getting a bit awkward, so I felt that learning her name was the right thing to do. Referring to her as ‘the drone’ in my thoughts was beginning to feel dehumanizing, or whatever its changeling equivalent term was. “Sting, Your Majesty, and this one is named ‘Weave’ something, and it has to do with… magic,” she said. “That’s rather unspecific,” I remarked. “Well, this word here means ‘safe,’ and this one here means ‘magical.’ I’m sorry I can’t give you anything more than that, My King.” “You’re doing fantastic,” I said, patting Sting on the head. “I’m appreciative of what help you can provide, no matter how vague it is. So a swirly charm that has to do with safety and magic….” “It is decided!” Celestia announced, making me look in her direction. She was beaming, and had clapped her forehooves together, “I will teach Phasma magic, from the ground up! This will be an excellent opportunity for me to dissect changelings’ magical theories, and help a friend in need.” ‘Oh! That conversation about teleportation might have something to do with this amulet.’ “Hey, uh, Sting? Maybe it has something to do with teleportation? Perhaps portals?” Sting shrugged, “If you say so, My King.” “That’s not what I was… nevermind. Celestia, what’s this about teaching me magic?” I asked, stepping away from the amulet. “I had just received a letter from Spike,” she explained, producing a letter and waving it in her hoof. “Some drama concerning Twilight Sparkle and a lack of reports, but it gave me an idea! Why don’t I help you myself, and you and I can grow closer together and get to know each other better. Our work will necessitate knowing each other like the back of our hooves when dealing with foreign dignitaries, and keeping our kingdoms in perfect Harmony will require hitherfore unseen levels of cooperation. It’s a perfect idea, don’t you think?” I blinked owlishly, then stared at Luna. ‘You are on your own,’ she mouthed. “.... Sounds wonderful?” I told Celestia. “I’ll just squeeze in magic lessons somewhere between running the Fifth Hive, reforming it, resettling all of the lings, managing relations with Equestria, running combat lessons and drills, running my corporate empire, and spending time with Luna.” “Sounds like a plan,” Celestia continued to smile. “That was sarcasm, I was being sarcastic. I don’t have time to do your lessons,” I deadpanned. “Welcome to my world,” she unhelpfully declared. “Too many things to do, and not enough hours in the day.” “You could just add more hours into the day, you know,” I said, gritting my teeth. “You control the fucking sun.” ‘I ignore what perversions you do to the sky already, the best you can do is use them to your advantage, pony.’ “I’m not the only pony living on Equus; disrupting the day to help myself is abusing my powers. Come now, Phasma, you will have to juggle a loaded schedule for the rest of your immortal life. There simply is no avoiding it.” “I… Fine, whatever,” I facehooved. “I’ll just delegate writing the Fifth Hive’s constitution, and instead just give my lings a rough idea of what I want it to be. It’ll cause me a hundred headaches and create a thousand dumpster fires I’ll have to put out in the future, but it should free up enough time for your stupid lessons.” ‘And I’ll have to cut back on my leisure time, too. Damn it, just what I needed.’ “You won’t regret it,” Celestia said, giving me a nod. “I’m already regretting it,” I groaned. “Sting, guide me through the rest of the artifacts here. I need a distraction from my growing headache.” Luna leaned into my side as I stared out towards the Underhive’s shattered gate. We had finished exploring the vault, sweeped it thoroughly for any boobytraps, and begun acquiring its contents. The artifacts were being safely and carefully stored on the Clear Skies, with accompanying paperwork and pictures of their original placement and plaques. I had no intention of leaving such valuable artifacts where they were, archeology be damned. We didn’t have a place to put them in Canterlot– I wasn’t about to put my Hive’s valuables in Celestia’s vaults– but at least they wouldn’t be out in the open. In addition, I had ordered the lings to immediately start grabbing the armor sets for themselves; the entirety of the Red Right Hoof was here, and there was no point waiting for them to get their new armor suits. “One hell of a way to end a vacation,” I broke the silence. “These things tend to happen in Equestria,” Luna offered. “Never a dull day, for all that entails.” I sighed as I watched Celestia and Shining direct a team of unicorns and changelings around the gate. Some of the guards had reported hearing sounds from the ominous entrance, so it was decided to seal up the place using a permanent shielding spell. Celestia had the spells, the ponies and changelings had the spellpower, and the adamantium ruins had the material. A more permanent solution could be found later. “Seal up the Underhive, finish sweeping the area for Nightmares, set up some sort of permanent security detail for Panar’s Gift, then finally work on recolonizing the city,” I listed off. “That’s not even getting into the amount of work that will be required for housing all the scientists and their findings. We’ve got our work cut out for us.” “You will also need someone to lead the colony,” Luna said. “Someone competent and able to work closely with ponies.” “Good thing I have a long list of changelings like that,” I groaned. “I’ve yet to even start reeducating the freed changelings on how to integrate into Equestrian societies. It’s hard enough making sure they know not to start a diplomatic incident… Maybe I’ll pick Cricket for the task. I’d hate to send her off to this frozen hellhole, but I need someone I can rely on.” “They will also have to be a capable warrior.” I stared at Luna, prompting her to continue, “In case something breaks through the Underhive’s sealed entrance, or Faust forbid, the Nightmares attack. Your leader will be the first one mareing the front lines.” “Fantastic. At any rate, this sounds like tomorrow’s headache. Let’s go wrap things up here, make sure Daring Do won’t wreck the place, and get the surface teams up to speed on Nisir’s state and our findings.” In just as much of a hurry as they had arrived, the Canterlot Reactionaries now had to pack up and embark back onto their airships. It had taken a few hours for Celestia to place down the shields that covered up the hole to the Underhive, and for Shining Armor to set up a permanent detachment to watch over Nisir. I didn’t like leaving only ponies to watch over Nisir, so I had selected a few changelings to stay in Shimmervale to accompany the Royal Guards. “That was… one hell of a jewel,” Coxa muttered. He had gone in with Thorax and Cadence on a very short tour of the frost covered city. “Yeah, it was crazy! Thorax agreed. “I really wish you guys could see it…” “I’m sure we’ll find a way,” Cadence reassured the excitable ling. “The city was beautiful, though. I can’t wait to see what you’ll do with it. So much potential…” “I’ll say,” Shining grumbled. “I can already tell this complicates my job considerably.” “Especially with the Nightmare King,” I added. “We now have his probable location.” “You do?” Coxa asked. Everyone was caught up on King Sombra’s identity and history, but apparently not all the facts filtered through. After telling them what happened, I answered any questions while Celestia went off to secure the Underhive entrance. “The Crystal Empire,” I confirmed. “Somewhere north of here. That means Nisir will be on the front lines, once the war comes. Because recolonizing it isn’t complicated and risky enough, of course. Which reminds me, Coxa, I need a list of possible candidates for leadership of a colony here. I’ll leave picking the actual colonists to the leader, or to someone else with more time.” “I’ll get right on that, but it sounds like we’re more or less done here,” Coxa guessed. Celestia sighed, approaching our huddled group, “Indeed we are. Business in Canterlot can only be ignored for so long, and we all have enough work to keep us busy for years to come. Captain Shining Armor and your Captain Katydid will stay here to finish setting up the security detail for Agent Daring Do, and for Panar’s Gift, but I was hoping to catch an early ride back to Canterlot with you.” “Clear Skies always has extra room,” I said. “I’m sure the captain will find the fact that he’s carrying even more royalty to be hilarious. I just wish we could have finished our vacation. I didn’t even get to ski…” “We’ll get a chance when we come back here,” Thorax promised. “What time we had together was great; Diamond and I had a ton of fun, and I know for a fact Luna and you did as well.” I smiled, “That we did. I guess I’ll just have to look forward to when we come here next… three months from now.” Captain Katydid arrived next, wearing a set of armor from Nisir. “My King! This was quite the lucky find!” He cheered. “It’ll take a while for the lings to get accustomed to wearing armor, and even longer for them to get proficient, but I promise I’ll get them up to snuff in no time.” “That’s good to hear,” I replied. “Are we ready to set off?” Katydid nodded, “It was pretty easy to get all the armor we could out. Every ling puts on a set, and carries a spare set. Got some extra practice in on putting on and taking off the armor, so that’s an added bonus. We’ve got enough sets for all of our troops plus plenty more, and that’s still leaving half the armory behind. Everything’s all loaded up in Clear Skies. It’s a shame we can’t take Panar’s Gift…” “Better safe than sorry,” I shrugged. “The last thing I want is to break something, especially something as important as King Sombra’s containment spell.” “That would be unfortunate,” he agreed. “At any rate, we’re good to go.” “I’ll stay here, with Shiny,” Cadence announced. “I’ll hitch a ride back to Canterlot with him; I’m not needed at the moment, and I’ll take any excuse I can get to spend time with my Captain. Luna mentioned speaking with the armorer of the Reactionaries, but you will need to speak with her about what ship she's headed back on.” “Diamond and I are packed up,” Thorax said. “I’ll go get him from the hotel, and we’ll get aboard the Clear Skies and out from under your hooves.” “Then our business here is done,” I summarized. ‘Our business in Nisir is far from concluded, of course. It’ll be at the forefront of everything I do for the next year, at the very least. From protecting it, to discovering its mysteries, there’s still a lot more to be done in this frozen wasteland.’ I found myself staring at the unnamed Weave amulet. It was safely stowed away in a wooden crate, which itself was placed in one of Clear Sky’s holds, specifically the closest to my own quarters. I had opened the crate to stare at the curious amulet. It was one of many artifacts we were plundering from Nisir. There were a few others, such as a metal sphere that weighed a hundred times heavier than it looked, a four-taloned metal claw named 'Far Reach,' a large pink crystal that had the very recognizable words for love and pony in the plaque, a threadbare brown cloak, again with the word for ‘pony,’ and many others. Interestingly, there was an empty plinth, one for another amulet. That one had 'Alicorn' in the name, so it was quite heartbreaking to see its absence. There were a few intact tomes that we had taken from the vault, but most were deemed too fragile to be moved. 'Trinkets and books of immense power and value, I'm sure, and a number of them pilfered from Equestria. Yet they are all overshadowed by the one MacGuffin that is worth more than the city itself.' My thoughts constantly wandered to the most interesting of all artifacts: Panar’s Gift. ‘Just how did the changelings make a Weave? Was it the result of a scientific pursuit at the height of our golden age? Or perhaps was it, as the name implies, a gift from above, mysteriously appearing or being found?’ Weaves have been the bane of my existence. From my narrowly avoided fate as a glorified cloud data server to The Prophet’s corrupting Weave, my own destiny seemed to be tied to the strange changeling phenomenon. To that point, I was entirely enthralled by the potential of Panar’s Gift. A Weave that large and powerful was bound to not only be able to support the entirety of the Hive it was centered in, but was almost certainly capable of so much more. Under the influence of my own Weave, changelings could work together seamlessly and call upon information with a single thought. My Weave– as small and nascent as it was– was being used by the changelings of the Fifth Hive to access stored information on the ponies, and how to interact with them better. Equestrian and changeling society couldn’t be any more different at times, whereas human society was more closer to Equestrian than anything else I had seen. My experience was being used as a template for public manners for my changelings. But what if I had Panar’s Gift? The Fourth Hive’s synthetic Weave had held the skills required to train Infiltrators: the most skilled spies and thieves that could ever exist. Without that Weave, we would have run out of Infiltrators long ago, lacking any other sort of way to instill the ridiculous amount of skills needed for that profession. Only Chrysalis knew just what went into an Infiltrator’s mind; their secretive rituals and training practices were a complete mystery to outsiders, even me. Tarsus had shared a few stories, but he had revealed only a fraction of what he did as an Infiltrator. Infiltrators were not the end of the line, for Panar’s Gift held a much higher capacity for knowledge; what if we could not only train Infiltrators, but the greatest warriors the world had ever seen? Or the greatest scientists to have ever explored this world’s fields of magic and science? ‘That would explain how Nisir was so advanced. They had the tool necessary to continuously build upon their generations of knowledge.’ That wasn’t the only major piece of arcane knowledge that held my interest. There were secrets pertaining to a certain demon somewhere in Nisir. King Sombra was brought into the material world in the changeling city, so more information concerning his past was bound to be there. 'Know thy enemy.' If we could learn about his past and what made him into the monster he is, maybe we can also learn how to kill him. 'If all else fails, I'm sure we can hit him with the rainbow-laser-beam-of-friendship. That killed Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker, so it seems to work well on the Umbrum.' I stiffened. “It’s impossible to sneak up on a changeling, you know,” I announced loudly. Daring Do stepping out from the shadow behind me, “You sensed my emotions, didn’t you?” I nodded, closing the lid on the amulet’s crate. “There’s only one way to hide those, and Division-P stole all the amulets that let you do that. What are you doing here, Daring Do? I thought you were staying in Nisir, not sneaking aboard airships carrying royalty and changelings, bound for Canterlot.” “And what if I was sneaking aboard airships carrying royalty and changelings, bound for Canterlot, hmm? What then?” She pointed to the crate I was next to, “You took a lot of Nisir with you when you left.” “I did,” I said simply. “You took most of the juicy bits, I would say,” Daring continued. “But that doesn’t interest me. Not yet, at least. I need to go to Canterlot to speak with my editor. She received my draft for my next book, and wanted to talk in pony about it.” “Oooooh, am I in this book?” I asked, sliding up to her. She recoiled in disgust at the violation of personal space, “No, you are not. The entirely fictional villain Ouroboros, however, is in the book. It was quite tricky to make an anti-villain, but I think I pulled it off. It’s a nice break from the usual doom-and-gloom monologuing villain, and I’m sure my readers will like him. Or they won’t and I’ll simply never include him in a future novel.” “How very reassuring. I have to ask, why did you stowaway on board? I can’t imagine it would have been hard to get passage out of Shimmervale aboard the Royal Guard’s ships.” Daring stared at me, “Are you kidding me? You think a ‘civilian’ can get aboard a military vessel? Have you forgotten that I’m supposed to be a secret agent?” “Oh–” “In addition,” she cut me off, “the cabins on a personal vessel are nicer.” “How did you even know we would have space? And how did you get past the captain of the vessel?” Daring rolled a hoof, “I talked with a few changelings while you were napping in my hidey-hole. They apparently all sleep in the cargo holds?” I shrugged, “In secure Fifth Hive quarters some have private rooms, but for the most part they have to sleep in barracks while we acquire more apartments for the entire Hive. Space is a commodity we don’t have. And the Clear Skies doesn’t have much, either. It’s a small ship fitting several hundred changelings. I really thought Celestia would take up the last free cabin, but I guess there’s one more?” Daring nodded, “Speaking of Her Highness, that’s how I got in. I simply introduced myself as her aide– under my pseudonym, of course, and Captain Silver Sky let me aboard. He wasn’t in a position to say no, not to Princess Celestia.” I sighed, “Whatever. I’m sure the smuggler is very skilled at finding room where there isn’t any.” “A less mature mare would take that in a different way,” a new voice said, entering the room. Celestia chuckled, “I was wondering where you slinked off to.” “Okay, this room is getting crowded fast,” I said, pushing Daring Do out the door and making Celestia backpedal. Shutting the door behind me, I gestured to Celestia, “Now then, I think it’s best if we move this conversation somewhere more private.” Daring shook her head, “I just came to tell you that I’ll be dropping by later in Canterlot with a host of professionals. You know, for the scientific cooperatives you promised.” I sighed, “I’ll mark my calendar. And I’ll make it someone else’s problem to organize our counterparts. Celestia?” Celestia nodded, “We can take this to my cabin, which is right there,” she pointed to my door. “... Panar fucking damn it.”